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I read that people there usually can stay longer than 8 years.. does anyone know more details about this? Is it still free?
adoggie said:I read that people there usually can stay longer than 8 years.. does anyone know more details about this? Is it still free?
Hey habari tri-I is a great institution and only few can rival the opportunities available there. I am wondering, did you have a hard decision to make when you decided to attend? What schools were you considering in the end and why did you decide on tri-I? Thanks......
adoggie said:I read that people there usually can stay longer than 8 years.. does anyone know more details about this? Is it still free?
Caduceus said:Well, I doubt that too many people *want* to stay longer than 8 years but it is very common, at a number of schools, and yes the years beyond 8 (up to 10 AFAIK, possibly more) are indeed covered by the MSTP grant so long as you stay full-time enrolled. The length of your stay is partly in your hands but also depends on many factors totally outside your control, e.g. structure of the program and requirements of your PhD department, which will often vary wildly even within the same school. Also theres always the luck of the draw with your thesis project. You might hit the jackpot and jump into a mature project for which you can start immediately doing meaningful work. OTOH you might have little to show for Project #1, be forced to ditch it, start from scratch with Project #2, and only barely glean enough data to make it interesting over many more years. Serendipitythats science for you.
You should try to be as efficient as possible with your work but, remember, you may have to pursue something longer than other people depending on how the chips fall with your work. Dont fall into the trap of obsessing with some arbitrary timepoint at which youll be doneyour projects done when your committee says its done, period, and you should maintain your focus on what has to be accomplished to complete your work. Otherwise youll go crazy.
Remember, the average PhD alone in the biomedical sciences these days takes 6-7 years (and often many more!). As a dual-degree, youre piling another incredibly tough degree (4-5 year MD) on top of this. Some programs do allow MD-PhDs to omit some of the PhD requirements, but many really dontin mine e.g., I had to do almost everything, i.e. almost all the classes, PQE, teaching, and the other various and sundry requirements that the PhDs had to meet. Im sorry, but theres just no way anybodys going to get through this type of program in 7-8 years; 9-10 years is the norm. (And I know of a few 11-12 years as well.)
Be realistic about this. You may get lucky (or find a lab or department that whisks you through) and finish in 7-8 yrs. Most likely, you wontits just too damn hard to finish all the prereqs and then do a top-quality thesis. So theres a good chance youll spend close to a decade in your MD-PhD program. Use this fact to help you decide if you really want to do the dual-degree, and also in deciding where youll be happy enough to spend 9-10 years.
Be realistic about this. You may get lucky (or find a lab or department that whisks you through) and finish in 7-8 yrs. Most likely, you wontits just too damn hard to finish all the prereqs and then do a top-quality thesis. So theres a good chance youll spend close to a decade in your MD-PhD program
Habari said:i do agree with some of the things that Caduceus said, but i have to say that there absolutely no reason for 9-10 years to be the norm, and i assiduously avoided programs where this was the case - because it reflects poorly on the program, and/or the institutions committment to the program. does just 2 extra years in an already lengthy program make a difference? to me, it absolutely does.
Habari said:i do agree with some of the things that Caduceus said, but i have to say that there absolutely no reason for 9-10 years to be the norm, and i assiduously avoided programs where this was the case - because it reflects poorly on the program, and/or the institutions committment to the program. does just 2 extra years in an already lengthy program make a difference? to me, it absolutely does.
Habari said:are certainly programs that have been reprimanded by the nih for effectively giving out 'md/phd discounts' with regards to the phd, in order to get students out faster. this is something one should look into before matriculating at a program - it needn't be the case - there are many programs that maintain the time/quality balance successfully.
whoa nusse! said:Habari,
Specifically which programs have been reprimanded by the NIH in this manner? Also, which have been reprimanded for being on the other end of the spectrum and keeping their students for too long? This is extremely important information but not readily available as far as I know. Thanks.
-WN!
milliardo_L said:I am very interested in hearing about this, so please someone with info about it make comments. Also, anyone has some info about Harvard's program?? I've heard their program was on probation for this matter(taking too long). They argue things have changed since they made improvements, but they were relatively recent, so there hasn't been a class to show the results. Specially to current students, how has the experience been?