{"id":122,"date":"2019-08-30T14:56:53","date_gmt":"2019-08-30T18:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/mdphd\/?page_id=122"},"modified":"2023-02-16T09:46:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T14:46:30","slug":"starting-the-program-transition-advice","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/mdphd\/current-students\/student-resources\/starting-the-program-transition-advice\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Starting the Program: Transition Advice<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Students are introduced to the program leadership team during medical school orientation.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong><u>Timeline of MD\/PhD Program:<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The timeline for students:<\/p>\n<p>2 years of preclinical coursework (M1, M2) followed by the USMLE Step I examination,\u00a0 PhD Training and\u00a0 Dissertation, and finally, a return to the clerkships for M3 and M4.<\/p>\n<p>During the M1 and 2, students begin to look for labs to rotate in for the two summers.\u00a0 Lists of Faculty with ongoing research are available and a list of all the departments and degree granting programs and their contacts is provided to each incoming student. Students attend open houses for a majority of the departments. For the others, the MD\/PhD directors will bring in faculty to discuss potential labs.\u00a0 Faculty advisors within the departments are available to meet with students and answer questions.<\/p>\n<p>Students are required to perform a minimum of 2 rotations; however many students do perform 3 rotations. The rotations may be a combination of 4 and\/or 8 week rotations. A summer stipend is given to students for the lab rotations from the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences. Students are expected to give lab rotation talks in August and September to the MD\/PhD community.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong>Advice for MD\/PhD students nearing the graduate phase research:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Decide on and perform rotations for summer I. Decide on rotation for summer II.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>USMLE Step 1:<\/strong> Students take the Step 1 exam directly after BUSM II.\u00a0 The Step 1 must be completed prior to the start of the PhD part of their graduate training.\u00a0 Students will be guided by the OSA of the Medical School.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Complete rotations, meet with MD\/PhD Co-Directors and discuss your ideas of labs.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Identify a mentor<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Identify a department or program: <\/strong>This is done in consultation with your mentor. Talk to students if your mentor has more than one appointment. We encourage you to attend seminars.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong>Student Activities During the Graduate Phase<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Departmental requirements<\/strong>:\u00a0 Each department has specific curriculum requirements that include courses and qualifying exams.\u00a0 Current information is available on departmental websites. A number of courses are waived for the MD\/PhD students. Courses are determined on an individual basis and in consultation with the faculty advisor for that Department.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Qualifying exams<\/strong>:\u00a0 Students take qualifying exams within two years of initiating graduate work.\u00a0 The format of the qualifiers differs among departments, but includes a written and an oral component.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Quantitative training<\/strong>: \u00a0There are multiple courses that can be taken in statistics through the School of Public Health, GMS, and at the Charles River Campus. These include courses in bioinformatics, statistics, coding in various programming languages, and machine learning.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dissertation committee<\/strong>: Dissertation committees are formed within 6 months after students pass the qualifying exams.\u00a0 In the MD\/PhD program we recommend that be done within 3 months. The faculty are selected based on expertise and departmental requirements (e.g., some departments require at least one member to be from outside BU). Dissertation committees are requested to meet twice a year to monitor the students\u2019 progress.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Writing and submitting a grant<\/strong>: All students are required to submit an NIH F30 grant. The NIH F30 grant has a deadline of applying within the first 18 months of graduate work. Students are assisted in writing the grant application. Successful students receive tuition, stipend and health insurance for M3 and M4 years. During the PhD years students receive tuition, stipend and health insurance from their own grants, a T32 or a PI\u2019s grant. The tuition is paid for by the University.<\/li>\n<li><strong>GMS MD 800: Clinical Refresher Course<\/strong>:\u00a0 As MD\/PhD students enter their (anticipated) last year of graduate work, they are required to participate in\u00a0a course designed by the M.D\/Ph.D. program to ease re-entry into the medical curriculum.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Enhanced clinical exposure:<\/strong> The Co-Director has formalized exposure to the clinic for students during their graduate years after they pass their qualifiers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Advice for MD\/PhD students nearing the end of the graduate phase research:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Students who declare that they are within 1 year of finishing their graduate work need to fill out a <strong>MD\/PhD Transition Form. <\/strong>This is located on the <u><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/students\/student-forms\/\">GMS Forms<\/a><\/u> portal. Students must also set up a meeting with the <a href=\"mailto:gmsregistrar@bu.edu\">GMS Registrar<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Checklist and timetable for transitioning back to 3rd\u00a0year Medical School<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The dissertation must be defended before the second week in May prior to M3 orientation.<\/li>\n<li>The students should meet with program directors\u00a0to review their progress.<\/li>\n<li>Plan for an April\/May thesis defense date to give you time to respond to committee issues and file your thesis in library.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Approximate Timetable for clerkship registration:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>February, ~2nd week: Mandatory Class Meeting: \u201cChoosing Your 3rd Year Schedule\u201d<\/li>\n<li>February, 2nd week to March: Enter sequence selections on Registrar\u2019s website<\/li>\n<li>March 3rd week: Final sequences appear on Registrar\u2019s website<\/li>\n<li>March 3rd week -April 2nd week: Enter location selections on Registrar\u2019s website<\/li>\n<li>May 1st week: Final 3rd year clerkship schedules appear on Registrar\u2019s website<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting the Program: Transition Advice Students are introduced to the program leadership team during medical school orientation. Timeline of MD\/PhD Program: The timeline for students: 2 years of preclinical coursework (M1, M2) followed by the USMLE Step I examination,\u00a0 PhD Training and\u00a0 Dissertation, and finally, a return to the clerkships for M3 and M4. During [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12513,"featured_media":0,"parent":95,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/mdphd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/mdphd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/mdphd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/mdphd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/mdphd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/mdphd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1279,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/mdphd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122\/revisions\/1279"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/mdphd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/95"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/mdphd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}