WAMC MD/PhD

[foregoingfun]

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[poptrop]

What does the upward trend look like year by year?

 

[Fencer]

Your list is very top heavy, while you do include some recent new MSTPs (Utah, Tucson) and some non-MSTPs (Davis, USC, Kaiser) with few slots, you are applying to highly sought programs. In contrast, your academic benchmarks are below average GPA and slightly higher MCAT as compared to the average MD/PhD matriculant in the nation. While you are likely to belong to the national MD/PhD class, you must broaden your base. Your odds with this list are poor... There are better ways of optimizing your chances (see below) and/or PM me.

FYI... standard advice

I tell applicants to be very open to applying broadly. Take AAMC table B-8 in excel from the AAMC FACTS tables webpage. Calculate number of applicants per matriculating slot of all programs. Select the list of MSTP programs from the NIGMS website (just keep in mind that 2 of them are DVM/PhD programs). Arrange the spreadsheet by size of entry class. Examine table B-12 to see if a particular year was odd with more matriculants than it seems. Check their websites. For example, my program takes 7 applicants every year since 2018, we used to take 4-5 prior to that. We just received an Impact Score of top 5% in our T32 MSTP renewal, and we will be adding an extra slot per year. Examine NIH funding tables at the Blue Ridge or NIH websites, particularly looking at funding from the NIH Institute of your area of interest (NCI, NIA, etc.). Depending upon your stats, you will group the 51 MSTPs by groups of 15-20, and select several from each group for your list... You have to have different levels of difficulty to make sure that you get into the best program for you (interest, fit, location, etc. low in the scale is USNWR ranking or perceived prestige). Choose at least 5-10 from each tier (more in top tier if you wish)... Apply early, if you need to triage interviews, that would be a good problem to have. If you follow my advice, you will get MD/PhD acceptance early from the bottom tier, and might end up in one of your dream schools by matriculation date.

 

[foregoingfun]

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[foregoingfun]

Your list is very top heavy, while you do include some recent new MSTPs (Utah, Tucson) and some non-MSTPs (Davis, USC, Kaiser) with few slots, you are applying to highly sought programs. In contrast, your academic benchmarks are below average GPA and slightly higher MCAT as compared to the average MD/PhD matriculant in the nation. While you are likely to belong to the national MD/PhD class, you must broaden your base. Your odds with this list are poor... There are better ways of optimizing your chances (see below) and/or PM me.

FYI... standard advice

I tell applicants to be very open to applying broadly. Take AAMC table B-8 in excel from the AAMC FACTS tables webpage. Calculate number of applicants per matriculating slot of all programs. Select the list of MSTP programs from the NIGMS website (just keep in mind that 2 of them are DVM/PhD programs). Arrange the spreadsheet by size of entry class. Examine table B-12 to see if a particular year was odd with more matriculants than it seems. Check their websites. For example, my program takes 7 applicants every year since 2018, we used to take 4-5 prior to that. We just received an Impact Score of top 5% in our T32 MSTP renewal, and we will be adding an extra slot per year. Examine NIH funding tables at the Blue Ridge or NIH websites, particularly looking at funding from the NIH Institute of your area of interest (NCI, NIA, etc.). Depending upon your stats, you will group the 51 MSTPs by groups of 15-20, and select several from each group for your list... You have to have different levels of difficulty to make sure that you get into the best program for you (interest, fit, location, etc. low in the scale is USNWR ranking or perceived prestige). Choose at least 5-10 from each tier (more in top tier if you wish)... Apply early, if you need to triage interviews, that would be a good problem to have. If you follow my advice, you will get MD/PhD acceptance early from the bottom tier, and might end up in one of your dream schools by matriculation date.

Thank you, Fencer. I will PM you.

 

[poptrop]

Hi poptrop,

Every consecutive semester was 3.8+. My school elected to grade solely pass/fail for the second semester of my 2nd year and the entirety of my 3rd year (mid-pandemic). Unideal given my substantial academic improvement, but this is the circumstance.

Its good that you improved your GPA those last semesters but with a lot of P/F it is not as extreme as one may hope. Applying broadly in this case would be a good idea. Many of those top schools have higher median MCATs and while yours is also good, it might not make up for the GPA when many applicants have higher GPAs as well.