The logistics of NIH funding at your MSTP school

[devildoc2]

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OK, so the NIH MSTP grant covers only 6 years.

Does your school require your thesis lab PI to cover 2 of those years or what?

 

[GlcNac]

Yeah, I think your particular graduate department covers you for every year you do full-time graduate work. Between the MSTP grant and your graduate program, you are covered for the entirety of the MD/PhD.

 

[Primate]

True, the grad group typically will cover you, though not always.

Your PI will have to cover you if your grad group won't.

 

[MacGyver]

The grad dept usually covers you? I was under the impression that the PI always covers you once you join their lab to do your dissertation research.

Isnt that how it works for regular PHD students?

I can see the grad dept covering you for the first year or two (while you are doing TA work, taking grad classes, and only working in a lab part time). But once you start doing full time research, I thought it was always the PI's responsibility to support you with whatever NIH grants he/she currently has.

Here's a typical breakdown:

Year 1: Med school year 1 coursework: MSTP grant
Year 2: Med school year 2 coursework: MSTP grant
Year 3: Grad school coursework/TA requirement: MSTP grant OR grad dept
Year 4: Completion of grad school reqs, begin dissertation research: MSTP grant OR grad dept
Year 5: Dissertation research: PI funding
Year 6: Dissertation research: PI funding
Year 7: Med school year 3 clerkships: MSTP grant
Year 8: Med school year 4 clerkships: MSTP grant

 

[Mediculous]

There is a TA requirement? I thought that MD/PhD students were exempt from having to be a TA, so they could rotate through labs and get in the game quicker with their dissertation research. Is it the non-TA format at some schools, at least? I thought TAing counted as financial aid and that if you had enough funding, you wouldn't have to TA. So, do you only become a TA if your funding falls under the grad. dept.?

 

[Neuronix]

Some schools or departments view TAing as an essential part of grad school and do not exempt MD/PhDs from doing it. I think it's a complete waste of time and that you're being used as slave labor, but this depends on the TA job. At Penn, only in Neuroscience are students required to TA, and this MUST be an undergraduate lab. I think of it as free labor for the department, and they can get away with it because Neuroscience is so popular right now.

 

[Habari]

at our school we come with funding/stipend for all years to the PI [another reason why md/phds are snapped up] - the difference is made up by private insitutional funds. in addition, we are also provided with some independent research money just in case one wants to do something really bizarre/out there that the PI won't fund - though that never seems to happen.

the nih/private funds are mixed/matched and handled in the background - only the program deals with it. some people got letters stating that they were being covered in part by things like the 'william randolph hearst scholarship' or 'greenberg scholarship' but that was the only hint of something else going on.

 

[MacGyver]

habari,

are you saying that the PI doesnt even pay for a single year of the MD/PhD student?

damn that is a sweet deal for the PIs.