Grad school keeps me up at night!!

[lovestruck]

So after much thought and deliberation with myself, I've decided I want to go to grad school. I do have a medschool competitive GPA and decent EC's but I want to explore the research field, which I recently discovered that I really enjoyed. This is something I want to do out of interest, NOT because I think it will boost my med school app in the future (everyone I tell seems to think that's my reasoning when it really isn't!).

 

Anyways, I have NO idea how to approach this! I know some things from talking to students in my lab that I am working at this summer, but I'm still really confused. So here's my few short questions and hopefully with all of you're insight, I'll be able to sleep better and not worry my nights away with this!

 

1) How competitive and important is external funding? I have a 3.97 GPA (in my last two years, cGPA of 3.83ish), am working in a research lab this summer and quite a few EC's. I know there's no true guarantee, but am I competitive? I'm nervous that I won't get external funding and as a result no prof will want to take me since other students they meet will have a similar profile and funding so they will be more attractive. I want to apply for NSERC, CIHR, OGS and anything else I can!

 

2) When should I contact supervisors? NSERCS deadline is early October, so should I be e-mailing them now? I have a supervisor currently in mind, but I'm not sure whether or not to contact him now or will he think I'm doing this too early and brush me off?

 

3) How the heck do you write an email for the initial contact with the supervisor???? Do you attach CV and transcripts (like I had to do when searching for an honors project supervisor?) or not? Do you mention which aspects of their research you like? How much do you say about yourself? I'm afraid of coming off unprofessional or stupid.

 

Don't get me wrong, med school is the final path I want to take. However, I want to take this sidetrip and explore research, as I really enjoyed my summer work and want to explore the avenue further before I go into meds.

[rmorelan]

1) very competitive for external funding. I would be shocked if you didn't get OGS at least. People with that GPA got NSERC at Waterloo last year.

 

For the other question, what are you doing next year? Is that your 4th year?

[lovestruck]

I'm starting my 4th year in September. Probably should've mentioned that lol.

[astrogirl]

I would be also shocked if you didn't get funding. I think it's a good idea to go ahead and contact that potential supervisor now, just because things get exponentially busier once the fall starts and he'll be grateful that you did it now instead of waiting until he has 10 million other things to worry about in September. The profs in my department are already getting that deer in the headlights look as they're realizing that August is upon us. So no, I don't think it's to early. As far as your first email, I would just email him and say that you've become interested in grad school and in his research in particular and you'd like to set up a time to meet with him and talk about it. Bring your CV, etc. to that meeting in case he wants to see it. If he at least knows who you are, then I would keep the email pretty short because most profs prefer to discuss all of that in person, but if he has no idea who you are then I'd include a short introduction, like how far along you are in your degree, what you've been doing in the lab that summer, and who you've been working with.

 

Something like this (in case you're anything like me and you really like to see specific examples of things that you're freaking out about):

 

Prof. X,

 

My name is lovestruck and I've been working in Prof. Y's lab this summer doing blank. I've become interested in graduate school as a result of this experience, and I'm particularly interested in your research in blank. I was wondering if I could arrange a time to meet with you and discuss the possibility of doing a master's degree in your lab. I'll be starting my 4th year this fall, so I'm hoping to start grad school in the fall of 2011.

 

Thanks,

lovestruck

[sparkles3288]

To be the voice of pessimism, you do sound like a very competitive applicant for funding because on GPA alone. However, that is definitely not all the committee's look at. Other factors include: your research experience, your letters of reference, the actual innovation/originality/feasibility of your project, the environment your graduate studies will be conducted in, your supervisor's publication/research record, etc etc etc.

 

I just don't want everyone here telling you that you're a shoe-in for an award when there are many other factors at play. I've known people with 3.9+ who didn't get funding due to all the above i've mentioned, and I know people with <3.3 who received it because their other categories were so good.

 

Just something to keep in mind...

[WaveSense]

IMO if you can get into meds now you should go if you think you'll do a MD in the future. You can always do a grad degree during residency and if you do go that route you are paid a resident salary and their grad degrees are often shorter (not always) than a normal grad degree.

[thereisnotry]

lovestruck, I was in the same boat about 10 years ago. I ended up TURNING DOWN an MD acceptance in favour of grad school. I have since come to regret that decision.

 

Have you thought about applying for an MD/PhD program if you know you want an MD and are interested in research? At many schools (correct me if I am wrong; this is not the path I went so I haven't researched this extensively), the MD/PhD is guaranteed to be funded for a number of years.

 

With your GPA, you'd be almost guaranteed to get NSERC, CIHR, or a provincial award (if you're in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, or another province where such a program exists). What sparkles3288 says is very true at the PhD level, and even more so at the postdoc level, but when applying for Master's level funding, almost nobody has any publications or research activity. They go off of your GPA and LORs mostly (especially for NSERC - CIHR does rely a bit more on your supervisor's record in their evaluation). As for the project, your potential supervisor will likely hand you a project at this point for the purposes of the application - or at least a starting point from which you can come up with a project that fits her/his research mandate. If you write a coherent application that includes background (start broad, get more specific), your research niche (i.e. your novel question, arising from what hasn't been done in the past - set this up in your background), your general research aim, your specific research question(s), your methods/analysis, your predicted outcome, and a relevance statement of how your research will impact human life REGARDLESS OF THE OUTCOME of your research (for CIHR, this should be health-related). Check out the NSERC and CIHR sites for their scholarship evaluation grids.

[future_doc]

IMO if you can get into meds now you should go if you think you'll do a MD in the future. You can always do a grad degree during residency and if you do go that route you are paid a resident salary and their grad degrees are often shorter (not always) than a normal grad degree.

 

Also listen to thereisnotry.

 

Take the dual approach. If I were you, I would definitely apply to med school with a wide net this cycle. And as thereisnotry said, you can always apply for the MD/PhD Program or alternatively, do your research studiers later, like moo did.

 

It is only going to become harder and harder to secure a seat in med school. If you get in this cycle, great and pursue research later or by a dual program. An acceptance is an incredible gift from above, a privilege and you should start the process of applying to med schoool now. Most don't get in on their first attempt anyhow, so begin the process sooner rather than later.

 

Good luck!

[lovestruck]

Thanks for all the replies! Good to know that my NSERC chances on the positive side!

 

I was planning on the dual approach. My only fear is that if I was to get in to meds, how would I decline the MSc? I don't want to be a jerk to some nice supervisor, yet I feel like telling them beforehand about my meds possibilities will limit who will want to take me. At the same time, I don't think I'm that strong of an applicant that I could just apply to meds and not need a back-up.

 

My end goal is medicine, but I enjoy research. I like MD/PhD but I worry that I program like that will result in me being spread to thin and failing in both areas. For instance, at UOttawa, you do 2 years pre-clinical med, then 6 years PhD and then you do your clinical rotations for 2 years. I fear I would forget all the clinical stuff I learnt by the time I got to rotations and if I attempted to continue studying so I didn't forget it all during my PhD, my work there would suffer. So while I like the idea of the program, the design has me feeling uneasy.

 

For medical reasons, it doesn't seem like I will be able to write the MCAT this year. My date is booked and I'm ready for it (13/11/12 on my recent practice full length!), but it doesn't look like it will be able to happen until I'm a little bit more medically stable. I don't want to get to into the issue, but I have a seizure disorder and there are no accommodation that can really be made as I seize unpredictably and (recently) often during times of stress. Until I get medication that works or some more answers, there is no way I can write a 6 hour test.

 

So that would limit me to applying only to UOttawa this year as they don't require the MCAT. Is it worth it for me to apply to that even? WGPA is 3.9 and EC's are average, if not slightly below... Ugh, I just feel discouraged...

[astrogirl]

My only fear is that if I was to get in to meds, how would I decline the MSc?

 

Don't even worry about that! Most people apply to more than one master's program and end up having to decline all but one of them anyway, so your supervisor won't be thinking that working with him/her is the only thing you're considering. If you do end up in that situation, just write a nice email thanking them for their support and say that while you would have like to work on their research, you've made the tough decision to do this other thing instead (med school, a master's with someone else, or whatever else!).