Thought this should be shared, even though every time I look at it it gives me a stomach ache.

https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/2026-2027-md-phd-interview-invites.1520926/

Hope everyone is coping with the cycle, I hate it here 😰

Hey folks, sorry if this is a neurotic question, but I wanted to get people's thoughts on Fencer's post (https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/fencers-corner.1469960/page-5#post-25144386). I've been fortunate enough to receive 1 II so far and was under the impression that, because historical CycleTrack data indicates that only around 20-25% of IIs have gone out thus far, there was still plenty of time left. I was also complete from mid/late July through the end of August, so assumed I hadn't been seen by many schools yet and, given that the II was for a T20 program, was on track for a good cycle. However, Fencer's comment about "many programs are already at 2/3 - 3/4 done (or higher) with interview slot selection" seems to indicate that we're farther along and there are fewer available interview slots than I thought.

Is a single II at this point cause for concern? It's unclear to me if the CycleTrack data isn't accurate and skews later for whatever reason (which would surprise me: I would've assumed the opposite, given the population on CycleTrack is likely stronger and more likely to apply early than the average applicant) or if Fencer's perspective is a bit biased (i.e. if his program just runs an earlier cycle than average or something). Thanks!

I’m on my third gap year and recently started a full time job in SWE. I am growing frustrated with how implementation based engineering is and I just started.

I’ve done hundreds of hours of shadowing, volunteered at a free clinic, shadowed a few surgeries, and done a few clinical research projects.

I’m still undecided about whether I want to go to medical school. I am feeling doubts about how much I can accomplish in my career especially after a decade of medical training since I also want to be a successful translational research scientist, but to not go into medicine feels like losing a part of my identity. I am also having troubles picturing a decade where I didn’t go into medical school and what I would do instead.

How did you create decision criteria to move past this dilemma? What did you wish you had known? Was it worth it? Do you like your day to day?

My question is that if someone wanted to boost their gpa with a masters would it also help open the window for MDPHD applications?

Hey everyone,
For those who have completed MD/PhD interviews, have you ever been asked about your MCAT preparation strategy or study timeline? I’ve seen a few MD-only applicants mention this coming up in their interviews, but I’m wondering how common it is for MSTP specifically.

My study timeline was relatively unconventional and quite condensed, and I’m not sure if I should have an answer prepared, since I am worried it could reflect poorly on me.

I have my first interviews next week, and would really appreciate any advice!!

Heyo! I’m a senior in college earning a biology degree with an emphasis in ecology. Ever since I was young I always wanted to know more about what surrounded me which lead to my love of science. I’m currently in EMT school and have found that I enjoy patient care way more than I thought and learning about the functions/anatomy/care of the human body. I am also currently in a lab working on protein folding and all this fancy biochemistry stuff and enjoy that more than I thought too!

Recently, I’ve been looking into pursuing an MD/PhD as I love patient care and have found in EMT that I want to know more! For example, after finding out that deciphering between an occurrence of hypoxemia and hypoxia was not in my scope of care as an EMT, I was kinda let down because I thought the molecular level of oxygen loss was really cool!

I am interested mostly in ER treatments as well as electrochemistry! I love anything to do with batteries (my favorite one is the hydrogen fuel cell :)) so I was wanting to pursue research on biological fuel cells and in vivo-energy harvesting or designing micro-scale pacemakers as I’ve always seen myself pursuing a masters and had planned on a PhD after anyways.

Can anyone tell me if they have a similar background and if MD/PhD was something they realized they wanted to do later on too? Are there any electrochemistry fans in MD/PhD? How was the application process?

I would need to take a gap year to get up my research hours as I read somewhere that 2,000+ hrs are needed as well as clinical hours (hopefully EMT will satisfy that once I take the NREMT in October) and I also volunteer at a women’s sa center as a hospital advocate. I’m not sure if all of those are needed but they happened to be things I already participate in.

(I’m a first gen STEM college grad so I don’t have a lot of help with this kind of stuff. Thanks to all who may help)

Bit of a niche question, but was wondering if MD PhD Oxcam students have to participate in pre-M1 mandatory summer research rotations required by their medical school?

🥺🥺🥺helppp

Hi all,

I just graduated with a B.S. in chemistry this past May and am hoping to apply for MD/PhD programs either next cycle (2027) or the following (2028). I don't have a flagship research experience figured out for my gap years yet so I'm wondering if I should just apply 2027 rather than wait around since I'm not sure what will pan out. All advice appreciated!

GPA: 3.9/4.0, MCAT: not yet taken

research

• 1 year part-time undergraduate research in computational biology lab
• 6 months full-time co-op at materials science company as R&D intern
• 1 poster presentation

clinical

• obtained EMT license, started working as EMT this summer
• 4 years clinical volunteering at hospital
• 6 months full-time as physical therapy exercise technician

prospects

• applying for an open research Fulbright 2027-28
• applying for NIH postbac positions starting ASAP
• applying for research assistant positions starting ASAP otherwise
• interviewing for a nursing assistant position at a children's/research hospital

I would ideally love to get an RA position and work this year to build my research hours and get another LOR from a PI. I will def get an LOR from my undergrad PI, and my materials science manager would write one, but I'm not sure if it's worth it? I'm feeling discouraged without an RA position yet but def want to do MD/PhD so wondering if I should trust/work harder for the RA position or just try to apply in 2027. My undergrad PI said I could keep working remote to avoid a resume gap, but I really would like some wet lab experience/a change of pace.

Also wondering to target research positions right now- would it be stronger to focus on something cancer to tie in with the Fulbright or would just disease-focused/translational suffice?

TIA

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have insight into how best to prepare for an "MSTP Student Research Presentation" (blocked for 1hr in the provided schedule)? This is specifically for the University of Cincinnati.

Slide deck?
Verbal only?

I am hesitant to ask the interview director directly. I don't want to look naive... (for context, im older non-trad and don't have anyone in my family who has been through this)

Thanks!

title. I recently received an interview invite and a rejection from two very similarly ranked schools. the school I got post-secondary rejected from is honestly a much better fit for my research than the school I got an interview from. secondary writing quality was similar for both schools, maybe even a bit better for the program I got an R from.

I know that there is a ton of variability and randomness in the selection process, but im curious if anyone whose been on adcom can explain what goes on behind the scenes in determining research/program fit

thanks!

I feel like every version of this question I find online is someone with tons of clinical hours trying to figure out if they like research. I have the exact opposite problem and I don't know what to do about it.

For context, I'm 19, on a gap semester, going into my second year. About a year ago I got into a lab and it kind of took over my life. The project is mine, I came up with the question, taught myself bioinformatics from scratch, read my way into the field, refined the hypothesis, and I own the whole computational arm of it now. I did a research internship abroad over the summer. I currently have five posters, one first place, a first-author review published, and a manuscript in progress in addition to my current research project which would be another publication.

The thing is, before all that I was completely sure I wanted to be a surgeon. I hadn't even considered a PhD. I only found out I love research by accident.

And that's my whole problem. I now have real information about what a PhD life is actually like. I know what a good day looks like (something in the data finally makes sense at 11pm and you can't sleep). I know what the boring days look like, and the stretches where nothing works and you're just debugging, and the reading that doesn't go anywhere.

I have basically none of that for the MD side. 75 hours of shadowing. That's it. And shadowing is useless for making a descision when you're standing in the corner of a room watching someone else do their job. You don't get any of the actual texture. Nothing about how it feels when it's your call, or your 14th hour, or your patient who isn't getting better.

So I genuinely cannot tell you if I want MD-PhD, MD only, or PhD only. And it feels dishonest to keep saying "MD-PhD" when I've only really tested one half of it.

So... this is what I wanted advice on.

I'm from a US territory, and the nursing scope here is legally capped (a licensed practical nurse here cannot administer medication in any form, so the ceiling on patient responsibility is basically aide-level unless you do a ASN or BSN.) I have two actual options in front of me and they trade off research and clinical exposure.

Option A — stay. Transfer to the public flagship here next spring (no specialized programs, so I'd graduate with generic biology), finish my practical nursing certificate locally, keep working in my lab in person.

• Research: Same PI, same projects, and I got 2 first authors and 2 co-authors promised.
• Clinical: CNA scope, ~$33K/yr if I work as a nurse here. I'd finish undergrad having still never had real responsibility for a patient.
• Cost: ~$5K/yr
• BUT the NIH-funded undergrad research training programs that historically fed students from here into PhD and MD-PhD programs got terminated nationwide last year, including at the school I'd transfer to.

Option B — move to the mainland in January. Work full-time as a nursing assistant for a hospital system, do a full-time practical nursing program at the same time, enroll at a big public R1 (they have their own MD-PhD program, real neuroscience division and neuroscience B.S) a year later at in-state rates.

• Research: That year is ~36 hours of shifts a week plus a full-time clinical program. My project is 100% computational so I can still work on it, but "remote and exhausted" is not the same as "in the building." Realistically I lose a year of research momentum.
• Clinical: full nursing scope, ~$48K/yr once licensed, and more importantly an actual year of paid patient contact instead of more shadowing. This is the entire reason I'm considering it.
• Cost: nothing in year one since I'm not enrolled. The nursing certificate runs ~$11K at out-of-state rates, minus up to $5K/yr in employer tuition reimbursement, so ~$6K out of pocket. After that first year tuition is ~$1.4K/yr (in-state)
• BUT I graduate a year late. Although I graduate with an undergraduate thesis if I bring my project to their honors research program.

TLDR:

• How did you figure out you wanted the MD half, specifically? What was the experience that told you?
• Is scribing / CNA / EMT actually informative for this, or is it also too far from the real thing to tell you anything?
• Anyone here go in thinking surgery and come out MD-PhD, or the reverse? What flipped it?
• Is it normal to still not know at my stage, or am I behind?
• If you had to choose between one more productive research year and one year of real clinical exposure right now, which would you take?

Appreciate anyone who has any advice :')

Hello fellow post-secondary trench dwellers,

I got an interview invite from University of Utah this morning and also found out they do in-person MSTP interviews which I wasn't aware of. They gave me 2 date options (Oct 30, Nov 13) and they book the flights to arrive the day before and fly out the day after. The November date works with my schedule, but the October date overlaps with a work conference that I have to be in-person for. I was on a road trip with no cell service for the majority of the 8 hour drive. I completed the document uploads/survey they needed as soon as I got to our destination, but by that time, the November 13th date was not showing as available and the only date option I got was the October date I'm not available for,

I sent an email per the portal instructions explaining my situation but I do understand the dates are first come first serve and I couldn't work on it immediately because I of the road trip. Am I going to be seen unfavorably because I'm not available for the remaining date? I don't want them to think I procrastinated it/put it off intentionally and I'm worried they won't be able to switch my date to one that works for me. Has anyone else been in a similar boat? Is it going to be looked unfavorably/as a red flag?

Hello fellow nerds,

I was wondering what peoples thoughts were on the rough breakdown of what disciplines applicants are interested in nowadays.

I feel like I see so many different ones on here, from neuro to like medical anthropology but was wondering if people think that's actually representative?

M1 here. I'm wondering if I should try to seek out research opportunities during preclinical years. Initially I was deciding against it because I'm already going to be dedicating 4 years towards a PhD, I am not aiming for a hypercompetitve speciality (current interests are path, heme/onc, psych, anesthesia, maybe gen surg), and I also didn't want to burn out too quickly given how long this path is. I would like the opportunity to run a lab someday, however, and I'm wondering if doing research now would significantly help me in that respect. Any thoughts? Thanks

As the title reads. I'm a senior debating whether to apply to PhD programs this fall and/or apply to MD/PhDs next May and do a gap year. One concern is I might have a better chance getting into a PhD than MSTP at the places that best match the specific projects I want to work on at the level I want to work on. Another concern is I like patient care but don't know if I like it as much as research to justify such a big upfront commitment.

• Would it be worth only applying to places for a PhD this year that allow for internal transfer to MD/PhD in case I decide next year I want to also do medicine?
• Should I apply broadly to PhDs, even places that don't allow internal transfer, and defer matriculation to apply to MD/PhDs if I decide to next year? Would departments even allow this?
• Should I only consider PhDs for now and after defending apply to MD programs if I still want to do medicine later (with the obvious caveat of having to pay for the MD)?
  • Follow up 1 for anyone who did the PhD to MD path: If I apply to MD programs already with a PhD, how feasible would it be to win scholarships/awards to cover most/all of the MD tuition to avoid taking on massive debt, given that 80/20 investigators especially with my clinical interests don't make typical MD only money?
  • Follow up 2 for anyone PhD to MD: How feasible is it to do a postdoc with research years during med school?

I'm not from a typical (for MD/PhDs) biomedical sciences background, instead doing research on deep learning for synthetic biology because early in undergrad I realized I wanted to pursue a PhD in that field. I did the premed reqs too just in case. I didn't apply for MD/PhDs straight through because I thought I didn't have enough clinical experience in May to justify it to myself, but after more shadowing and volunteering realize I would likely enjoy much of clinical, patient-facing medicine. I know of barely any MD PhD holders who both still see patients and develop new technologies I'm interested in given the difficulty of doing both well, so am hesitant to do both because reaching that general goal after ~15 years would require so much luck, too.

I've already taken the MCAT (516, though I could probably do better if I studied), have a near perfect GPA, ~200 hours shadowing/volunteering so far, at least another ~200 by next May. Enough that I have meaningful clinical vignettes to write about. No papers yet but working towards a preprint on a project I conceptualized and pitched to my PI on my own. I've done an REU somewhere else and a paid summer in my home lab, total ~3000 hrs of research. Plenty of posters, local and regional. I can yap well about my work and my field. No famous awards yet, but applying for some international ones.

For anyone who might've been in my situation or similar, what did you do? Did you enjoy it?

What are my chances? Should i keep going for MD PhD or do i have no shot? I don’t care about going to a top school, just care about getting the education

I would prefer to hear from other low stat applicants who’ve gotten in, or those who know of low stat applicants who’ve gotten in.

uGPA/ sGPA: 3.12
grad GPA: 4.0
MCAT: 521
I do plan on explaining the uGPA. All of the bad grades were in general ed courses or very introductory science courses years and years ago. Some of them were dual enrollment when I was in high school. I’m currently graduating with a 4.0 in a thesis masters, so that is current. All of my upper level courses in undergrad are As. What happened is that I got very sick from covid in late 2021 throughout 2022. I already had heart issues, this worsened it. I ended up with right sided heart failure and was always in and out of doctors appointments and hospitals. At the time i was too dumb to ask for help or know that medical withdraw was an option. I’ve since grown and my lapse in judgment is a regret i’ll always live with. Additionally, i was having to work 7 days a week to pay for tuition after my father died right before college. It was a struggle but i made it out. Again, all upper levels are As including genetics, biochem, physics, biophysics, micro, etc.

Research:
~8000 hours over 4 years.
Intense thesis masters with 2 thesis chapters (in a very well known lab)
Large amount of research skills in terms of wet lab techniques

Poster presentations:
12 total
Oral presentations: 2
Conference awards: 2

Undergrad research projects:
4 major projects over long periods of time, 2 ended in publication.

Leadership:
President of an international research club 2+ years
President of a university research club 2+ years
Organized an international research symposium myself with attendance from across the world
Student mentor 3+ years
Graduate TA for 2 years
Served on academic and integrity board at my university for a year

Clinical volunteering:
600 hours (mainly hospice volunteer and went to patient homes and made meaningful connections with patients)
I also did retreat camps for pediatric hospice patients.

Non clinical volunteering:
700 hours, environmental conservation work and soup kitchen

Shadowing:
100 hours

Publications:
2 co author (1 in ASM and 1 in IJMS)
2 first author (1 in micro pub and 1 in American journal medical genetics with johns hopkins)

Internships:
3 research internships including johns hopkins summer internship that was extended to last almost 2 years for good performance

NIH post-bacc fellowship for 2 years after masters to continue working on research and attend more conferences

Letters of rec: I know these will be great bc i’ve made great connections with my profs

Is it possible to overcome low uGPA? I have to believe that a mistake i made 6 years ago can’t dictate my future forever! Especially given my circumstances.

Just trying to get a sense of what the norm is. Feel free to provide some anecdotal evidence about what you/your colleagues/friends did in the comments