krashavi Posted June 1, 2015 Report Share Posted June 1, 2015 A tricky question I haven't been able to find an answer to: I'm an incoming West campus student but I am midway through a masters. I have finished the courses and "all I need to do" is propose & defend a thesis. My supervisor is NOSM faculty who agreed to continue supervising me through the next few years but I was hoping for some honest perspectives about the feasability of completing thesis research & writing during first and second year med. (Is working on it during the school year practically impossible? What about the summers?) I have no hard deadlines to meet. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northernnurse Posted December 3, 2015 Report Share Posted December 3, 2015 To my knowledge, at least two of my classmates have completed postgraduate degrees while in medical school. One completed their Masters of Public Health and another took a day or two off to fly to Southern Ontario to complete their PhD dissertation. It's certainly possible and is likely largely possible in students with excellent time management skills who are motivated to complete their degree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOCat Posted December 4, 2015 Report Share Posted December 4, 2015 I have also heard of students completing the second year of an MPH while at NOSM, though I'm not sure they did a thesis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lifeisawesome Posted December 6, 2015 Report Share Posted December 6, 2015 A friend of mine balanced 1st year med school with wrapping up and defending her PhD. It was definitely do-able, but she found the whole process very stressful (not surprising). I think the hardest part is finding balance between the two when both can be equally important. In the end, she focused on medicine during the first semester, worked all Christmas break on her thesis, and then balanced both in the second semester. I think it also depends on your field, if you haven't finished all of your experiments, it will be impossible to predict how they will go. As anyone who has had a research project to complete knows, even in the last stages everything can fall apart! It also depends on your supervisor. Mine was very demanding and would not have been OK with me doing something other than lab work (even if he told other people he was fine with it). Having no deadlines can also be a blessing and a curse. It is very easy to keep putting something off if you don't HAVE to finish it. Conversely, it will give you more time to work on it when you can. Whatever happens, I wish you luck! Grad school is challenging on its own ... I personally wouldn't want to have to balance both! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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