"Pre-Freshman" Summer

All M.D./Ph.D. students enter as "flexible entry" students, leaving all Ph.D. training options open. Incoming students are required to begin in July with the initiation of their Laboratory Rotation series. The Rotation -- chosen in consultation with the Program Director, Associate Program Directors, and/or advisory faculty during the late spring -- lasts for 4-5 weeks, leaving a brief vacation period before the start of classes in early August. The Pre-Freshman Summer provides an opportunity to become familiar with the institution, the Program Director and additional faculty, and other M.D./Ph.D. students. It additionally helps to establish an identity within the 5-6 degree program before the activities of the fall semester begin. An extensive formal exposure to a broad range of mentors is subsequently provided during fall orientation as well as through advisory meetings and special seminars.

Years One and Two

Mount Sinai's M.D./Ph.D. Program offers a strong advisory system utilizing our active research faculty. Students are carefully guided during the pre-clinical period towards the choice of Ph.D. advisor and training area.

The School of Medicine's curriculum provides the opportunity for joint degree students to complete all of the Ph.D. Core Requirements during their first two basic science years of that curriculum. M.D./Ph.D. students continue to have time for weekly "Directed Reading" sessions with faculty and special journal club activities.

The Laboratory Rotation sequence is designed to assist the trainees in their choice of dissertation advisor. Given the time constraints, the rotations are not meant to involve serious participation in a research project, but rather to expose the trainee to the research focus of the lab, lab environment, and the mentor's style. Each trainee chooses the place, number, and duration of the rotations in consultation with his/her Preclinical Advisor and the Program Director. There are no departmental constraints on the formulation of the rotation; trainees almost always rotate through labs in several departments. Some trainees select a Ph.D. advisor by the end of the first academic year and can spend the second summer in that laboratory. There is considerable variability in the style and length of the Laboratory rotation series.

All M.D./Ph.D. students are invited to the Medical Scientist Research Seminars (MSRS) at which their fellow students and new faculty members present their research. M.D./Ph.D. students also come together at dinners sponsored by their preclinical advisors, the Program Director and at the Annual M.D./Ph.D. Retreats. These opportunities for interaction extend through all years of training.

Year Three

Students enter full-time Ph.D. work in the third year. An optional four-week clinical experiece is offered to students at the end of Year Two, before the start of the full-time Ph.D. work. We expect that early exposure of M.D./Ph.D. students to (1) increased clinical responsibility beyond that experienced by participation in the preclinical years "Arts and Science of Medicine" course, and (2) the diversity and complexity of clinical medicine will motivate the students to contemplate basic mechanisms of disease (and gaps in our understanding) during their graduate research training. An additional rationale for an early clinical rotation is to provide the students with the fundamental clinical skills necessary for limited participation in clinical activities during their Ph.D. training (e.g., weekly clinic for the uninsured, clinic participation in a specialty of their choice).

As soon as the student declares a Ph.D. advisor, he/she, in consultation with the mentor, selects an Advisory Committee. All students are encouraged to select a clinical/translational investigator to join the Advisory Committee to enhance the integrated nature of the trainee's goals.

The Ph.D. Phase

By the end of the second year, each M.D./Ph.D. student has chosen a research advisor from the Graduate School Faculty and a Ph.D. Multidisciplinary Training Area (MTA). Each trainee must complete the specific course requirements for the MTA that (s)he has chosen. The specific courses are flexible to accommodate individual goals and interests. The emphasis is on research training, conducted in a highly interactive setting, enriched by the close interplay between clinical interests and the most basic research endeavors. While there is no teaching requirement, many of our students seek and are provided with opportunities to tutor or lead small group discussion sections.

Clinical continuity activities are strongly encouraged as is the Clinical Refresher for students planning to transition back to full time clinical clerkships after a hiatus. The Clinical Refresher course provides these students with the opportunity to refresh their clinical skills in a one-on-one mentor relationship with a clinician during the months prior to the initiation of clinical clerkships. The Ph.D. dissertation must be completed, defended, and deposited before the clinical years of training begin so that the success of each effort is not compromised by the other.

The Clinical Years

M.D./Ph.D. students must complete all clinical requirements as demanded of other medical students during a period of two years that includes an appreciable amount of elective time. Flexibility exists so that elective time may be shifted to the beginning of an academic year to allow an M.D./Ph.D. student to finish experimental or thesis work. Thus students are readily able to enter clerkships between July and December. Most students will have completed the requirements without loss of a substantial amount of clinical elective time. They may, and often do, choose to spend some of that elective time in the laboratory, continuing offshoots of their projects.

Generally, the entire Program is completed in seven to eight years.