MD/PhD grading policies

[stillsmilin]

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I've run into pass/fail med schools that grade their MSTP students in med classes to meet PhD requirements. Is this is a policy at all MSTPs, or is it possible elsewhere to take med classes pass/fail and still do MD/PhD? Any suggested programs? Thanks!

 

[StanfordGirl]

I've run into pass/fail med schools that grade their MSTP students in med classes to meet PhD requirements. Is this is a policy at all MSTPs, or is it possible elsewhere to take med classes pass/fail and still do MD/PhD? Any suggested programs? Thanks!

Hi,

Most P/F MSTP's only grade their students with letter grades in the classes that are required for the PhD program the student chooses. For example, I'm in Neuro, so the Neuroanatomy/physiology course I take for med school is also required for my PhD. Thus, I'll take it for a grade (all PhD classes at the school I chose are mandatory letter grade). That way I only take the class once and it fulfills requirements for md and Phd. On my med school transcript it will simply show up as a "pass" (assuming I do pass, of course 🙂

 

[GeneGoddess]

I had the opposite experience. The grad student and med students both take a neuroanatomy class and biochemistry class (I sat with the grad students, but was an MS1 at the time). I received a med school grade, not a grad school letter grade. Both classes were necessary for my PhD, but I didn't need both types of grades (the P/F was sufficient). Classes offered to just grad students (Molecular Vision, Dev. Biology, etc) were letter grades. And my med school and grad school grades are shown on the same transcript (in chronological order, which is VERY tough to read, but oh well). I guess that it just depends on the school.

 

[Vader]

Yeah, it really depends on the school. Mine does something similar to GeneGoddess'. Basically any medical school course is graded P/F and any grad school course letter graded. We have separate course requirements for med school neuro and grad school neuro courses. The neuro grad program recently reduced the number of electives, because there was sufficient overlap.