.

[onesadmachine]

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone is staying as safe and sane as they can during this time.

I'm applying to MD/PhD programs this upcoming cycle and am having some trouble identifying schools that match my research interests.

I have a wide range of interests, ranging from cancer biology, exercise science, regenerative medicine and immunology.

While it is easy to find programs that identify PIs that match my interests in cancer biology and immunology, I still would like to explore programs with PIs that investigate the effects of exercise on disease and obesity, as well as regenerative medicine. This would include research on muscular dystrophy, and any degenerative neuromuscular diseases.

So far Stanford, Michigan, and Wash U come to mind as schools that have strong research in all those areas.

Any additional input would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[turtle114]

Just going off of my experience this cycle: it might not be best to characterize your interests so broadly.

Most successful students can make a quick pitch for what they are interested in which is both not super broad and not super specific. Because class sizes are limited, schools want to give away spots in a balanced fashion: i.e., they don't want 10 neuroscience students or 10 biomedical engineers (although they understand that people's interests can change over time.) If you don't fit anywhere, that might make it more difficult to make an argument for yourself.

Imagine some hypothetical students:

Student A: I'm interested in cancer bio, neuroscience, and bone regeneration.

Student B: I'm interested in infectious disease, specifically...X, Y, and Z.

Student C: I'm interested in the X pathway in glioblastoma.

A is too broad: even if they can make a great case for why they are interested in each topic, they would be stronger if they picked 1 or combined two at most.

B is just right, they have a general area of interest with specific throughlines, but aren't tied to any one topic too closely so if no one at the school is researching that particular virus/whatever, it won't prevent them from potentially succeeding there.

C is too specific, this early in our careers it is a little suspicious to be so focused in on one topic. Potential exception if you are some kind of rock star who has published a first author paper on one topic and want to stay there forever...but even then why not branch out a bit?