financial crisis on md/phd funding?

[mongol1985]

How much do you think the financial aid crisis will affect the number of funded spots at MSTP and partially funded spots at MD/PhD programs? Given that most schools are making budget cuts, I wouldn't be surprised if their MSTP/MD-PhD programs are also placed on a budget constraint, especially for the non-NIH funded (i.e international students, non MSTPs, etc.).

I'm guessing the current students or administrators would have more info on this, but I highly doubt many schools will openly admit that their MSTP/MD-PhD funding is affected.

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[Jorje286]

There's already a non-MSTP MD/PhD program in a state university that had to be cut off.

As I understand, programs that are funded by public money would be the most at risk. I would think science in academia would be greatly damaged as the public money would have to be diverted for all the bail-outs.

 

[StIGMA]

From late November ...


http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=580063

 

[Neuronix]

I think we're already seeing many programs that aren't growing. We're seeing a few programs shrink and a few small programs disappear. Existing students need not worry. For new students it might be a fraction more competitive. Unless the NIGMS pulls the rug out from under the MSTP (and there's no indiciation it will) or something very serious happens to the US economy that effects everyone, my guess is that MD/PhD will resume growing when the NIH budget is re-infused and/or the recession ends. I'm not worried.

 

[mongol1985]

How about for non US citizens? I would imagine international students, who are often privately funded by the schools, could have a more difficult time getting offers?

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

I think we're already seeing many programs that aren't growing. We're seeing a few programs shrink and a few small programs disappear. Existing students need not worry. For new students it might be a fraction more competitive. Unless the NIGMS pulls the rug out from under the MSTP (and there's no indiciation it will) or something very serious happens to the US economy that effects everyone, my guess is that MD/PhD will resume growing when the NIH budget is re-infused and/or the recession ends. I'm not worried.

Seeing as how well informed you are of the general state of things at MSTP, have you heard of any stipend cuts for existing students (freezes is something I would expect, anyway)?

 

[Neuronix]

Seeing as how well informed you are of the general state of things at MSTP, have you heard of any stipend cuts for existing students (freezes is something I would expect, anyway)?

I just pretend to be well informed At the moment I'm more of out of the loop than usual. I haven't heard anything though, and my guess is that sort of thing would be all over SDN.

 

[JHopRevisit]

I probably wouldn't be concerned about the MSTPs, that is, the NIH funded programs. Private funding might be at risk...some of the smaller non-MSTP programs, WashU and UPenn come to mind. I'm sure they're fine, though. Benefits of academia.

 

[bubbachuck]

WashU had 20 slots per year and Penn is close to that. Pretty sure they're MSTP as well, unless their websites are lying...

 

[tiamat360]

My sarcasm meter's going off - pretty sure WashU and U Penn have the two largest MD/PhD programs in the country (and they're both MSTP).

 

[JHopRevisit]

No, wasn't being sarcastic. They have the most MSTP funding of anyone, but the reason their programs are sooo much larger than everyone else's is they also have private funding. So I figured they might scale back a slot or two, because funds have taken a hit lately (I think Harvard lost something like 30% of their billions). As the other posters said, not that big a deal. Don't expect any massive changes, and I don't have any insider info.

 

[bubbachuck]

definitely agree with what you mean to say, but what you said in the previous post was definitely not that!

 

[xanthines]

Actually, my program is giving us a raise. Not a huge one, mind you, but still a raise nonetheless. The first in 4 years, I would also add.

-X

Seeing as how well informed you are of the general state of things at MSTP, have you heard of any stipend cuts for existing students (freezes is something I would expect, anyway)?

 

[Jorje286]

MUSC is waiting for their new budget to come up (given the stimulus) to see if they can offer me a funded spot. What the South Carolina governor is doing isn't helping. So as predicted, the financial crisis has hit most state schools and international students who cannot get in on a NIH training grant.