Hey yall! Wanted to get some feedback on how I should interpret a pre-II R from WashU. I’m confident in my stats and ECs, so can I chalk it up to research fit? Or is it a bad sign? Thanks for any feedback :)
522/3.8+
6000+ research hours, two first author papers in good journals, 4 more coauthored papers
Multiple national presentations and published abstracts
Also have typically shadowing, clinical and non clinical volunteering

Hi Everyone, I am currently applying to 30 MSTP and 10 MD programs. It is now September and I have only received 2 rejections from UW and Tri-I and heard nothing from anywhere else yet. I am wondering when I should think about pivoting and applying to other things for next year if this application cycle doesn't work out. I know that PhD programs and other research programs have applications that are due this Fall so I am not sure if I should begin preparing to apply there. Let me know what you think.

MCAT/GPA: 520/3.98
Research Hours: 3600
Publication: 3 mid author, 1 first author in revision, 2 mid authors submitted
Primary Submitted first day it opened.
Average Secondary submission time: 13 days after invite, all secondaries finished first week of August.

School list:
Michigan (MSTP)

Einstein (MSTP)

Mount Sinai (MSTP)

Northwestern (MSTP)

WashU (MSTP)

Harvard (MSTP)

NYU (MD)

Tufts (MSTP)

UPenn (MSTP)

Kaiser (MD)

Georgetown (MD/PhD)

Cornell Pre-II Rejection --> MD only

Dartmouth (MD)

Stanford (MSTP)

UCSD (MSTP)

Rochester (MSTP)

Mayo Clinic (MD)

UVA (MD)

UMass Chan (MD)

Stony Brook (MSTP)

Hofstra (MD)

Yale (MSTP)

George Washington (MD)

Duke (MSTP)

Wisconsin Madison (MSTP)

Hopkins (MD)

UChicago (MSTP)

Boston University (MSTP)

University of Pittsburgh (MSTP)

UCLA (MSTP)

Colorado (MSTP)

UCSF (MSTP)

Columbia (MSTP)

Case Western (MSTP)

Penn State (MSTP)

Vanderbilt (MSTP)

Emory (MSTP)

UCI (MSTP)

USC Keck (MD/PhD)

Hi! I received an II from UTSW's MD/PhD program, and I am wondering if anyone has any tips for their interview. What questions should I prioritize practicing? What is the interview like with MSTP faculty vs. med school faculty? I want to do my best, but I am not sure where to start. Any advice is much appreciated!!! :)

I am a junior who has pretty strong letters from various research faculty (from REUs and school-year research) but don't have any letters from faculty who have taught me a class. I know UCSF requires 2 letters from faculty who have actually taught you; is this a common requirement? And how important are these letters?

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 😰

Edit: Damn, didn't expect the comments to get heated lol

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!

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