<p>I'm interested in stem cell, regenerative medicine, developmental biology, and genetics for reverse aging. Since these topics are dealt with in one or both of medical school and school of science and science and professors have one or both of MD and PhD, I'm confused about my grad school prep. Also, I'm really not interested in clinical medicine, but I want to be a researcher throughout my life. Do I need MD? Why do some professors in these areas have MD? What's the merit of getting MD for them? </p>
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<li>Difference and similarity of PhD programs between med school and school of science </li>
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<p>A PhD program of stem cell & regenerative medicine offered by Stanford's School of Medicine accepts both MCAT and GRE (as stated in the following webpage.) <a href="http://stemcellphd.stanford.edu/faqs.html">http://stemcellphd.stanford.edu/faqs.html</a>
Also, the PhD program of my interest offered by Harvard belongs to both Harvard Medical School and School of Arts and Sciences. Thus, the boundary of PhD programs between medical school and school of science doesn't seem to exist. Then, could I prepare for PhD programs of med school in the same way as I do for programs of school of science? (e.g. are both GRE and MCAT accepted like the above example? Is research experience considered as important as considered by school of science? Does the admission standard totally depend on university?) Do they basically have the same admission standard? Medical school's admission is extremely competitive mostly because there's always huge demand of being a doctor. But what about PhD programs of medical school? What's the difference and similarity between these two types of school?</p>
No, you don’t need an MD to do biomedical science research. Some professors in biomedical sciences have MD/PhD degrees, and some have PhDs, but it depends on whether you personally want to be a clinician scientist. </p>
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No, there’s not really any difference between the PhD programs and admissions requirements for a program based at a medical school and a program based in an arts and sciences department. In general, an arts and sciences department is more likely to house basic science labs, and a medical school department is more likely to house biomedical and translational research, but as you can see, the boundary is not very firm.</p>
<p>I’m a graduate of the Harvard SCRB program, so I’m happy to answer any questions about it.</p>
<p>Thanks for your answer!! I’m especially glad to hear that from a student of Harvard SCRB, which is, at this moment, one of my top choices. Also, I’m so relieved to learn that PhD program of med school is essentially the same as PhD program of school of science, since I don’t need to worry about taking MCAT or pre-med program or undergoing insane competition. </p>
<p>MD/PhD is good (in theory) for people who want to conduct translational research. An MD can also make things easier for a PI looking to do a lot of work involving human subjects, but this isn’t usually a big issue if you work at an institution with a medical school or affiliated medical center.</p>
<p>I worked at the NIH briefly, and noticed that a disproportionate number of department heads, and also lead investigators for that matter, held an MD. MDs and MD/PhDs (at NIH) are also more likely to secure grants and funding than PhDs. I don’t have the numbers for this on hand, so you may want to do a little research on this yourself.</p>
<p>Obviously, this won’t be true everywhere and will depend heavily on where you want to work/what you want to do/which area you plan to work in. In many cases, it won’t matter, but there are places and scenarios in which there are material differences between having and not having the MD.</p>
<p>Thanks for your interesting remark. Since I’m an int’l student, I was trying to avoid getting MD in the U.S., since it’s extremely hard for an int’l student to enroll in MD program in a school which has the top-rated PhD program of my field. But, as you suggested, I will do more research on this topic.</p>