DVM/PhD Thread

[Tiger1]

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Hi ALL,

I am going to be a 1st year DVM/PhD student this fall at UIUC. I figure that I will start a DVM/PhD thread for those interested. I just started to read the posts in this forum. There is certainly a wealth of relevant information here.

I am going to put a note in the Veterinary forums so people can visit here.

- Tiger1

 

[hoodle]

I'll be doing DVM/PhD at UC-Davis with the Microbiology graduate group. I'm interested in public health, infectious disease, comparative pathology. I'm excited!

 

[Tiger1]

I am so glad that you responded! I will be joining the Veterinary Bioscience program. My current research experience has been in stem cell/regenerative medicine. I know that IL has an emerging focus group of researchers in that field. I will have to talk with my mentors as to what labs to rotate through and the strategy towards choosing a thesis lab.

- Tiger1

 

[CanadianGolden]

I'm doing a VMD/PhD starting this fall. I'm interesting in veterinary pathology and my PhD will be in either genetics or microbiology...I'm torn. I'm actually worried about choosing labs to rotate in because I don't know which of those things I want to do! My research background is in HIV/SIV.

 

[Tiger1]

Hi CandianGolden,

I am glad you found this thread. It is hard to find threads or blogs out there about DVM/PhD student experiences. I think that used correctly (i.e. don't rant about specific people or programs at your school), this thread could be an excellent way of de-stressing ourselves in the years to come. Like when we watch the Class of 2012 and 2013 graduate in four years and when our experiments are not working and we start to worry that we might never get to the clinical years. In the IL program, you have to finish the thesis research before starting clinics. I know that different school have different standards. It would be nice to share our grand plan in the years to come. It is a way to benchmark and make sure we stay on track for the 7-8 year program.

So CandianGolden, in response to picking the thesis lab concern in your post. I would just talk to your advisor and make sure to rotate through labs in both Genetics and Microbiology. I plan to rotate through three labs before picking my thesis lab. I want to start on my thesis project as early as possible in case there are bottlenecks that cause significant delays.

During the next two months, I plan to work on a tentative plan in terms of coursework for next semester and the next seven years. I am going to match the DVM curriculum/requirement to that of the graduate program. Right now, I do not understand the information online for my graduate program. So far, it seems that there are only three core courses for my program (Biochemistry, Physiology and something else) and there is no other courses listed. What are the general core courses for a PhD in biology? I need to lay my hands on a handbook.

- Tiger1

 

[QofQuimica]

If you all have some links to resources for DVM/PhD students, I'd be happy to add them to the sticky in this forum. Are there threads in the vet forums that would be useful to future DVM/PhD students, or some kind of student organization? Check out what we've added to the sticky already for other ideas, and thanks for starting this thread. 🙂

 

[Tiger1]

Hi QofQuimica,

Thank you for helping us to present DVM/PhD programs and resources. I am going to compile a concentrated list of school links to DVM/PhD programs. I'll also list the few article links online pertaining to DVM/PhDs. Then, I am going to post the list on both veterinary forums so others can add/revise it. I'll post it back here so you can add it to the "sticky". It might take couple of weeks.

I think the sticky is already a very comprehensive resource site for physician-scientists. The only angle I think a DVM/PhD program might add to the current information is the animal clinical/research aspect. On the one hand, DVM is a professional study of veterinarian medicine. On the other hand, one can do graduate studies in basic science like any other PhDs, or clinical graduate studies in veterinarian medicine, or translational from basic science to clinical (vet) usage in a single PhD thesis?

- Tiger1

 

[QofQuimica]

Hi QofQuimica,

Thank you for helping us to present DVM/PhD programs and resources. I am going to compile a concentrated list of school links to DVM/PhD programs. I'll also list the few article links online pertaining to DVM/PhDs. Then, I am going to post the list on both veterinary forums so others can add/revise it. I'll post it back here so you can add it to the "sticky". It might take couple of weeks.

I think the sticky is already a very comprehensive resource site for physician-scientists. The only angle I think a DVM/PhD program might add to the current information is the animal clinical/research aspect. On the one hand, DVM is a professional study of veterinarian medicine. On the other hand, one can do graduate studies in basic science like any other PhDs, or clinical graduate studies in veterinarian medicine, or translational from basic science to clinical (vet) usage in a single PhD thesis?

- Tiger1

No rush. Whenever you finish collecting the info, post or PM me and let me know which links you'd like to see added. The only reason we don't already have info about DVM/PhDs and DDS/PhDs in the sticky here is that most of us don't know very much about them. So this will be very helpful in educating the rest of us as well as providing a resource for future students who want to do a program like yours. 🙂

 

[hoodle]

Many DVM/PhD programs are run conjointly with MD/PhD programs. Penn's is the paradigm for that, as CanadianGolden can attest. Davis' is also getting their MD/PhD stuff up and running. NCSU's program is being run in parallel with UNC-Chapel Hill's (sharing meetings, grant money, letting people do research at either campus, etc).

Really, the joint degree programs for MD/phds and DVM/PhD should be very similar, in terms of basic sciences, research, and clinics. We just have people asking us why we don't want to be "real" doctors! 😀

 

[Tiger1]

Hello!

I was wondering how the DVM/PhD students who started the same year I did and are now Y3 doing in their respective programs?

I am currently at home preparing for my 2nd annual meeting with my committee tomorrow. I am doing a PhD in Comparative Biosciences. I did 2-years of DVM studies full-time thus far. I will be continuing onto the 3rd year because of the professional curriculum change at IL. Traditionally, DVM/PhD stop after their 2nd year and do the PhD thesis for about 3-years and then finish their DVM studies.

Back to my Powerpoint revision for tomorrow!