Training Plan
Students normally enter the program as medical students and complete the two years of pre-clinical training in the medical school. Students then enter the formal training of the PhD years, pursuing the PhD program of their choice. (Find more information on available PhD Programs.) Regardless of which PhD program they choose, students complete their thesis work in 3 to 4 years. During this time, students are also required to complete a longitudinal clinical experience in an area related to their thesis work.
MD/PhD students are expected to write fellowship applications to NIH (called National Research Service Awards or NRSAs) or other funding agencies. These grants are generally submitted in the first year of your PhD training.
The general sequence of training is depicted in the schematic below. The diagram depicts the training activities in all years of the program and illustrates the basic core curricula (blue = Medicine, green = PhD), as well as the enhanced training experiences particular to the MD/PhD Program (in red).
MS I |
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MS II |
 |
PhD I |
 |
PhD II |
|
PhD III |
 |
MS III |
 |
MS IV |
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After completing their theses, students re-enter medical school for the last two years of clinical training. The clinical curriculum of the MSIII and MSIV years reflects the School of Medicine's commitment to training outstanding clinicians. The MSIII year features the traditional specialties, such as Medicine, Surgery and Pediatrics, but a recent modification to this curriculum also adds a 4-week block in Family Medicine. Thus, the MSIII experience is highly enriched for "hands-on" clinical medicine, reflecting the significant increase in primary care training in the last decade.
As part of this emphasis on clinical medicine, training is provided at the University of Maryland Medical Center, as well as at the Baltimore VA Medical Center (which is also on campus) or one of the school's excellent academic affiliates downtown. This enables MD/PhD students to continue to interact with medical school faculty in an intellectual setting throughout their clinical training.
The MSIV year provides flexibility for students to elect specific sub-internships that prepare them for competitive residency placements. Students are required to fulfill eight weeks of Ambulatory Care training and an 8-week sub-internship. The remainder of the MSIV curriculum (20 weeks) is elective time, which can be used for clinical electives, including those at hospitals at which the student is intending to match for residency.
A strength of this phase of training is that our students are able to enhance their competitiveness for residency matches through these focused elective experiences.
For more details on the medical school curriculum, please refer to the online catalog for the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
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