Well, looking through the other threads, I think it's prob an MSTP rejection, but I think I'll call tomorrow just to verify. Now I just need to find their phone number.
Group question: if you have an MSTP acceptance, would you go to an MD-only interview...even if it is Harvard?
For me, I think I'll go to the interview - you know, just for kicks... But I don't think I would take the MD-only acceptance over the MSTP. The chance for second cycle admission there seems so low....
There's actually a whole thread about this that reappears every year come March/April. Some MSTP applicants have matriculated MD-only at HMS, paid for the MD, and taken time off from medical school to pursue the PhD.
It's actually a pretty sizable portion of their MD/PhD program. By my calculations, an amazing 50% of the students in their MD/PhD program go this route. They say their program is 155; they matriculate 10 MSTPs every year with an average graduation rate of 9 years; and whenever an MD-only student joins a PhD program they are then included in the tally of 150 students. So you have to figure of those 65 non-MSTP students in the PhD or M3/M4 years, there are about 20ish other non-MSTP students in M1/M2 who, unlike the MSTP students, are not counted until they start the PhD.
Anyways, I know that people go this route and turn down fully funded offers from incredible schools. Anecdotally, I just recently heard of somebody turning down a funded offer at Hopkins, and I personally know two people who turned down offers from UCSF/Stanford/WashU, to go non-MSTP MD/PhD at HMS. So you are certainly not alone in interviewing at HMS for this reason, and you would even be in sizable company if you decided to matriculate MD-only.
If you find the other thread you will see that the board has debated ad nauseum about whether this is a reasonable course of action. The consensus, as I remember it, has been that it is idiotic.
FWIW, I personally think that the issue is a bit more nuanced than that. I have to agree that if somebody has a fully funded offer at an awesome school then it is hare-brained to pay for HMS. But I have to disagree with the assertion that if an applicant has a fully funded offer at any MD/PhD program, it is hare-brained to pay for HMS. Of course, if your family won't help you out, it's just not financially advisable to pay for the MD, especially if you actually want to be an academic physician-scientist. But if yours is a family of means such that you will carry no debt, I think it could be a more difficult decision. Just in the course of talking to faculty at my undergrad and interviewing at a few schools, I have perceived vastly different resources at various highly ranked medical schools, especially with regards to patient population and clinical training (to the point that a couple of my interviewers have actually advised going to other medical schools instead of their own). If money is not an object, why not obtain the best training possible? (I know the P.C. on this board are going to lambaste me for having the temerity to claim that some medical schools are better than others, but so be it.) With that said, most people don't have the financial independence, nor are many granted MD-only admission to Harvard but not funded MSTP to another excellent school, so it's a moot point for all but the few who are well-off-with-a-good-MD-but-not-MSTP profile. Anecdotally, I think the majority of the people who actually choose to pay for HMS were accepted to another highly perceived MSTP, and are deranged.
