The NYU Medical Scientist Training Program is ambitious in its overarching focus on educating students in two very divergent sets of skills: the creative ability to analyze human biology from both the physician's and from the scientist's perspectives. The life of an MD/PhD physician-scientist begins with the right frame of mind: intense curiosity, self-discipline, and compassion. It then takes training to develop intellectual rigor and intuitive insight, mastery of minutiae and a comprehension of the larger clinical or biological context. The lab and the clinic each require a distinctive combination of art and science—both of which the NYU MSTP seeks to nourish.

In order to do so, MD/PhD students develop skills to dissect complex phenomena into fundamental and testable hypotheses, so that they can build on the expertise and vision of a basic scientist when approaching biological questions. They are also prepared to be first-rate physicians, with the medical knowledge, experience, skills, and well-honed instincts to recognize, comprehend, and analyze clinical phenomena.

The usual course of study in the NYU MD/PhD Program includes the first two years of medical school integrated with summer research rotations followed by approximately four years of thesis studies, culminating with a PhD degree.

Predoctoral research training at NYU School of Medicine is offered by the Sackler Institute of Biomedical Sciences, a division of the Graduate School of Arts and Science of New York University. Sackler graduate programs have evolved into multidisciplinary clusters that involve work across individual academic departments and reflect the multifaceted interdisciplinary collaborations of the faculty at the NYU School of Medicine. Students work with faculty members who have appointments in basic science or clinical departments, with associated faculty located at the Washington Square Campus (the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Biology, Chemistry, and Center for Neural Science) as well as with selected researchers at the NIH. Interdisciplinary training is offered in eleven distinct programs described in the Graduate Programs section.

For 2006-2007, the Chronicle of Higher Education determined that NYU ranks in the top 10 for faculty productivity in the general biomedical sciences, with particularly outstanding work achieved in immunology, oncology and cancer biology, molecular pharmacology, microbiology, physiology, computational biology, and structural biology. In a related study, the NYU MSTP was ranked among the top 11 of individual performing programs in the general biomedical sciences category.

After the PhD degree, fellows continue with another 13 months of clinical clerkships and electives in the affiliated hospitals of NYU Langone Medical Center: Tisch Hospital, Bellevue Hospital, NYU Hospital of Joint Diseases, and the VA Medical Center. In the 2009 U.S. News & World Report, NYU Langone Medical Center was included in the Honor Roll of “America’s Best Hospitals,” a ranking of the country’s 21 elite medical centers. NYU Langone Medical Center ranked among the top 20 in the nation in cardiology, geriatrics, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, psychiatry, rehabilitation, rheumatology, and urology. Overall, it was ranked among the premier hospitals in the nation for 11 different specialties.

All MSTP students receive an annual stipend to defray living expenses. Starting September 2009, the student stipend will be $31,000 per year plus full tuition remission, and annual cost-of-living increases are planned. Graduate students are also eligible for campus housing, health insurance coverage, and other benefits.

Please consult our curriculum for a general timeline of the MD/PhD course of study.