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Which is a higher degree – MD or PhD?

This question comes from a First Year biology PhD student, so I am looking for some REAL insight here. I know a couple of the doctors do MD/PhD, but I am wondering if I were to compare an MD in medicine with a PhD in biology, what would be regarded as a “higher” degree? It’s like comparing a bachelor’s in economics with masters in political science, but I am looking for the kind of answer that says the former (econ) is a “lower” degree than the latter. Think of it this way – for an Neurosurgery MD person who is also going to end up with a Neuroscience PhD in the MD/PhD program he/she is in, what is the pre-requisite (for the other)?

Well, they really are very different kettles of fish.

I’m not entirely certain what you are asking, or where you are (for example MD is the basic medical degree in the US, but in the UK is a 2 year postgraduate research degree).

MD/PhD programs combine both the clinical training with a period of research, and the PhD component is taken before graduation from the medical degree.

I happen to be doing both – I did a BSc and then took my medical degree from scratch (rather than concurrently), worked a few years training as a neurologist and then started a PhD in molecular and cellular neuroscience.

Which is the “higher” degree? Technically a PhD is a postgraduate degree whereas a medical degree is an undergraduate degree.

However, the medical degree is clearly a clinical, vocational training program and PhD’s are pure research degrees. For the combined / concurrent MD/PhD program the doctor in question would have had to have completed an equivalent of an undergraduate science degree first (not all medical degrees allow that level of specialisation). It is largely meaningless to compare the two though.

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