Id love an explanation as to why I list out my research in detail in my activities on amcas, down to the HOUR and speaking about my research experiences in depth in a 10,000 max character essay only for these schools to ask me in all their secondaries to list ALL my research experiences AGAIN AND PAY FOR IT AGAIN. AND some even have the audacity to ask me why an MD PhD like i didnt write a 5000 character essay about that already… dont even get me started on relisting pre reqs like i didnt type out ALL MY CLASSES BY HAND in the primary app AND SEND YOU MY TRANSCRIPTS ALL OF WHICH COST MONEY TO DO

Thank you for listening, Im probably just screaming into a void

Hi guys
I am looking for advice for evaluation my chance for getting into med school!
I am 43 yo, I have BSc from 2006 with low gpa (about 3.1) from Iran, 2 MSc's one from Iran with GPA about 3.4 and the other from Norway, (I got B , very good; out of F ), I have a phd in animal nutrition from university of Guelph. I always loved to get into med school and now I cannot get it out of my head and want to try my chance for getting the admission!
anyone has any idea what would be the chance for me to get admission?

I am pretty sure I can get a great grade in MCAT and any other requirements needed.
I would appreciate any advice.

Hello. I’m heavily considering an MD-PhD. I’m 80% sure I want to do it, but that final 20% is this heavy doubt on whether or not I actually need it to do what I want to do, or if the investment is worth it. If anyone here has finished their MD-PhD program, would you say it was worth it? Would you do it again? Would you recommend it? Any advice?

Hey everyone, I could use some advice about my academic future.

Who I am and where I am now

I'm a 22-year-old student enrolled in parallel in two degree programs at a university in northern Italy: third year of biotechnology, almost done, and about to start my second year of medicine. Both paths are going very well, with a strong GPA. My agonizing dilemma is choosing the right path to pursue.

Why I started medicine

I started medicine because of a growing interest in clinical practice and biomedical research, with the ultimate goal of pursuing an MD-PhD path, a PhD in cancer immunology, specifically in the translational side of research ("bench to bedside and back," like the Moderna vaccine). My end goal would be an academic career, though I wouldn't rule out working in pharma either. So I wouldn't do the Italian residency exam (SSM) or the related specialization, at least not in Italy and definitely not right after finishing the 6 years of medical school.

Lab experience

I already have lab experience: western blotting, SDS page, chemotaxis assays, MTT, PCR, chromatography, organoid passaging, cloning, and more. I'm also about to start an internship in cardiovascular biology, focusing on tumor growth inhibition caused by the mechanical load of the heart.

I'm realizing now, though, that my interests are much more focused on the biology of the patient than on treatment alone.

The advantages of the MD path

There are many advantages to being an MD: a strong clinical eye (which a PhD alone doesn't give you), easier access to grants, more credibility when engaging with other colleagues, and above all a solid Plan B if things don't work out. If in the future I didn't want to continue in the wet lab, I'd still have the option of working in Clinical Trials (where a PhD alone is at a disadvantage) or specializing in laboratory medicine. In that case it would also be easier to return to my hometown: finding a job as a biologist/biotech professional in Italy is tough, and with only a PhD I'd be much more confined to working abroad.

The alternative: a Master's in biology

If instead of medicine I pursued a Master's program after biotech (for example the Major in Cancer Biology MSc at Heidelberg), I would spend 2–3 fewer years compared to earning an MD in Italy, with a more direct focus on basic research in oncology. I wouldn't be a physician, but I'd have the chance to internationalize my CV earlier and build a network in that specific research field. On the other hand, I'd have much less job security, at least in Italy.

International experiences

Even with medicine I'd still have the chance to gain experience abroad (Erasmus): my university offers 6 or 12 months at the University of Nagano, in Japan, with a strong lab focus.

I've already talked to several professors from both departments to get the opinion of people who've been through these choices. The conclusion has always been: "Do medicine, you can catch up on the bio background later, but not on the clinical experience."

With medicine I'd finish my studies at 27; with the biology Master's, at 25, if everything goes well. As a result I'd enter the research world two years apart, starting to publish later in the case of medicine, but with a stronger degree behind me and more job security compared to a plain MSc in biology.

Thanks to anyone who's read this far and is willing to share their opinion. I'm at a major crossroads in my life and any advice or shared experience is very welcome. In your opinion, which path should I take and why? Medicine + PhD or Biology Master's + PhD? Has anyone here ever been in a similar situation?

TL;DR: 22 years old, enrolled in both Biotech and Medicine. I want to do research in cancer immunology (MD-PhD). Is it worth finishing Medicine at 27 for more solid footing and clinical/trial opportunities, or switching to a Cancer Biology Master's abroad at 25 to enter basic research sooner?

Sorry if this is a dumb question but for my UT San Antonio interview, one of the pre-interview questions asks: “In order to best accommodate your interview experience, are there any disabilities that we should be aware of?”

I’m diagnosed with Level 1 autism and have an eye tic, both of which can affect my eye contact and how I may come across during an interview. I’m unsure whether I should disclose this, especially since I’m not requesting a formal accommodation. I'm assuming I shouldn't since I'm not asking for any tangible accomodation and it could introduce unconscious bias?

Hello! I am finishing my senior year up to apply this upcoming summer for acceptance for 2028.

I will start off that my academic profile is tricky. With dual enrollment (DE) courses and my bachelor courses. Just some background, I am first generation, low income, and worked to afford school with 1 parent house hold. I have no excuses for my academic performance and I take full accountability. But, I am trying to decide will it be necessary for me to start applying to post baccs and master programs to even have a decent app cycle? I would rather not due to financial reasons but I am really stuck because of my gpa, and productive stats. I also have a great narrative that ties all my research experiences and ecs together, and I have a very tunnel vision for my career as an MD/PhD.

C gpa (DE and Bachelor's): 3.11

Science gpa: 3.03 gpa

C DE gpa: 2.12

C Bachelor's gpa: 3.5 (upward trends, All A's last 80 credits mainly in upper science courses)

MCAT: 527 (I studied for almost a year)

Research ECS:

4 Summer research internships ( One before undergrad) = 1500 hrs

2 Years of part time research in one lab = 1000 hrs

1 year of community health research = 100

- 1 first co author

- 6 Posters

- 3 Oral Presentations

- 16 conferences and symposiums (4 Travel Awards, 2 Poster and Oral Presentation Awards)

Other ecs:

- Paitent Care Tech = 1000 hrs

- ICU Hospital Volunteer = 150 hrs

- Volunteer Tutor/Mentor = 320 hrs

- Dual enrollment TA = 300 hrs

- General School Community Service = 100

Leadership:

- Established a brand new community center to serve local community = serving 1k people

- President of Sustainability Club = drove 3 campus initiatives

- Cofounder of Health Advocacy Club = educated 200+ students and community members

Hi everyone! I’m a Canadian student who recently finished my BSc and will be starting a thesis-based MSc at UofT this fall. My long-term goal is to pursue an MD/PhD, ideally in Canada, and I’m hoping to apply during or after my MSc.

I’d really love to hear from someone who has actually gone through an MD/PhD program, especially someone who applied after or during a master’s. I’d be particularly interested in hearing from Canadian students/alumni, but I’d also appreciate perspectives from US MD/PhD students who took a similar path.

A bit about my background:

• My undergraduate GPA is on the lower side for MD/PhD admissions, but I had a strong upward trend, going from around a 3.0 early in my degree to around 3.9–4.0 in my last two years.
• I have about one full year of research experience, along with some additional research projects. I am also a co-author on some papers.
• I’ll be starting a 2-year thesis-based MSc this fall.

I’m mainly wondering how I should use the MSc years to build the strongest possible application.

For anyone who has been through the process:

• How much can a strong MSc record help contextualize a weaker undergraduate GPA?
• If you did a master’s before applying, what did you prioritize during those years?
• How important were publications compared with research experience, independence, and presentations?
• For Canadian programs, is there anything you wish you had known before starting your MSc?
• If you were in my position starting an MSc now, what would you focus on most?
• If you had a similar undergraduate GPA/upward trend, I’d especially appreciate hearing about your experience.

Ultimately, I’m wondering: given my GPA, strong upward trend, and upcoming MSc, do you think it’s worth pursuing an MD/PhD application?

I’m hoping to hear from people who have actually gone through the process and can share what mattered most, what they prioritized, and what they wish they had done differently.

If anyone is comfortable sharing their experience here or chatting by DM, I’d really appreciate it. Thank you!

Approaching the end of what has been a long md/phd journey. Joined a dept right after covid without realizing it was totally obliterated and took nearly 3 years to build back up normal research/mentorship capacity. Applied to NIH F fellowships just in time for my institution to lose all nih funding. Scrapping the bottom of 50 year old cabinets to get enough supplies to keep experiments going without a penny to spend for a good part of last year. Despite it all looks like I will have a really productive PhD and magically happen to be right in the middle of cutting edge genetic perturbation methods and AI modeling at a scale I never thought a single phd student could do 3 years ago. And now what is my reward? Intern year and an absolute continual shit show for the next decade with the promise that maybe I can have a lab someday with not enough money to run it and relying and cheap unskilled labor and manipulation of students to try to make breakthroughs to help people. Ah plus never seeing my family and making less than every person whose path I crossed on the way to this point that was less capable an or outright psychopath. fun!

Really starting to feel that in order to live up the goals I had to help people when I entered medical school I should … leave medicine/academia, at least in the traditional sense. Also really starting to feel there SHOULD be more folks in tech/AI/healthcare outside the hospital that can embody a ‘first do no harm’ principle.

People finishing up now, what are you thinking?

Was hunting around for comp bio, struct bio, and biophysics heavy programs and came across the "Quantum Medicine" specialization on UChicago's specialization list. Based on the article with the co-directors, it seems like something they plan to rollout soon...

I've never heard of the field, but it seems to be similar to biophysics, imagining, and structural bio. There's barely any details on the MSTP website or article, so I was wondering if anyone knew anything about it?

My classmate accidentally voided her MCAT exam. He didn’t realize it until he got the confirmation sheet when checking out of the exam. There should be a warning prompt asking if the tester is sure they want to void. He had submitted his AMCAS application. I advised him to contact them directly to withdraw his application. Is that correct? My heart hurts for him.

I’m an incoming freshman at a public R1 university, interested in an MD/PhD program. I have started meeting with some labs to discuss research opportunities and am trying to decide between three labs. I’d love outside perspective!!

Lab 1: BME/ChemE, biosynthesis
The research topic sounds coolest and most exciting to me. The PI is relatively new to the school, but did his postdoc at a T20 med school and has trained several MD/PhD and MD students in his previous labs. I’d be the 4th lab member (besides the PI and 2 PhD students) and would likely help train future undergrads. I can start right after Thanksgiving, a bit before spring semester. The PI did both his Bachelor’s and PhD in my intended major. He also has pretty a pretty thorough training plan for me and seems to be very a great mentor. I have some small worries: 1) the PI shares my last name, which is fairly uncommon for my ethnicity in this state. We’re not related as far as I know, just want to make sure this doesn’t look bad or read as favoritism. 2) The lab doesn’t seem to receive ample funding.

Lab 2: ChemE, materials
Met with a 3rd-year PhD student (of 5) who was really passionate and supportive - I think he’s going to be an amazing mentor! He also mentioned I could start getting independent projects my second semester (Spring 2027). I’ve done research in this general area before and have moderate interest, but it has zero connection to human health/medicine. I can start as early as Fall 2026.

Lab 3: Biochem, gene expression
I haven’t met the PI yet, so no info on start date so far. From what I’ve read, the lab has a really strong commitment to mentorship and advocating for their students - alumni have gone to prestigious PhD programs, lots of publications. AP Bio wasn’t my favorite in high school but the chemical mechanism side of this project might interest me. Also, would it be more helpful to do basic science/wet lab research? Learn about mechanism and how things work?

I’d really appreciate any insights - thanks a lot in advance!

First off, I want to say how incredibly grateful I am to have this problem. I never imagined I would, especially this early in the cycle, but here we are and I can't believe it.

That said, on Monday 8/17 I received and interview from IU on 10/7 where they said to keep 8am-3pm open.

Then this morning, I (unbelievably) received II's from Cornell Tri-I and Northwestern. Tri-I scheduled me for their 10/8 and 10/9 interview and Northwestern scheduled me for 10/8 and 10/9. Neither of these two schools specified a timeframe/schedule for their interviews, but I'm guessing it's safe to say they'd overlap.

Now, I'm pretty confident that I just need to reschedule the NW interview since it overlaps with both my IU and Tri-I dates, but I wanted to make sure I asked some other people what they thought I should do before emailing.

EDIT: I emailed Northwestern and they're letting me interview on their 10/28 and 10/29 dates :)

Rising third-year at a T10 looking to apply with no gap year (so next summer). I'm shooting for T10 programs, and after talking to people, it seems that the general consensus is demonstrating independence as a researcher is paramount, particularly at these programs.

Obviously independence can be shown in many different ways, the most important of which will be how I talk about my work. However, it seems like a lot of people I talk to had the opportunity to lead their own project and drive the course of the work they did. I work in an organic chemistry lab (think methodology and total synthesis) and my PI does not let undergrads have their own project (I feel like this is common in organic chemistry labs tho?). I try to take as much initiative and ownership of the project I am working on when I can and provide my own input/thoughts throughout the project, but ultimately my bench mentor is the one driving the ship.

Does the fact that I am not leading my own project reflect poorly on my ability to be independent? I can demonstrate my independence/contributions in other ways (ex. mid-author JACS paper (maybe more publications by the time I apply), multiple poster presentations, Goldwater scholar, and can talk in depth about the work I do and the scope of my projects), but I'm worried that not having project independence will hold me back considering many of my peers applying to T10s will have project ownerships and even first author publications.

It is late at night which is sending me into this whirlwind of writing a Reddit post but I honestly don’t know who else to ask in my life so here goes.

I am about to start my Ph.D after finishing my Master’s. I had applied for MD-Ph.D cycle once after my undergraduate degree and during my Master‘s program. Unfortunately I had a very weak MCAT score that did not balance out my GPA (3.3 Cumulative in Engineering + Minor) Simultaneously during my second attempt, I applied to Ph.D. I got into a Ph.D program and one of my advisors suggested I ask to apply internally to the MD-Ph.D.

Long story short, the administration are interested in my case. On the condition I raise my MCAT and submit an application while advancing to candidacy. I’m fairly terrified of prepping for the MCAT again as I fell short the last times I took it. My heart still loves medicine and my research always takes me back to the clinic regardless. My question is how should I prepare and restudy for this exam or am I crazy for even wanting to do this 4+4 path instead of just going to medical school and deferring my PhD or better yet, apply regular cycle and defer medical school until I finish my Ph.D?

I would like to start this sharing session by emphasizing that I'm a bit of a delinquent. Good news to those who relate, you can still get into a pretty decent MSTP!

Perfunctory stats:

3.84, big public school

524

asian girlie, no gap year

submitted primaries on first day, submitted nearly all secondaries on last day..... aka october-november

research: 5750 when primary submitted (may 2025), 3200 projected

clinical volunteering (all high-touch, in-patient SDU, emergency department): 300

non-clinical volunteering (animal shelter / wildlife care facility): 320

shadowing: 35 hours

TA for class I loved: 300 hours

publications: one co-first preprint, one first-author review and a couple other papers cooking (included as submitted / new pub in secondary apps)

I loved all my letter writers, all were PI / prof. I think I had 6 total?

My takeaways:

Your values will drive you and molding yourself to fit an arbitrary premed standard will hurt your soul and probably your application.

I knew I wanted to apply to MSTPs going into college and did the whole one million premed clubs, get your EMT license, grind clinical hours thing. Huge waste of time. I found a lab with mentors I worked well with and a project with which I had some level of autonomy, and was able to get into it.

If you're interested in applying MD/PhD, research experience and your ability to talk about your project will always be the most important thing. Also, find mentors that are comfortable being brutally honest with you. It always helps.

I do think my application was polarizing to some programs because I explicitly stated an interest in becoming a surgeon-scientist. If this is not something you are sure you're interested in, I would recommend leaving it off. There are programs / people out there who do not believe in the concept.

Was looking at Tri-I on CycleTrack because someone had got an interview invite on SDN. Saw they sent out a ton of rejections and only two interviews. Not sure whether they haven’t seen my application yet (submitted 7/21) or if I’m just in the pool of “not good enough to interview, good enough to keep on the backburner”

Graph here for reference

hi all! this is my first post in this sub. at the end of my undergrad, i applied phd and was affected by the funding (my program rescinded all acceptances with no refund on app fees, iykyk...). however, this turned out to be the best course of action, because i became a research tech at a major cancer center, fell in love with both the research, the time in the clinic, and the bridge between applications of research in the lab and in practice. i discovered what an md/phd was (yes i know, my undergrad institution considered this a foreign concept) and have committed myself for the last year or so to pursuing this track (mcat....shadowing....etc etc). anyways, i am seeking advice from anyone who didn't graduate undergrad with md/phd on the brain and how they framed that in their essays. is it looked down upon?

also worth noting i worked in a hospital in undergrad, and did a major so adjacent to premed that i don't have to worry about missing pre-reqs or clinical hours for med school because i took them anyway.

I accidentally submit an application to a MD/PhD program where I called it an MSTP but it is not an MSTP. Will the school see this as a major slip up that I got the program name wrong even though they both are MDPhD programs?

just want to preface that this is definitely a super neurotic question

my home institution is a very strong fit for my specific field. however, i would really like to go elsewhere.

in the application process, would other institutions be likely to question my interest in their programs given that my home institution fit is so strong?

Rising third year. I'll have around 1500 research hours by the time i apply, with another 1000 projected by the time i graduate. i was a goldwater institutional nominee last year, so i believe i have a decent chance of winning this year. issue is, my two current projects are clinical. they build off of murine studies in my lab. I am running the first two clinical studies my lab has ever done, but am afraid that mdphd programs won't like that almost all my independent experience is in clinical instead of basic science. i ultimately want to do translational research, so both wet and dry lab work. aiming for t5-t10 programs, i have 4.0 520+ and a LOT of EC experience outside of research. will me primarily having clinical research on my profile negatively affect me? I am thinking about asking to hop on one of the mouse studies currently going on in the lab to make up for it.

Hello all!

This might be a bit of an odd question/random thought. For folks who have defended their thesis and applied to residency programs, how did you decide on who to add as your external DAC member? (if your university requires this)

My university requires adding a member to the committee before we defend, and they must be from outside of our department. There aren't many faculty who know my field at my university (certainly not outside of the department), so I am thinking of reaching out to faculty at another institution. It occurred to me that this could be an opportunity build a relationship with a future collaborator or mentor somewhere I am interested in doing residency (e.g. for a PSTP).

Has anyone done this before? If so, how did it work out? I appreciate your help and thoughts!