i'm an eighth year at UCSD now, and am in the process of applying to residencies, so I've seen pretty much all of the program.
Of course, I'm kind of biased, but I liked UCSD very much, and think that it's a fantastic MD/PhD program. The real highlight is the variety and shear quantity of great labs that you have access to. One of the programs big selling points is flexibility--the head of the program will let students work in pretty much any department with any PI at several different institutions. San Diego has an enormous scientific community--the Salk, Scripps, the La Jolla campus, the Burnham, the list just goes on an on. Plus there is a huge biotech industry nearby. This means there are literally hundreds of labs to pick from in a large number of fields. We've even had people do PhD's in things a bit further afield, such as bioenginerring, epidemiology, and anthropology.
The med school is also good, but is very basic science oriented, which can actually be a good thing for md/phd types. My experiences are somewhat out of date, but it's my understanding that they've made alot of changes in the curriculum, to "decompress it" and made it not quite so intense. Grading is H/P/F, and there are a fair number of the "gunner" personality types. UCSD SOM has a reputation in this regards, but I think it is generally overstated.
As far as I can tell, the UCSD MSTP has a great reputation among program directors of residencies, at least in pathology. I am just finishing the interview trail now, and have received many comments to that effect when people go over my information packet. The vast, vast majority of UCSD MSTP graduates match into their first choice, even in very difficult to match specialties.
anyway, in summary, as you can tell: i like UCSD MSTP.
if anyone has any other q's about the program, email me.
-mike peterson
[email protected]
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