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[pistachion]

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[Fencer]

You are competitive, but given your interviewing/writing skills, you MUST follow my standard advice. Keep in mind that truly any MSTP will provide you an opportunity to shine for a competitive residency across the country. It is what you do in your PhD lab, what propels you to a high ranking residency in your specialty. PM me if you need clarification.

You can use my standard advice as several of your schools have matriculating classes of less than 4 students with high application numbers. That is a very poor use of adding another school (and potentially a $econdary application). One of your schools has discontinued their MD/PhD program. Just keep in mind that your own personal productivity during your PhD is more important for PSTP residency directors than which MSTP you trained at.

My standard advice:

I tell applicants to be very open to applying broadly. Take AAMC table B-8 in excel from the AAMC FACTS tables webpage. Calculate number of applicants per matriculating slot of all programs. Select the list of MSTP programs from the NIGMS website. Arrange the spreadsheet by size of entry class. Examine table B-12 to see if a particular year was odd with more matriculants than it seems. Check their websites. For example, my program takes 8 applicants every year, we used to take 4-5 prior to that. Examine NIH funding tables at the Blue Ridge Institute or NIH Reporter website, particularly looking at funding from the NIH Institute of your area of interest (NCI, NIA, etc.). Depending upon your stats, you will group the 53 MSTPs by groups of 15-20, and select several from each group for your list... You have to have different levels of difficulty to make sure that you get into the best program for you (interest, fit, location, etc. low in the scale is USNWR ranking or perceived prestige). Choose at least 5-10 from each tier (more in top tier if you wish)... Apply early, if you need to triage interviews, that would be a good problem to have. If you follow my advice, you will get MD/PhD acceptance early from the bottom tier, and might end up in one of your dream schools by matriculation date.

Another strategy piece... Apply EARLY but you can start with only 5 schools as you submit your Primary application. Get your transcripts (and LORs) uploaded. Once the verification process by AMCAS occurs (takes 4-6 weeks), programs receive your application, which triggers Secondary applications. If you were applying to 30 schools, that automatic trigger results in a lot of secondary applications at once. Schools monitor how quickly you reply to secondary applications (one week or so is fine, two weeks are ok, but 30 at once might take you more than that). Here is my suggestion, if you add 5 additional schools every week (or M/F), the applications will have no further delays and will appear into the respective school portals within a couple of hours triggering $econdary applications, if appropriate. That is, you are able to apply early and stage your secondary application delivery as most are automatically triggered by computers. Adding 5-10 schools per week means that within 3 weeks (+/-1 day), you can apply to 20 MD/PhD programs and be more responsive to secondaries. Very few schools/programs have no secondary applications. My school has no secondary (no added fees/barriers, just adding another school)....

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I asked that this thread go to the Physician Scientists forum where our MSTP people hang out.

I am concerned that you assess your writing, speaking, and socializing skills as subpar (I'm being kind; you know why you think this way). I am a bit worried your lack of mature skills here could doom your chances. Your metrics will not be the problem. The question will be whether any of the PI's who are part of the MSTP community will want to take you on as a graduate student now and others as a postdoc or colleague later.

However, you have had posters. You have had to speak about your work and your analysis.

I'm sure you are kidding about packing up to go to the Caribbean. I'd probably be more serious if you decided to apply Ph.D.-only to a research lab in England, Germany, Sweden, or Norway... perhaps even China or Japan. If you had stronger communications and social skills, you could be a candidate for a Goldwater or Rhodes with the right prep from your university's competitive scholarships office.

So my concerns: I don't think you have enough clinical experience. 500 hours of EMT is okay, I guess. I would like to see more hospital-based experiences, and maybe you have that with some of your R&D work. A little more primary care wouldn't hurt you. You are clearly a lab rat, but I would want more to persuade me you could be the triple threat an MD/PhD has to be.

Your non-clinical volunteering may not have as much contact with people who need more help with social determinants-related needs: food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. With your stats, if you wanted to go for a research-focused program but just get the MD, you need to get to 250 hours with food bank/homeless shelter work.

 

[pistachion]

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[Mr.Smile12]

This is interesting feedback! I don't think I've ever heard that 500 911 EMT isn't enough for MD/PhD. GIven I'm already applying this cycle, do you think it would help to get a part time position as an MA at a clinic? It wouldn't be on my primary, but I could potentially talk about it in secondaries or interviews. Do you think that would add significant value for MD/PhD admissions? Or is it kind of meaningless since there's not going to be many hours backing it?

Also, to clarify, I for sure want the MD/PhD, not a research focused MD.

Thanks! Just making sure.

Again, I don't mind if other experts contradict my intuition on this; any MD/PhD's in emergency medicine may pipe in. My bias is with those MD/PhDs who run clinical/translational studies and labs in IM, oncology, or pediatrics in non-emergent settings (Ph.D. program example of Gerstner Sloan Kettering, which offers its cancer bio Ph.D. students both a research/thesis mentor and a clinical apprenticeship mentor). I would be curious how you frame your clinical experiences' value for pursuing MD/PhD in the various essays you would submit.