State Residency and MD/PhD programs

[VaultArmitage]

I’ve been poking around this thread for a while now and am gearing up to apply next cycle. One thing I’ve seen mentioned off hand in a couple WAMC posts and the like is that for MD/PhD programs state residency doesn’t matter all that much. In a lot of the normal MD WAMC posts I see people saying “don’t apply to X because they only take 10 OOS each year” and things like that.

Does this not apply for MD/PhD admissions? If I live in PA and if I apply to Univeristy of Washington will I be on the same footing as someone who currently lives in Washington?

On a likewise note does MSAR have data on MD/PhD applicants at all? Or is it not worth it to get it?

Thanks in advance!!

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[p01t43]

State residency doesn't really matter and MSTPs that trend towards more in-state matriculants likely says more about applicants and their preferences than it does about adcoms. I'm sure somebody can provide more detail on why (and its been talked about in past threads too).

I put together an MSAR like website for MSTP programs (MSTP Information) and you will see that University of Washington had 0 matriculants from the state of Washington (in the 2018/2019 cycle).

 

[Fencer]

There are very few MD/PhD positions that are tied up to state of residency. For example, the U. of Mississippi MD/PhD program only takes applicants that are from the state. The NIH funded T32 MSTP programs need to recruit nationally despite only receiving partial support (~20-25% of slots) from the NIGMS. The 51 MSTPs account for over 75% of all available MD/PhD entry level positions. Thus, yes when U Washington MSTP evaluates your application, it is about your academic benchmarks, the quantity/quality of your research experiences, and your LORs. Those 3 are the main drivers for your potential selection to interview and receive an acceptance. Furthermore, you are able to influence these 3 drivers by hard work, persistence, resilience and smarts. As PD, the admissions office has never asked me for data for the MSAR. I had to tell them to include the sentence that we are in AMCAS for MD/PhD program, as the MD program is in TMDSAS. State of residency doesn't matter for Texas MSTPs. Quite often some of our OOS interviewees are offered MD-only slots late in the process, but only if they had a TMDSAS application.

 

[VaultArmitage]

Thank you both for such comprehensive answers!