MD/PhD in Psych?

[kb09026]

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So I found out that Chicago offers an MD/PhD for people who want a PhD in a Social Science. It's called MeSH, if anyone's interested: http://pritzker.uchicago.edu/jointdegrees/mesh/

I'm super-excited about this because this is the first program I've found that allows one to do an MD/PhD in Psychology. Does anyone know of any programs similar to Chicago's? Or is this the only one like it?

 

[ElChamaco]

So I found out that Chicago offers an MD/PhD for people who want a PhD in a Social Science. It's called MeSH, if anyone's interested: http://pritzker.uchicago.edu/jointdegrees/mesh/

I'm super-excited about this because this is the first program I've found that allows one to do an MD/PhD in Psychology. Does anyone know of any programs similar to Chicago's? Or is this the only one like it?

I'm applying next cycle for an MD/PhD in med anthro and Chicago will be one of the schools that I submit my app to. I've never heard of anyone doing an MD/PhD in psychology though. Do you mind if I ask what your reasons for doing so are? Isn't it a bit redundant in some ways?

In any case if you do apply for a nontraditional PhD you should know that you will be competing for very limited spots. Generally speaking, there are only a handful of schools that have a history of funding social science/humanities PhDs and nearly all of these schools accepts at most student or two a year. Med anthro/soc, epi, history of medicine, policy etc are the most common non science PhD's that people pursue from what I understand. I've also met one or two Philosophy MD/PhDs but never a psychology PhD.

 

[MNIkid87]

I don't know if you'd generally be interested in crossing the border to the North, but my alma mater McGill allows you to do your PhD in pretty much whatever field you want. One student in the program is for example doing his PhD in medical anthropology

 

[ElChamaco]

I don't know if you'd generally be interested in crossing the border to the North, but my alma mater McGill allows you to do your PhD in pretty much whatever field you want. One student in the program is for example doing his PhD in medical anthropology

Med Anthro is by far the most common non-basic science PhD and McGill has a very prominent physician-anthropologist, Dr. Vinh-Kim Nugyen. I wonder if they would be as open to other non-basic science PhD and provide them with funding. Do you know if their joint program is fully funded? Several US schools use MSTP funding to fund, or partially fund, MD/PhDs in med anthro.

 

[MNIkid87]

Well, on interview day we were told we can do our PhD in whatever we want, with it ideally being at least somehow health-related. So I guess if you are really really intent on doing a PhD in philosophy they will still let you do it.
Psych will definitely fly as well, at many places actually. I remember people from the interview trail who are now doing psych PhDs at various places... U Wisconsin from the top of my head.

Only problem with McGill is that it is not fully funded, but only partially. However, that is not only the case for social science PhDs but everybody, and nobody is treated differently with regards to scholarships or anything by the program based on the topic of their PhD.

 

[dl2dp2]

You need to be very careful with the funding and organizational features if you decide to do a PhD in a non biomedical research field. MSTP funding is technically not allocated to these fields. Institutions may themselves provide funding, but that needs to be negotiated a priori.

The other issue is that non-science PhDs can often be a lot longer because you can't double count medical school courses towards a PhD in philosophy. While I think it's worthwhile in having a career as a physician philosopher, I'm not sure the PhD will help you as much. You need to be able to articulate exactly how you envision your career to be if this track is your goal.

Finally, if you want to do a psych PhD, consider using a more classical neuroscience PhD and do research within the experimental psychology labs that are cross listed, that'll make your life a lot easier. Clinical psychology PhDs are probably not a good idea, because it's a different career track and considered a professional degree, not a research degree. It's like being a MD/DDS (which I recognize is useful for oral surgery...)