Overview

The Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of California, San Diego is a multidisciplinary program educating students in clinical medicine and biomedical research. Its mission is to provide students with the breadth and depth of training necessary to excel as academic physicians. The curriculum combines classroom and clinical training in the UCSD School of Medicine with research in a graduate department. Flexibility of curriculum is a hallmark of the program at UCSD, and each student's program is individualized. By its nature, medical school education is quite broad, encompassing subjects from biochemistry to cultural anthropology. In contrast, graduate education provides a narrower focus and greater depth, both in terms of exposure to current thinking in a specific discipline and in the development and execution of a doctoral thesis problem. Since 1974, continuous funding by the National Institutes of Health has enabled the training of physician-scientists who, because of their multi-faceted and rigorous education, are equipped biomedical investigators. NIH funds only 38 other Medical Scientist Training Programs. The program culminates with the award of both medical (MD) and graduate (PhD) degrees, signifying skills in each of the three domains of an academic physician: research, teaching, and clinical care.

Appointees enter the program with a diverse range of academic backgrounds and life experiences. Currently there are 62 students in the program working in 8 different graduate departments, with one in four women, four in ten people of color, and one in ten underrepresented minority. The program is committed to recruiting a diverse student body. The MSTP fully supports affirmative action programs and endorses federal efforts in this regard. In addition, out-of-state applicants are considered on an equal basis as in-state residents.

Approximately 8-10 entering students join the program each year. All trainees receive full support for stipend, tuition, and health fees during all years of the program. Most students complete both MD and PhD degrees in eight years or less. Multiple career paths are available to graduates, but 90 percent will choose to obtain further training in one of the specialty areas of medicine.  About 10 percent do postdoctoral work in a basic science area. Our graduates uniformly achieve their first or second choice residency. Over the last 12 years, approximately 90 percent of graduates have subsequently accepted positions in academic health centers.

UCSD, located in La Jolla, California, is a campus of unusual strength in the biological sciences. The UCSD School of Medicine, the contiguous UCSD general campus, and adjacent research institutions (the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the Scripps Research Institute, the Burnham Institute) are all readily accessible to interested students. Clinical training and research opportunities are available in many different hospitals including UCSD Hillcrest and Thornton, Veterans Administration, San Diego Children's, Navy, Green, and Mercy. The San Diego area is home to the third-largest biotechnology communities in the country, including approximately 140 companies spun off from UCSD. San Diego is a particularly fertile location for the Medical Scientist Training Program because of these extensive resources in basic science, clinical and translational research, and medical practice.