Curriculum Overview

[JimiThing]

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Aside from the typical 2 years medical school (basic science), 2+(+++) years of PhD work, 2 years of medical school (clinical), how exactly do MSTP - MD/PhD programs structure their curriculum? I suppose what I am most interested in is the transition from the medical school to the graduate program, and what, if any, courses are required before one takes the qualifying exam and proceeds onto thesis research; how do those first two years of basic science courses translate to ones PhD research?
I've been browsing some of the program websites, and haven't found an answer aside from "It depends." Anyone care to elaborate.

 

[Mitro]

Unfortunately, I'm afraid the answer really is that it depends. At some schools, your first two years of courses will all be in the medical school. Some schools let you take Grad school courses, or even substitute them in for the medical school courses. As far as how it translates into your PhD research, that's up to a bunch of factors. Often which department you choose to enter will affect the number of courses that you need to take: some will take most of your med courses - keeping you out of the classroom – while others will basically tell you to start at day one and take every course the department offers. As far as qualifying, this again will depend on the school and department and can vary from waived to square one. So really this is an issue that you should explore when you go to interview at places - it'll give you something to ask when the eighth person asks you if you have any questions. However, I wouldn't worry about any of these things unless you're dead set on blazing through as fast as humanly possible.

 

[kassie]

I've got to agree with "it depends." It even varies from dept to dept at my school. For example, the overlap with a mol and cell bio program is much more than for biomed engineering. So, the grad coursework requirements varies.

The transitions to and from medical school depend on the students prior interaction with the lab before grad school and the motivation of the student to stay involved in medicine for the transition back to medical school.

I kinda like that the experience is different from person to person - it creates a unique student instead of a cookie-cutter product. And life's changes are more managable with a flexible program...

At least now you have a nice question in the bank for your interviews!

 

[microTAS]

it'll be nice to ask each program. In general there's a 1.5-2 med, 3-6 grad, 1.5-2 med pattern. Some programs allow you to break the mold if you have good reasons (e.g. you already started on the PhD) and we had some interesting discussions before on doing ms1, grad, ms2-4, which has its appeals. I know I probably won't know my thesis lab by the end of ms1, so I'd rather spend an extra year looking around and bothering PIs.