Advice to Onboard Medical Students Applying to the MD-PhD Program

Yale medical students are eligible to apply to the MD-PhD Program prior to the completion of their second year.

This will require filling out a supplemental application that all MD-PhD applicants complete. This application form is available online at the Medical School Admissions site or from the Program’s office. Be sure to get 3 new or updated letters from people who knew you in the research setting as undergraduates. The rest of your medical school application will be part of your MD-PhD application. You will be interviewed by two members of the MD-PhD Faculty Committee in the early spring. You will be informed about your acceptance into the Program in late February. One thing to keep in mind is that you will greatly enhance your eligibility for acceptance into the Program if you have continued to do research since coming to Yale and are familiar with what faculty are doing and what might interest you as an MD-PhD student. We also get to know you from interactions in first-year medical school courses such as Cell Biology 601.

For onboard medical students who are considering applying to the Program after the first or second year of medical school, it is important you understand that some of the first- and second-year medical school courses you will be taking as a regular medical student are also co-listed as Graduate School courses and can be used to partially satisfy the Honors requirement of the Graduate School and some of the graduate course requirements in some PhD Programs. You should sign up as a medical student to take these courses for future credit by letting the course director and Director of Medical Studies know that you will be taking the course as if for credit. This will involve doing the work and taking the same exams that an MD-PhD student already enrolled in the Program will take. Upon being accepted into the Program, bring your graded exams to the Program Office for validation by the Director who will also have the course director validate the exam. After that, credit will be applied retroactively to your Graduate School record.