Deciding to Apply

The admissions committee seeks out candidates who are strongly committed to improving the health of others through research. Society needs physician-scientists who will push forward medical frontiers by integrating basic research with clinical medicine. In particular, the solution of medical and research problems that threaten health often requires an investigator's determination to blaze nontraditional paths. Although this characteristic distinguishes MD/PhDs, doctors or scientists alone may not have this same facility in dealing with biomedical challenges from multiple aspects. A hurdle is the length and difficulty of medical scientist training programs, but this is readily overcome by highly dedicated students.

For motivated underrepresented undergraduate students who are interested in learning about a career as a physician-scientist, there is the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF). The centerpiece of the program is an eight-week Research Project conducted in the laboratory of a faculty member in the biomedical sciences. Weekly seminars, a physician-scientist clinical shadowing experience, and career development seminars help participants decide whether they might want to apply to a Medical Scientist Training Program.