Imtiaz,
I seem to have given you the wrong impression - sorry. The MSP at UIUC has an adcom of their own that decides who they accept to the program. This includes (I believe) people from graduate departments and people from the med school at the UIUC campus. What I meant was that the MSP adcom looks at your qualifications for the MD and the PhD - and whether you need both. The separate UI@Chicago med school acceptance seems to be more-or-less a formality. Thus they most definitely DO look at you for the MD once the grad department is interested. If the grad department isn't interested they won't even consider you. They are in the unique position that if they don't want you for both degrees then they won't accept you for just the MD - which adcoms at other schools might do!
Baylor21,
Just FYI - AMCAS sends you a transmittal notice in the mail once they've processed your application and have sent it out the the schools you requested. I remember someone at UIUC telling me that many people either forget to or just don't include this in their app at all. I am not sure that this part of the app is totally essential, or maybe you could send it in after the rest of the app if necessary!
Like in the rest of this process, it's good to be applying early on. But keep in mind that some grad departments won't even look at your app until they have most of the other PhD apps for the year in. This could mean that your app is sitting in the "in-box" until fall, or even winter. So, if you are waiting on the AMCAS transmittal notice until August or so it shouldn't be a big deal!
In my experience I did NOT need to have (which is good, 'cause I didn't) specific research projects in mind. I told them that I was interested in our national healthcare delivery systems (or lack of one) and comparative systems in other industrialized nations. Other people have come into the program with a research project in mind from their master's thesis, etc. I had an idea of what I wanted to study and why - but not much more...
In fact, they suggested that I apply to as many departments as possible (up to 3) that fit with my interests to increase my chances of receiving admission to the MSP. Please note though, that I was NOT applying to basic science or engineering departments.
Most of the people I've talked to have not had difficulty with funding. Some areas are either very well funded at UIUC or across the country, and many students receive grant money or have flexible research assistantships for some of their time at UIUC. Since you don't mind TAing for a while funding shouldn't be a problem while studying for the PhD. This does seem to vary with your department, but the funding always seems to work out, and fairly easily for most people
. I am a little unsure of how funding works while in the med school portion. Some people work as a TA for med classes, others still TA in their home grad department, some continue their research assistantships during med classes, and still more find other avenues like resident assistantships (in a dorm, etc.). They also have a "just in case" reserve pot of money from what I understand.
For me, the MSP was just about the only way to get the training I wanted in national healthcare policy. I was NOT willing to take out loans for med school and then try to do research or a PhD also. I wanted more than an MD/MPH and think research experience will be invaluable. I think, and hope, that the occasional funding worry will be greatly overshadowed by studying what I truly am interested in.
Again, best of luck. Keep the questions coming....
