r/mdphd

what’s the consensus on this?

I just saw a video from NYU Grossman spotlighting the MD-PhD program, but I thought their MSTP functionally closed down? Or at least stopped taking new students. Seems weird to promote a program that isn’t actively seeking applicants.

I really got a BA in math and data sci, but I plan on going to grad school for a computational neuroscience PhD. I took my last year taking neuro classes and doing a thesis on computational neuro. I’m going to start an neurobiology RA position in the fall.

I’ve been convinced by some (who are more premed than me) that I could try instead for an MD PHD. Problem is, although I’m familiar with a lot of the material, I don’t have biology or chemistry credits and would need to do a post bacc to complete those. I’m also really unfamiliar with the medical world, although i am volunteering at a hospital currently.

Is MD PHD worth the credential, given that I planned to lean more theoretical and academic, and I’d have to pay for a (and dedicate the extra years to) post bac? Or is I really only for people who lean more medical? To be frank, would it pay better long term? Or should I stick to just seeking a PhD given I want to go into computational neuroscience?

Open to any advice and critique.

Should I upload my CV if it’s not required? There’s a documents upload section, but there’s nothing in the secondary that says upload a cv or resume.

Hi guys, I’m feeling a little discouraged. I retook my mcat and got a 494 when I got a 494 the first time. I got better in CARS with a 124 , 122 , 124, 122, 126.

I have no idea what is wrong with me when I took ALL my practice exams I was between a 508-512. I to
ok the exam being really confident and when I opened my score I was devastated. I used ANKI and AAMC prep for 5 months.

I got a 3.8 GPA and 3.6 science gpa in undergrad where I graduated in 3 years. I just graduated with a 4.0 for my Master’s in a year and I have over 2000 clinical hours , a BUNCH of volunteer, working as a medical assistant, tutor, research, and a lot of leadership and EC’s.

I also have 3 MD/DO letter of recommendations along with faculty and staff

I really want to apply this cycle and pray for the best with DO programs. What should I do

1. yes I’m stupid
2. advice?

I’ve been asked to review a few manuscripts as an MS3 post-PhD. I’ve declined these reviews as I have been too busy trying to stay on top of shelf studying while juggling responsibilities as a parent. However, my goal is to stay in academia. Are we reviewing papers in MS3/MS4/residency etc.? I know that reviewing manuscripts is expected for professors, but at what stage do those expectations start? I can’t imagine trying to review papers as an intern/resident on a busy service.

I am an incoming M1 and was wondering if aside from research rotations during the summer and obviously the PhD, if any MD/PhD students do clinical research during their med school M1 and M2 like a normal med student does?

Is there a way to combine my interest in research and specialise in emergency medicine too? I’m pretty new to this whole md/phd idea and don’t have any family or known connections in this field either, so I honestly don’t know what I don’t know 😭

I am considering an MD/PhD path, and I have noticed that research productivity and output are among the most important metrics. I have extensive research experience in various labs and competitive summer programs, but I am also transferring institutions this year (I will be an incoming junior, having spent two years at each school).

Because of this, I am worried that I will have a harder time getting publications, presentations, etc. because I will not have been with my lab for very long. I also know sustained commitment to research is important, so I am concerned about that as well as I will have two years max in one specific lab. I'm planning to take a gap year or two, but I'm still wondering what I can do in the meantime to make sure I can maximize research output from the lab I will be joining, even though I will be starting all over, and that it will take my PI time to evaluate the quality of my work, etc.

Any advice would be appreciated :)

Hi! How do I evaluate the competitiveness/rankings (ie T5 vs T10 vs T20) for MSTP? I can't find a good list anywhere that's separate from the MD only rankings. LMK your personal thoughts as well!!

Hi everyone! I worked in a lab previously as a research assistant, and I got a 3rd author pub and a 1st author pub in review. I also presented at a conference. However, I cannot get a LOR from this lab/PI (this is definite).

For context, the lab is not related to biology/medicine, it was more so environmental.

As time progressed, I’ve been involved in two other labs both focused on cancer and will be getting LORs from both (one strong, one good). However, I unfortunately do not have any pubs or conferences in these labs.

Is this a huge red flag that will seriously impact my application? For both MD and MD/PhD programs.

If I do get a pub (prob a lit review- not original research unfortunately) and/or conference presentation in one of my cancer biology labs, will the lack of LOR from the other lab be less of a problem?

Thank you in advance! Also wondering if I should address that I don’t have the LOR from that PI in my application or if I should just ignore it since I’ll have 2 other PI LORs that are more related to medicine/biology research.

basically, i had to withdraw my primary yesterday because i got my mcat score (5/30) back and it was, MUCH lower than i was anticipating (50x). Now that the hysterics have worn off, i know i absolutely cannot apply this cycle because of my relatively “weaker” stats (3.5x gpa, all publications in preparation or under review, no national fellowships or “x” factor etc etc).

my current plan is to dedicate significantly more time to studying for a retake, and addressing all of my weaknesses as systematically as possible. i think i can get my score up with apt time, but i was wondering if there is anything else i should try to address now that i’ve already decided on taking a third year? the only thing i can think of is maybe trying to do a bit more volunteering or shadowing part time (currently sitting at ~250 clinical volunteering hours and maybe 60 hrs shadowing across 2-3 specialties), but i really don’t want to detract time from mcat studying unless it would truly strengthen my application. my first author paper should (fingers crossed) be sent for review later this year, so my instinct is that tying up all loose strings with the project should be my next biggest priority.

Hi all,

I just got back my mcat and spiraled for a bit devouring matriculant stats but I wanted to ask for some advice on whether or not it's worth it for me to apply this year.

For context, I'm a master's student in bioengineering and this is my second time applying to MD/PhD.
- undergrad gpa 3.73
- masters gpa 3.74 so far
- 1 publication in review, 1 publication about to be submitted(waiting for data), 1 publication in progress where I'll be 1st author.
- worked in researchlabs for the past 4 years(3yr undergrad, 1 yr grad) leading my own research projects in biomaterials and polymer chemistry. During my undergrad, I worked on strain-driven ring strain metathesis polymerization with grubbs catalysts on cyclohexene and unsaturated lactone derivatives, and synthesizing peptide and choline-functionalized polysaccharides and gelatin for neural regeneration platforms. The biomaterials lab didn't have a lot of money though so a lot of my time and effort was spent on perfecting purification and analysis techniques for extracting materials from the local flora, fauna, and rocks(there was an abandoned mine near the uni and I was chill with the E-waste guy on campus).

During my graduate studies, I developed material platforms for ph tuned drug delivery systems and mucoadhesive systems used for gut microbiome modulation(unfortunately had to halt due to funding cuts...) and developed porphyrin tagging modalities for cell adhesion tracking. If I were to estimate across the 4 years so far in research, I've accumulated 2000+ hours.
- shadowing(internal medicine + ocular surgery) ~100 hrs
- volunteering at medical outreach and food distribution in underserved populations ~600 hours
- residential advisor and live-in engineering college academics advisor for 1st year students for 3 years, where I mentored ~100 1st year undergrads throughout their first year courses and developed programs to teach them engineering skillsets like cad, coding, etc (we made trebuchets and built things from scrap electronics. it was a lot of fun :) )
- currently work for a startup leading(team of me) the development of automated hydrogel material testing systems. I do everything from the designing of the hardware, writing the software, designing tests, etc, ~480 hrs

- did EMT(~250 hr classroom + 30 hours in the field) and scribing (~50 hours total) but I couldn't spend a lot of time doing it because my class schedule was really inflexible. I still have my certifications though. In hindsight, I really enjoyed EMT work specifically because it was hands-on and wished my schedule could've accommodated it without restricting sleep to sub 6 hrs a day.

Also, I was offered a PhD position with my current masters lab but my dream is to be a physician scientist as I really like the workflow of bridging benchtop research and clinical applications, and while I enjoy research a lot, my main goal is to engineer material platforms for diagnosis and treatments with an emphasis on patients first.

My main painpoint right now is my MCAT score. I got a 510 but the split is 130/127/128/125 for CP/CARS/BB/PS, taken on 5/30. The clear weakness for me is psych soc and while I know it's not always an immediate dealbreaker, I think I'm tunnel-visioning a bit too hard when it comes to score and reasonability analysis for MSTP and MD/PhD so I would really appreciate any second opinions. As people who have seen/gone through the process before, does the MCAT really hurt my chances for this cycle and if so, would retaking or waiting for the next cycle to retake be a good idea? Any feedback on any part of my application would be greatly appreciated 🙏 Will also elaborate on anything if needed, especially if it's on experiences or research!

Hi all,

I’m starting up soon and would appreciate hearing from people that have been through it what the first year is like. I was an ANKI animal back in the day but haven’t taken a formal course in a few years due to research.

I’ve heard mixed takes from friends of friends ranging from “I study 5 hours a day” to “pretty much every waking moment is spent studying”. I’ll have aP/F curriculum, but my internal drive to meaningfully learn the material is there so it’s not P/F in my head. Is this going to be the 12 hour days I hear about through the telephone?

hello, i applied for the 2025-2026 cycle for mostly MSTPs, some MDs--waitlisted at T5, T20 MSTPs with 2 As from mid-low tier MDs with limited research opportunities. currently pretty crushed and would be really grateful for any advice on whether to reapply

Background/Stats:
applied incredibly late (oct-dec)...
T10 undergrad very low GPA 3.4, T10 grad GPA 3.8, MCAT 512

ECs:
research: ~12,000 hours at a pretty well-known lab (10 pubs, 2 second authors, preparing a first author manuscript)
shadowing: ~400 hours
nonclinical volunteering: ~1000 hours
clinical volunteering: ~400 hours
paid clinical: ~2000 hours
leadership: ~500 hours

according to premed advisors and med students, i have strong essays. i think my stats and the timing were really the issues. i'm really torn because i am pretty old and if i reapply i probably have to retake the MCAT and apply the 2027-2028 cycle...

I go to a school with early clinicals and we’re about to finish our rotations and I don’t want to go back to research. I was already feeling burnt out before medical school and I never really connected w the mentors at my school. I also just like seeing patients and I see plenty of MD-only researchers around. I’m thinking of pursuing surgery and I just keep thinking I’ll be so old when I get to residency.

I don’t know what to do, I’m kinda scared of dropping out, how do I even do that? And I’m not even sure what specialty I want to go into and I feel like I’ve done less than my MD colleagues since I was counting on having a PhD when applying to residency.

Please advise. Should I stay? Should I try and see if I can find an interest in research again?

You guys aren't the only ones I'm asking for advice, but I thought it would be best to ask the experts. I'm currently a second year MS Biology research student planning a gap year before continuing my education. For quite some time I've wanted to pursue an MD/PhD with my PhD in neuroscience. However, lately I've been debating if maybe it would just be better to do a PhD. My interest is clinical research and I have been told that having the MD would benefit the flexibility of future research and so forth. However, I don't believe I'd need the ability to work directly with patients to do research I'm interested in and passionate about. Obviously I don't want to later on learn I did one path for the wrong reasons, so I thought I'd see what those with experience could weigh in, and see if that'll help me weigh my options. I think I'm doing the smart thing in giving myself a gap post-masters, it'll allow me to work and think about my options. I fear I might be stressing myself about these choices too much, oops.

Edit: I'm also very interested in combining my experience in anthropology via medical anthropology into my work.

had about 1700 hours in my freshman year + summer lab, with good "optics" - co-author in mid/high tier journal, talk, very competitive institutional research grant. however, I unfortunately had to leave this lab at the end of my freshman summer, and wasn't able to end on good terms (PI refused to write a LOR). I have 2500 hours in my main lab I joined later (and better output); the research topic is tangentially related so I talked about both experiences in my essay. also did a summer REU.

how badly does this reflect on me in apps? my main PI LOR will be very strong, and my summer REU LOR should be pretty good (as good as an LOR from someone who knew you for a summer can be lol).

also, should I expect to be asked about this in interviews? will people straight up ask me why I didn't have a letter?

my school committee packet also has a cap on letters, so would it be a 'valid' excuse to say that I wanted to pick diverse people who know me from different experiences given restrictions?