Hello everyone,
Do any schools offer accelerated medical degrees with a dual phd/md option.
I have an interest in becoming a research physician with a focus on infectious diseases.
I am looking for fast track option that offers conditional medical school acceptance (while maintaining good academic standing of course).
I’m not aware of any MD/PhD programs that include the accelerated BS/MD program.
If there arent’ any, I can understand why. It would be too difficult to determine if a 17 year old “has what it takes” to be a MD/PhD student.
First of all, you don’t need a PhD to be a research physician - you can do that with an MD. Often MDs who become interested in research will do a postdoctoral fellowship for 2-5 years after their MD. Occasionally during this postdoc, they earn a master’s in a research discipline (often health services research, sometimes a master’s of public health). The focus is on training you to do research; you get paid a salary (in the $40-60K range) and work for a professor doing semi-independent research with their lab/group. That’ll shave at least 3-4 years off your progression from school to fully-fledged researcher - and if you wanted to get an MD/PhD, you’d probably have to do a postdoc anyway to get a research position.
However, if you decided you really wanted an MD/PhD for whatever reason - no, there aren’t any programs that accelerate you through that process. MD/PhD programs are themselves accelerated programs; normally an MD and a PhD would take about 9-11 years separately to complete and these programs let you do it in 7-8. And honestly, you need the extra time to publish papers and get grants. Trying to zoom through too fast may mean that you are less competitive when you graduate.
Why are you looking for a “fast-track option” for these degrees?
The competitive admissions to the dual phd/doctorate program have me nervous. Many schools only accept 1-2% of their applicants into those programs.
Medical schools are extremely competitive as well. I read that only 40% or all students that apply to medical school get accepted into a program, and only 10% of all applicants get accepted into a phd/md program.
The acceleration wasn’t meant for the program itself, but for the medical school. The reason I wondered if the fast track medical program and phd program could be combined is because many bachelors/md programs have guarenteed admission into the medical school (maintaining certain standards of course).
If they allowed students who are guarenteed into medical school to join the phd program as well, it would be a direct way into the program (maintaining certain standards of course).
I am willing to spend 15 years of graduate work if I have to. I am just looking for a strategic way in. I want to spend my undergraduate conducting research rather than pouring massive amounts of effort into studying the MCAT. Plus I am a bad test taker who gets nervous. Tests do not reflect my educational potential very well.
Thank you for the advice on MD Fellowships with Masters. I wonder if students can get full funding for all these degrees? One thing that attracted to me to the phd/md was the full tuition scholarship + stipend, so debt wouldn’t be of concern.
BS/MD and MD/PhD may not be combined. Most MD/PhDs are funded by NIH.
Brown PLME allows students to apply to their MD/PhD but PLME is not accelerated.
If you’re a bad test taker, reconsider med school. It’s all about tests - it’s what it takes to get in, and to stay in.
That does concern me. I mean, I am not terrible at tests, I still attain honor roll in high school and keep most test scorers above an 80 (uncomparible to medical school of course), but the standarized ones get me. I am someone who can learn a subject very in depth, but have difficulty deceminating a breadth of knowledge in a timed fashion.
I am starting to think a PHD may be a better path for me.
Yes, but that is large part because MD/PhD programs are not right for the vast majority of people who apply for them. Most people are simply not prepared with the extreme rigor that goes into trying to complete a PhD and an MD at the same time, and most people also don’t need both degrees to do whatever it is they want to do.
PhD programs are much less numbers-driven than medical school. Admissions is much more a holistic process, and your recommendations, research experience and personal statement are far more important than your GRE scores. Even students with average GPAs can get admission to top PhD programs if they have other characteristics these programs want. This is why most PhDs would be unwilling to do automatic admissions given certain standards: it would privilege test scores and absolute GPA over other factors that may be more important in determining PhD success rates.
If you are interested in nursing, there are some programs that do a direct BSN-to-PhD route. The program is not accelerated, and you apply while you are in college - I think in your junior year. The idea is that you transition seamlessly from the BSN to the PhD at the same university, but it’s not a form of guaranteed admissions. Look up the Hillman Scholars program - Penn has one, and UNC at least used to have one.
You say that now. Wait until you’re actually in it. Graduate school is grueling and stressful and hard; 15 years is way too long to put into it.
Thank you for all the advice. It is greatly appreciated.
I can’t say whether or not I will end up in that exact program, but I do know I love science, and enjoy spending time in a lab researching.
I am one of those people who enjoys reading scholarly articles and bit by bit deciphering through looking up definitions and understanding processes.
I’ve done some research into medical school, and I feel like a PHD would be more fulfilling for me.
We’ll see later on!
@medschoolapp - there’s a whole new school of biomedical research called translational medicine. Look into it. If your interests still follow this path, look for college programs that involve a lot of reasearch opportunities/co-ops - that might help you get into a PhD program should your GREs be less than stellar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translational_medicine
MD/PhD programs usually demand even higher MCAT scores to get in, since a) it takes a lot of brainpower and b) many of them are usually fully paid in tuition by the school.