Med School post Grad School

Hello all! This is a very interesting forum with lot’s of interesting insights. It makes you feel like you can successfully go to med school almost regardless of your background as long as you really want to. Just the kind of encouragement I need.


I was interested to know if anybody else completed a Ph.D. in a hard science and decided to go through medical school. I graduated about 4 years ago from UW-Madison with a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry. Since that time, I have worked as a medicinal chemist at a few different pharmaceutical and biotech companies on some very exciting research. I have always been interested in the aspect of research that involves a medical benefit to society. However, I also would like to interact more directly with patients and be more involved with their care than my current job of designing and building molecular remedies allows. I would be interested in any insight that others have.


Also, I am interested in family practice. How long does this typically take and how is the debt burden. Can this burden be alleviated through military or rural programs? I am 35 years old and have a family. I also need to do a reality check and figure exactly how long the med school experience will be and what free time will be available during that duration. I did graduate school with my family and am not a stranger to managing a family and a pretty rigorous schedule but I would like to know what some of you with families have to say.


Thanks so much for your input!!!


Bill