disque71 said:
i thought pitt was really big on the fact that they push to have md/phd done in 6-7 years?
here is a quote taken from their website.
"With this early beginning, 6 years to completion of both degrees is a potential reality. I start with the number 6 years and try to hold to that. Every student is unique and thus, the magical number of 6 is not always appropriate. I then work with the number 7. It takes a lot to push me to 8. I will even settle for seven and one-half and strive for an out of sequence residency or fellowship position!"
Ands here's a quote of MINE from a previous thread:
"...I can't see how you could get done in 5yr. We've had MD/PhD students barely get done in 7yr, and some of these had previous Masters, so they got out of most grad courses. Most do 8-9 total, with the PhD taking 4-5 yr. We've also had a few outliers taking 7-10 years in the PhD part [yup, there was a G11], but luckily those are few and far between!..."
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=223773
In my 6yrs at Pitt, no one (not even in the recent past) has finished in 6years--that's just an "aim" of the program, nothing more. Believe me, in my class (G4's), all of us are looking at 8-9 years total (except for the one person who dropped out to go straight MD). You need to be careful about checking a program's "recruiting average" advertised on their website vs. the actual time to graduate. The six year "aim" is based on the new curriculum which has just started (and already full of bugs), so as of yet there's no hard data to show anyone graduating in 6years.
In the class before mine (G5's), one person dropped out, one person defended in 3yr (previous Master's), 3 defended in 4yr, and the remaining 5 are still in G5.
Of course, I still love my program and the student involvement, but you still have to get used to living in Pittsburgh 7+ years