Help on explaining previous Medical School Intention

[troblad]

Hey Everyone!

I am applying for admission to several Biomedical PhD programs for entry in Fall 2013 and just heard from some of them that I am invited for interview. I am currently in the process of preparing and there is just one thing that I need others' opinions on.

So, when I first went to college, my original goal was to go to medical school. It was then suggested to me by my pre-med adviser that I should work in a research lab because that will help my application to med school. When I did, I unexpectedly caught myself staying in the lab longer than normal, digging into the literature willingly and quite enthusiastically to be honest, and just basically straight out loving it! My mentors saw that and they gave me opportunities to do more research which resulted to me having multiple conference presentations, 1 first author published manuscript and 2 first author manuscripts under review. So, long story short, I realized that science is really what I want to do.

I heard from some previous professors of mine that graduate schools consider a previous desire to go to medical school as a "red flag" because of students who use graduate school to take graduate level courses, get good grades on them (and not spend a dime because of the grad school fellowship, etc.), so that they can get in to medical school. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT WHAT I WANT TO DO.

I was wondering how you guys think I can share my story of how I got into research without giving the impression that I am just using graduate school to get into medical school?

I would really appreciate your suggestions!

Edited February 5, 2013 by troblad

[bamafan]

How would they know unless you tell them? And also, even if you did, why is that a problem? Just make sure you stress the part of how it influenced you to go away form med school to research.

[mtlve]

A lot of people applying to graduate school probably considered medicine, and switched to science at some point for similar reasons as you mentioned. I would not mention your interest in medicine and just talk about how you volunteered in a lab and fell in love. Some people that do not get into medicine do apply as back up, so I would not mention it

Edited February 13, 2013 by mtlve

[structuralBio]

I see no problem here. You are an extremely good candidate that has accomplished quite a bit more than most people, even the ambitious ones. Even if they did find out you planned to go to med school, why would they care? you are a great candidate no matter what you originally decided to do.