How to navigate my Med school and spouse PhD applications?

[kaen]

Question is stated in the title. My husband and I are both starting our senior year of undergrad, we are both taking a gap year. I just took the MCAT (8/31, waiting for scores!), I am planning on applying to medical school, and my husband is planning on applying to a PhD program in some form of Bioinformatics or Synthetic Biology. How do you navigate that? We are not willing to live apart, though we are willing to go to different schools in the same city. Has anybody ever had to do this? Is there a version of the couple's match for MD and PhD couples? Has anybody had to or is anybody currently going through this right now?

Any advice would be appreciated for how to start or what to do. Thanks!

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[LizzyM]

Buy the MSAR. This will provide you with all the information you might need about all the allopathic medical schools in the US.
Next, have your spouse make a list of the schools that offer the PhD programs that most interest him. Here's hoping that there are several in Boston, New York, Philly, Chicago as those are cities with relatively large numbers of medical schools, too, so it might be possible to do the two schools/one town thing. You might also consider smaller cities and schools that are in close proximity but in different cities (e.g. New Haven and Hamden are <10 miles apart). It might be helpful to google map between schools to determine if schools in different cities are close enough for commuting if you live somewhere between the two.
Depending on your current state of residence and your gap year plans, you could consider moving at graduation and applying from your new state if it would be a strategic move to position yourselves in a location that would be most advantageous with regard to admissions.

Then it is a matter of applying. As the MD applicant, you may have some offers of admission before your spouse even submits applications (deadlines are usually in December with interviews in Jan/Feb) but other offers to you may come in later (as late as March) so your spouse won't want to limit applications to those places that have already made you an offer or where you have already interviewed.

Good luck!

 

[kaen]

Buy the MSAR. This will provide you with all the information you might need about all the allopathic medical schools in the US.
Next, have your spouse make a list of the schools that offer the PhD programs that most interest him. Here's hoping that there are several in Boston, New York, Philly, Chicago as those are cities with relatively large numbers of medical schools, too, so it might be possible to do the two schools/one town thing. You might also consider smaller cities and schools that are in close proximity but in different cities (e.g. New Haven and Hamden are <10 miles apart). It might be helpful to google map between schools to determine if schools in different cities are close enough for commuting if you live somewhere between the two.
Depending on your current state of residence and your gap year plans, you could consider moving at graduation and applying from your new state if it would be a strategic move to position yourselves in a location that would be most advantageous with regard to admissions.

Then it is a matter of applying. As the MD applicant, you may have some offers of admission before your spouse even submits applications (deadlines are usually in December with interviews in Jan/Feb) but other offers to you may come in later (as late as March) so your spouse won't want to limit applications to those places that have already made you an offer or where you have already interviewed.

Good luck!

I really appreciate your reply! I will definitely look into the MSAR. Thank you for the cities that have multiple schools also, that will definitely help us narrow it down. We are in Utah, and our current university actually has a med school and PhD programs that we are both interested in, but we don't want to put all our eggs in one basket. We have considered moving for the application benefits, but we aren't sure. We have thought about California since that's where we'd want to end up in the future anyways and our family is gravitating there, but we weren't sure if it was a good idea. This is all quite a lot to think about haha, thank you so much!

 

[gyngyn]

We have thought about California since that's where we'd want to end up in the future anyways and our family is gravitating there, but we weren't sure if it was a good idea.

CA residency is the opposite of a sound strategic move in hopes of an MD application!
Most CA applicants have to leave the state for medical school. We are the largest exporter of pre-meds in the nation.

https://www.aamc.org/download/321466/data/factstablea5.pdf

 

[kaen]

CA residency is the opposite of a sound strategic move in hopes of an MD application!

Haha I was sort of thinking that; it is where we want to end up, but I thought I remembered it being inundated with applicants and high standards. What would a more strategic location be? Just the states mentioned previously with a lot of med schools?

 

[gyngyn]

Haha I was sort of thinking that; it is where we want to end up, but I thought I remembered it being inundated with applicants and high standards. What would a more strategic location be? Just the states mentioned previously with a lot of med schools?

The east coast has the highest concentration of medical schools and accept a significant number of OOS applicants as well. Take a look at table A-5 in my previous post. Much will also depend on your MCAT, gpa and personal mission. DO schools may open more doors, if need be.

 

[LizzyM]

Don’t bother moving to Massachusetts. You need to have graduated from HS and have been there for st least 5 years to qualify for UMass. MSAR will tell you which states shut out OOS applicants.

 

[deleted972488]

I would stay in Utah since you say the school there has programs you're both interested in. You will have a good chance of getting in there as an in-state resident. You should also apply to some OOS schools that appeal to both of you, but your list will depend on your MCAT score and the overall competitiveness of your application.

Getting into a PhD program is easier than MD (I've navigated both admissions processes), so where you two go will likely mostly depend on you, not your spouse.

 

[kaen]

I would stay in Utah since you say the school there has programs you're both interested in. You will have a good chance of getting in there as an in-state resident. You should also apply to some OOS schools that appeal to both of you, but your list will depend on your MCAT score and the overall competitiveness of your application.

Getting into a PhD program is easier than MD (I've navigated both admissions processes), so where you two go will likely mostly depend on you, not your spouse.

That is definitely the plan if possible. He is super supportive too and says we can move wherever I get in and that he'll work around getting in wherever I do or at least around it. Starting the process of research though just to make sure that we have all the helpful info before we begin!

 

[kaen]

But I would be clear in medical school application that you are applying with spouse from start. It will certainly wont hurt if spouse applies to same school for graduate work.

Is there a spot specifically you can mention that?

 

[LizzyM]

Is there a spot specifically you can mention that?

"Is there anything else you would want the committee to know?" is a common secondary question.

 

[deleted972488]

"Is there anything else you would want the committee to know?" is a common secondary question.

And a fairly common interview question.

 

[DNAJB6]

Also be mindful of the possibility that his Ph.D. may be interrupted especially if his degree is in the biomedical sciences. Many Ph.D. programs now routinely require five or six years to finish. This may complicate your attempts to match for residency. One of my friends from college had a similar issue. Her husband was a M.D. student, and she was a Ph.D. student in the school's biomedical sciences program. The match basically forced her to give up her Ph.D.,, and she never finished it due to lack of resources in the area where her husband matched. Given the amount of time that has elapsed since her coursework, she would likely need to retake classes if she ever wanted to try to finish it. Considering a fifth "research" year for your M.D. may help. If your husband has some research experience specific to his dissertation topic ahead of time and an idea of what his thesis will entail that will help him finish on time too. Ditto if his thesis is manageable and resilient to limitations in ditto. These are factors that often extend the duration of Ph.D. programs to the frustration of graduate students.

 

[deleted972488]

Many Ph.D. programs now routinely require five or six years to finish.

The *average* time to complete the degree for most biomedical PhDs is around 6 years, so yes, this extends past an MD program. Perhaps OP can do residency at their MD institution or a nearby institution.