Transitioning from Medical School to Divinity School?

[MDornotMD]

Thank you in advance for any advice I am given, I know grad students are busy! I find myself in something of a predicament. I am a second-year medical student, but after a year of rather tortuous reflection it has become apparent to me that this is not my path. My primary interest has always been in the intersection between medical practice and theology, and I have found myself increasingly confronted by the fact that the problems I’m interested in addressing within the medical world will not actually benefit significantly from completing my medical education. I am strongly considering transitioning into a graduate program in theology, either an M.A. or M.Div. I know that if I do, I will need to get that ball rolling quickly if I want to meet the January deadline most programs have.

I am entirely unsure about my own competitiveness. Personally, I do not care much about the prestige of an institution for the sake of prestige as such, but only insofar as I could feel relatively confident that I would be able to move on from there to a doctoral program that would give me the tools and resources to have a voice in the conversations that interest me. Like most medical schools in the country now, mine is pass-fail, and as such there is little useful information for admissions committees on my current transcript. My undergraduate GPA was a 3.5, with majors in biology and theology. I tend to see very high GPAs reported here and am unsure how much of a detriment that will be to my application. My general non-STEM (and theo major) GPA was a 3.9 (chemistry was NOT my strong suit) and I am unsure whether I should expect that my perhaps lower cumulative GPA would be overlooked in favor of my theology GPA at top tier programs, or if I’m fretting over nothing. Other than that, the only thing that commends me is a few presentations in ethics/theology, and one in STEM, without any actual publications. Secondarily, I worry that leaving medical school in favor of divinity school will be perceived less as a carefully selected career change and more as a sign that I am flakey and perhaps not liable to finish the course of study that I would be applying for.

With my perhaps lower GPA and unusual story, what programs am I realistically competitive for? I have had a hard time estimating that using only the resources I have found online, and do not have access to advising in this realm in my current context. Any realistic direction is very much appreciated!

[sacklunch]

I hope others will chime in, especially those of us on the other side of the PhD, but in my opinion it would be a serious risk to make this transition. Now, before I go all doom and gloom, it is important to hear more about what you actually want out of an MA and PhD. You say enter into conversations of interest, but that doesn't tell me how you hope to earn money. You say doctoral program, so you might have in mind ThDs, in which case you may have an interest in more practical careers. Such careers are still relatively abundant, so far as I know, but I'm not in that world directly so I will leave others to comment. As for the other path, academia, please do not attempt to join our ever-shrinking, hapless ranks. The last well-reasoned (published) statistic I read (published about a year ago) was in the range of c. 2-5% of humanities PhDs are getting tenure-track jobs. That means 95%, or more, of us graduating now are not really doing what we are trained to do. To be fair, a good number of that 95% is teaching (adjunct hell), which certainly comprises a large part of what we are trained now to do. But such careers, if you can call them that, are not sustainable and in my experience the majority of folks who end up doing this burn out after a few years (you can imagine why, with many adjuncts earning less than their graduate stipend and without health insurance). In other words, if you begin the academic path you will almost certainly be forced to change careers after what will amount to be 8+ years of education from now (MA 2 years, PhD 6 years average). Like most of my peers and after roughly 15 years of studying (BA, three masters, PhD), I am making that painful transition now. Feel free to PM me if you want to chat more privately. Good luck. 

[Boolakanaka]

While I agree with the responses to date, I will also say there are non-traditional paths that sometimes work.

 

My own story is about working mostly as an attorney, and then as an Executive Director at a couple of organizations within the conservation/environmental space, and then a mid-life Mdiv, I was recently awarded a dual appointment at one of the top divinity schools.  My appeal was not my Mdiv but my intersection with the environment and some of the success I had in that area. In fact, prior to my appointment, I have never taught in higher education.

[Averroes MD]

I cannot stress to you how bad of a decision this is. Complete your MD. You can always circle back to do a masters, hell even a PhD (including a short UK one) and then get an academic medicine job where you teach the intersection of religion and medicine.

unless you love poverty. In that case please ignore 

[sacklunch]

On 10/19/2022 at 7:45 PM, Boolakanaka said:

While I agree with the responses to date, I will also say there are non-traditional paths that sometimes work.

 

My own story is about working mostly as an attorney, and then as an Executive Director at a couple of organizations within the conservation/environmental space, and then a mid-life Mdiv, I was recently awarded a dual appointment at one of the top divinity schools.  My appeal was not my Mdiv but my intersection with the environment and some of the success I had in that area. In fact, prior to my appointment, I have never taught in higher education.

Fair enough. Though, as an attorney, you not only were making good money for years before starting the MDiv, but, should the MDiv have been a professional dead end, you could have returned to your law career and been much better prepared to pay off whatever debt you acquired during the MDiv. In the case of the OP, they would be leaving - without any professional/medical credentials - to begin a +/- decade worth of schooling, acquiring what may well amount to be 100k+ in debt, in order to join a career that excludes +/- 95% of applicants. The academic path in the humanities has gone from risky to simply foolish in the past decade. 

[xypathos]

I second @sacklunch here in that I suggest you finish out your MD, likely residency too, and wait a little bit for the divinity school degrees. The job market for us (PhDs in Theology/Religious Studies) is atrocious and brutal.

Too, you'll be starting clinicals soon so that will be a different experience from the classroom.

I had three classmates while doing my M.Div that were MDs (well, I think one was actually a DO but same thing). Two were taking classes part time (surgeon and a pediatrician), and one took a break from medicine to completely focus on their M.Div. I think they were a psychiatrist.

I also had a classmate that did a joint MD/MDiv and then did a joint PhD in Religious Studies while doing his general surgery residency. But, he was a %*$#ing rockstar like I've never seen before. I think he's at Yale or Harvard now. Which is to say, and I don't recommend it, but you could look at 1) transferring to a school with a joint MD/MDiv (or MA) program or 2) speaking with your school about taking a break from medical school to pursue the MDiv/MA and coming back. The second option isn't all that uncommon but it's usually for research leave, MPH, or MBA students.

Edited December 1, 2022 by xypathos