Should I quit my PhD?

[anthro2009]

I'm beginning my second year of a 4-year PhD in primate population genetics, and I feel 90% sure that I want to quit. My PI is great and I really like the other students, but the lab work is unbelievably boring. I had no idea what I was getting into - I worked in a lab before coming here, but it was just a totally different setup, and I think I expected my PhD lab work to be more like that: experiment-driven and varying, as opposed to extracting DNA from almost a thousand samples and then genotyping all of them over a period of years. I just don't think I'm cut out for this kind of work, where you don't get results for years. I also moved to a tiny city in Germany from the US, and though I am sociable with people at work and have made some friends, I can't see staying here for several more years. I miss having a close relationship with family and friends back home. I also am not making nearly enough money (my stipend comes to less than $17k a year) to deal with living expenses + flights home + student loans/credit card debt.

During my PhD work, it has become increasingly clear to me that I want to pursue a career in medicine. I have enjoyed working with non-human primates and am fascinated by the evolutionary questions that my current research addresses, but I am far more satisfied working to understand and treat disease in humans. I want to feel like my work has a more immediate purpose and is helping someone directly. I worked in biomedical/clinical research for two years before starting grad school and was thinking about med school even then, but because I was an anthropology major as an undergrad and didn't take any premed classes, I assumed the med school door had closed. I spent January to March of this year in rural Africa collecting samples for my project, and, seeing the medical problems that are rampant in rural Africa really catalyzed my desire to apply my science background to human medicine.

My plan would be to leave in another 5 or 6 months, to give my boss enough notice to replace me, to get my lab work to a point where someone else could take over easily enough, and to give myself time to get a job back home. I plan to apply to research assistant jobs in clinical medicine, so that I can get more experience working with patients in a hospital (I did this for a year after college, but I want to explore it more to make sure medicine is the right move for me). I will take my pre-med classes part-time after work, and if I get a job at a university, a lot of the coursework will be paid for with tuition remission. Then, if I'm sure I want to apply to med school, I'll take the MCAT and apply. I've already begun reviewing biology and chemistry textbooks to prepare for the classes/MCAT, and even though I don't have much formal science coursework, I worked in a neuro lab for a year and a molecular bio lab for another year, and then this genetics-based PhD experience will help me too. This whole process should take me about three years, so I'd be able to apply to med school to start at age 27 or 28.

I just want to make sure I'm not making a mistake. My parents aren't very supportive of me leaving - I know that they'll support whatever decision I make in the end, but I'm just worrying that there's some merit to what they say. They think I should stick it out and just get the PhD, even if I don't think I'll use it. I don't want to waste time getting a useless degree. I think they think that I'm leaving because I don't like Germany, but this isn't the primary reason I don't want to finish. They also just think it's really cool that I'm living in Europe and can travel around, and I know they don't want me to give up too soon. They usually advocate toughing things out, but I've been doing that for the past year and feel confident that it would be a waste of time.

I'd be interested to hear other peoples' opinions on the pros and cons of leaving my PhD, given the situation. Thanks, and sorry this post is so long!

[Riotbeard]

I'm beginning my second year of a 4-year PhD in primate population genetics, and I feel 90% sure that I want to quit. My PI is great and I really like the other students, but the lab work is unbelievably boring. I had no idea what I was getting into - I worked in a lab before coming here, but it was just a totally different setup, and I think I expected my PhD lab work to be more like that: experiment-driven and varying, as opposed to extracting DNA from almost a thousand samples and then genotyping all of them over a period of years. I just don't think I'm cut out for this kind of work, where you don't get results for years. I also moved to a tiny city in Germany from the US, and though I am sociable with people at work and have made some friends, I can't see staying here for several more years. I miss having a close relationship with family and friends back home. I also am not making nearly enough money (my stipend comes to less than $17k a year) to deal with living expenses + flights home + student loans/credit card debt.

During my PhD work, it has become increasingly clear to me that I want to pursue a career in medicine. I have enjoyed working with non-human primates and am fascinated by the evolutionary questions that my current research addresses, but I am far more satisfied working to understand and treat disease in humans. I want to feel like my work has a more immediate purpose and is helping someone directly. I worked in biomedical/clinical research for two years before starting grad school and was thinking about med school even then, but because I was an anthropology major as an undergrad and didn't take any premed classes, I assumed the med school door had closed. I spent January to March of this year in rural Africa collecting samples for my project, and, seeing the medical problems that are rampant in rural Africa really catalyzed my desire to apply my science background to human medicine.

My plan would be to leave in another 5 or 6 months, to give my boss enough notice to replace me, to get my lab work to a point where someone else could take over easily enough, and to give myself time to get a job back home. I plan to apply to research assistant jobs in clinical medicine, so that I can get more experience working with patients in a hospital (I did this for a year after college, but I want to explore it more to make sure medicine is the right move for me). I will take my pre-med classes part-time after work, and if I get a job at a university, a lot of the coursework will be paid for with tuition remission. Then, if I'm sure I want to apply to med school, I'll take the MCAT and apply. I've already begun reviewing biology and chemistry textbooks to prepare for the classes/MCAT, and even though I don't have much formal science coursework, I worked in a neuro lab for a year and a molecular bio lab for another year, and then this genetics-based PhD experience will help me too. This whole process should take me about three years, so I'd be able to apply to med school to start at age 27 or 28.

I just want to make sure I'm not making a mistake. My parents aren't very supportive of me leaving - I know that they'll support whatever decision I make in the end, but I'm just worrying that there's some merit to what they say. They think I should stick it out and just get the PhD, even if I don't think I'll use it. I don't want to waste time getting a useless degree. I think they think that I'm leaving because I don't like Germany, but this isn't the primary reason I don't want to finish. They also just think it's really cool that I'm living in Europe and can travel around, and I know they don't want me to give up too soon. They usually advocate toughing things out, but I've been doing that for the past year and feel confident that it would be a waste of time.

I'd be interested to hear other peoples' opinions on the pros and cons of leaving my PhD, given the situation. Thanks, and sorry this post is so long!

It seems you have already made your decision. Med School takes a long time too. If that is what you know you want to do, then I can't see the benefit of sticking it out.

[rising_star]

How much more time would it take for you to finish your PhD? How do you know that you won't spend 2-4 years in med school, only to realize you don't want to be a doctor?

[anthro2009]

It will take me another 2 years minimum to finish the PhD, assuming that everything goes well. Other students here have been stuck here for 6 or even 8 years sometimes when samples don't produce enough DNA or the results just wind up being garbage... My reasoning with quitting now was that 1) I'm sure I don't want to do this for a career and 2) I need time to explore medicine, by working in a clinical setting and getting to see patients and shadow doctors, before I apply to med school, because I don't want to be similarly disillusioned with that.

The worst-case scenario will be that, in 10 or 20 years, I realize that I'm just not someone who is super passionate about any particular field and that one is as good as another, and then I'll feel stupid for wasting time and not finishing the PhD. But at least, if I wind up in medicine, I'll be able to support myself, right?

Edited September 8, 2010 by anthro2009

[suspechosa]

Anthro2009,

I can COMPLETELY sympathize with you. I am just starting my PhD in paleoprimatology and am having serious reservations about continuing forward after this semester. I too switched back and forth between medicine and academia and think I picked the wrong one.

I am really uncomfortable with the fact that jobs in academia are next to impossible to get after YEARS of hard work and dedication. Many think you should pursue a PhD because it's your "passion" and that you should be comfortable with the prospect of not getting a job because "hey, you got to live your dream even if just for a little while". I call BS on that one.

I also feel like I would gain greater satisfaction in actually DOING something to help people and make a difference in lives everyday rather than bouncing back theories and abstractions and pretending it's of profound importance. Academia is too far removed from reality and society for me.

I must say you are fortunate that you may be able to get your degree in four years because the average time to a PhD in my subfield and in my program is 8 freaking years, yikes!

A career in medicine can be a fulfilling and wonderful one but please do be aware that it too is a LONG road (longer than continuing your Euro PhD) and comes with years of struggling financially in residency and drowning in massive student loans and then paying for lovely malpractice insurance, woooo, in addition to the emotions and fatigue that come with life in many specialties.

I think you seem to have thought this through and your mind is made up. You seem scared to take the plunge though.

My vote is to go for medicine! I think the rewards outweigh the costs compared with academia.

Good luck to you in whatever you choose

[Genomic Repairman]

I will take my pre-med classes part-time after work, and if I get a job at a university, a lot of the coursework will be paid for with tuition remission. Then, if I'm sure I want to apply to med school, I'll take the MCAT and apply. I've already begun reviewing biology and chemistry textbooks to prepare for the classes/MCAT, and even though I don't have much formal science coursework, I worked in a neuro lab for a year and a molecular bio lab for another year, and then this genetics-based PhD experience will help me too. This whole process should take me about three years, so I'd be able to apply to med school to start at age 27 or 28.

And you don't think MD admission committees won't hold quitting a PhD program against you? Think long and hard, you better have a plan C to your plan B in case med schools say no. At some point in time, everyone has ideas of quitting in their mind. EVERYONE. If they don't admit to it, they are either fools or liars. You have to dig deep and pull yourself through. But if you can't forsee working in research, get out now. Best of luck.

[suspechosa]

And you don't think MD admission committees won't hold quitting a PhD program against you?

This is a good point.

Anthro2009, is there any way you can leave with at least an MA? That way you have something to show for your time there and it will look less like you "quit"??

[UnlikelyGrad]

Anthro2009, is there any way you can leave with at least an MA? That way you have something to show for your time there and it will look less like you "quit"??

This is exactly what I was thinking.

[anthro2009]

No, there's no masters here because it's a research-based PhD with minimal coursework, sort of all-or-nothing. If I know I don't want to be a primatologist and feel like I could be doing much more helpful and useful work in medicine, but I stayed here for two or three more years just to not be a quitter, I was thinking that might also reflect poorly on me if I went down the med school path after that. I could imagine being in an interview, explaining that, after seeing the state of medicine in Ethiopia during my first year of my PhD, I decided I wanted to be a doctor... and then I waited three or four more years before moving in that direction? I was hoping that, if I quit my PhD because I really felt that medicine was right for me, then worked in a hospital for a few years, did all of my post-bac classes, did well on the MCAT, and wrote a really good essay explaining why I made the decision, it would at least show a prolonged dedication to medicine, not just an impulsive decision to quit. I don't know... I hope they wouldn't hold quitting the PhD against me, but I guess they might.

Edited September 9, 2010 by anthro2009

[anthro2009]

It feels so good to hear from someone else with the same dilemma. What's your plan? Are you going to try to stick it out for the PhD, or master out, or leave? Would you have to do a post-bac, or do you already have your premed classes done?

Anthro2009,

I can COMPLETELY sympathize with you. I am just starting my PhD in paleoprimatology and am having serious reservations about continuing forward after this semester. I too switched back and forth between medicine and academia and think I picked the wrong one.

I am really uncomfortable with the fact that jobs in academia are next to impossible to get after YEARS of hard work and dedication. Many think you should pursue a PhD because it's your "passion" and that you should be comfortable with the prospect of not getting a job because "hey, you got to live your dream even if just for a little while". I call BS on that one.

I also feel like I would gain greater satisfaction in actually DOING something to help people and make a difference in lives everyday rather than bouncing back theories and abstractions and pretending it's of profound importance. Academia is too far removed from reality and society for me.

I must say you are fortunate that you may be able to get your degree in four years because the average time to a PhD in my subfield and in my program is 8 freaking years, yikes!

A career in medicine can be a fulfilling and wonderful one but please do be aware that it too is a LONG road (longer than continuing your Euro PhD) and comes with years of struggling financially in residency and drowning in massive student loans and then paying for lovely malpractice insurance, woooo, in addition to the emotions and fatigue that come with life in many specialties.

I think you seem to have thought this through and your mind is made up. You seem scared to take the plunge though.

My vote is to go for medicine! I think the rewards outweigh the costs compared with academia.

Good luck to you in whatever you choose

[suspechosa]

It feels so good to hear from someone else with the same dilemma. What's your plan? Are you going to try to stick it out for the PhD, or master out, or leave? Would you have to do a post-bac, or do you already have your premed classes done?

I'm going to wait and see what happens.

I wont be funded next year at my current program unless I keep straight A's,so if I get a B- medicine it is! I also think if I did less than stellar grades-wise, it would be a true reflection of my disinterest in paleoanth and not just panic of picking a life path, stress, etc. Like today is a good day for me and my relationship with my subject, yesterday was pure hatred. It's crazy.

All my premed courses are completed and I've taken the MCAT. So if paleoanth doesn't pan out, I can move on pretty quickly.

[psycholinguist]

I'd go for it and make the change. There's nothing shameful about that; people switch fields all the time. If you know even now that you don't like the work and that this isn't what you're passionate about, then how would things be any better a year from now? Two years? I'd cut your losses and get out of there.

After my undergrad degree I didn't know whether to go into linguistics or psychology; however, my first round of applications (to programs in both fields) was terrible for several reasons, and I ended up panicking and accepting an offer from a psychology-department at the last minute. Before the end of the semester I knew I didn't feel passionate about it, that I wanted to work with language-data as opposed to reaction-times, that I wasn't very interested in my classes, and above all that I was dreading having to return after the winter holidays. For pretty much the first time in my life, I was feeling a) restless, bored, and c) homesick. At first I wanted to just stick out the MA program, but although I have a number of interests in psychology, I couldn't come up with a project for it that anyone liked. So I talked it over with a few people in the program (who were incredibly nice about it), and left after a semester. I reapplied to linguistics programs, and now I'm starting an MA in linguistics and I'm absolutely thrilled about it! Everyone in the department is doing such cool research, and I'm getting so many ideas, and everywhere I'm finding books I want to read and papers I want to look at.

I think you've been able to sense what your calling is, and I'd say go pursue it!