PSA: DO NOT apply to these MD/PhD programs

[who_dis_new_phone]

A lot of people posting their school lists on here, and there are several reoccurring MD/PhD programs that I'd recommend applicants avoid applying to. Not because they have a bad program, but because they are either extremely low-yield or don't have a program at all. The main ones include:

George Washington
Wake Forest
Dartmouth
Rosalind Franklin (Chicago Med School)
Drexel

Feel free to disagree, or recommend other schools to avoid.

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[Thoroughbred_Med]

Good information. I recommend everyone to consult this table when making their list. Programs with <2 matriculants are out for me, as that seems to indicate a less strong program.

https://www.aamc.org/download/321544/data/factstableb8.pdf

 

[AnonyMedz]

A lot of people posting their school lists on here, and there are several reoccurring MD/PhD programs that I'd recommend applicants avoid applying to. Not because they have a bad program, but because they are either extremely low-yield or don't have a program at all. The main ones include:

George Washington
Wake Forest
Dartmouth
Rosalind Franklin (Chicago Med School)
Drexel
Loyola

Feel free to disagree, or recommend other schools to avoid.

Care to elaborate overall... Obviously, some schools dont have a program (GW), but why the others?

What do you mean by low yield?

 

[Fencer]

Look at the number of applicants per matriculant in table B-8 of AAMC. That is the yield...

Regarding program size, it has to do with critical mass of MD/PhD students. A class size of less than 3-4 students makes it much harder to develop the sense of community. MSTPs tend to have larger class sizes (5-10 students), with about a dozen MSTPs of even larger class sizes (13-28 students). Your classmates are critical to help you with the ups and downs of research and being a physician-scientist.

 

[sarcasm]

Loyola gets about 100 applicants, interviews around 15 and accepts a class of about 1-3 per year. Altogether, there were about 20 MD-PhD students in the program and they meet as a whole group monthly. I interviewed there and absolutely loved the MD-PhD students, faculty, directors, program, school, research facilities, and location. The students had nothing but good things to say about their experience and the people who have matched so far (they have a younger program) matched into competitive programs.

While 1-3 matriculants out of 100 is about 1-3%, this is on par with the matriculation percentages of most MD-PhD programs/MSTPs so I don't think this school is extremely low yield.

 

[who_dis_new_phone]

Loyola gets about 100 applicants, interviews around 15 and accepts a class of about 1-3 per year. Altogether, there were about 20 MD-PhD students in the program and they meet as a whole group monthly. I interviewed there and absolutely loved the MD-PhD students, faculty, directors, program, school, research facilities, and location. The students had nothing but good things to say about their experience and the people who have matched so far (they have a younger program) matched into competitive programs.

While 1-3 matriculants out of 100 is about 1-3%, this is on par with the matriculation percentages of most MD-PhD programs/MSTPs so I don't think this school is extremely low yield.

Removed from list, but if Loyola is only accepting up to 3 people per year that's low yield considering that most places matriculate ~3% but accept around double that. All-in-all, not a great "safety" MD/PhD school with that kind of acceptance rate.

 

[Thoroughbred_Med]

Loyola gets about 100 applicants, interviews around 15 and accepts a class of about 1-3 per year. Altogether, there were about 20 MD-PhD students in the program and they meet as a whole group monthly. I interviewed there and absolutely loved the MD-PhD students, faculty, directors, program, school, research facilities, and location. The students had nothing but good things to say about their experience and the people who have matched so far (they have a younger program) matched into competitive programs.

While 1-3 matriculants out of 100 is about 1-3%, this is on par with the matriculation percentages of most MD-PhD programs/MSTPs so I don't think this school is extremely low yield.

did you end up matriculating at Loyola and if not, why? Interesting to hear such remarkable words.

 

[sooleiool]

Removed from list, but if Loyola is only accepting up to 3 people per year that's low yield considering that most places matriculate ~3% but accept around double that. All-in-all, not a great "safety" MD/PhD school with that kind of acceptance rate.

Some institutions only accept the number of students they can matriculate, e.g. OHSU only accepts their class size and offers more acceptances as students deny their offer (at least when I applied). I don't think most institutions do it this way, but I'm not sure I would use that as a metric for your list.