Students in the NYU MSTP are registered simultaneously in the NYU School of Medicine and the Sackler Institute for Basic Medical Sciences of New York University. They must meet all the requirements for the PhD degree in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Sackler Institute; the requirements for the MD degree in the School of Medicine; and the requirements of the NYU Medical Scientist Training Program (the MSTP summer course, two summer lab rotations, monthly seminar series, the annual retreat, the quantitative biology course, and the Bedside Diagnosis clinical re-entry course).

Note: New guidelines for MSTP students have been implemented (e.g., incoming MSTP students must complete their dual degrees within 8 years, thesis committees must contain a member of the Faculty Operating Committtee, annual progress meetings are now required). For a detailed overview of these student guidelines, please consult the MSTP student handbook.  

A typical curriculum overview for MD/PhD students may look as follows:

Summer before Medical School

The program begins with a mandatory summer lab rotation before the first year of medical school in the lab of an already-selected mentor. The incoming class of MSTP fellows also takes the specifically designed MSTP summer lecture course, which explores fundamental biology as the foundation of modern medicine and introduces incoming students to a wide variety of faculty members.

Year One Medical School

In Year One, students learn human anatomy and embryology in the integrated Morphological and Developmental Basis of Medicine module, which focuses on the classical disciplines of biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology; following this is the Cellular Basis of Medicine module, which incorporates topics in cell biology and immunology, and then the Brain and Behavior module, which includes basic neuroanatomy and principles of neuroscience. This coursework prepares students for the Foundations of Medicine sequence, in which they study tissues and organ systems. Throughout the year, students participate in the Skills and Science of Doctoring I module, in which they have their first patient encounters along with an introduction to other aspects of professional practice. The preclinical courses provide MSTP students with a broad background in the biomedical sciences and serve as the foundation for advanced courses they will take in subsequent years. MSTP students take these courses together with the medical students and, in certain instances, with graduate students. The summer before Year Two Medical School is reserved for lab rotations and the MSTP summer course.

Year Two Medical School

In Year Two there are three more modules. In Host Defense students learn the mechanisms by which the human body defends itself from external and internal challenges as well as principles of pharmacological intervention. Through the extensive Mechanisms of Disease module, students integrate pathology, pathophysiology, and pharmacology in an organ system-coordinated manner to gain both knowledge and mechanism based understanding of pathogenesis and therapy of disease. This year, like the first, is spanned by the continuous, concurrent Skills and Science of Doctoring II module, in which students encounter complex medical issues which involve direct, one-on-one student-patient interactions. During the first two years MSTP students also meet potential advisors through the Sackler faculty chalk talks and have numerous opportunities to interact with physician-scientist role models.

(Note: The NYU School of Medicine is currently in the process of introducing significant modifications to the curriculum, aimed to further emphasize the concepts of pathobiology in understanding human disease with a goal to integrate material across four years of medical school in a new comprehensive and "spiral" curriculum.)

Graduate School

In the summer following their second year of medical school, MSTP students choose a thesis lab and a graduate program. If necessary, students have the option of completing a third lab rotation. The NYU MD/PhD Program will advise students in the selection of the training program and mentors will help the students define the direction of their thesis work. At the end of their first graduate year, students take the qualifying exams of their respective graduate programs. Students take advanced graduate courses, as defined by the requirements of the graduate program of their choice and in accordance with their area of research interest, while pursuing their thesis research. During this time, students also continue to attend MSTP calendar events.

MSTP students who are nearing the end of their thesis work are able to enroll in a specially designed "Beside Diagnosis" course developed by the MSTP in conjunction with the Department of Medicine to help with the transition from graduate to medical school. This custom-designed program prepares senior graduate students for their return to the clinics. Upon successful completion of their PhD degree, MSTP students then rotate through a series of clerkships to complete the remaining requirements for the MD degree.

Clinical Years

After a two-week orientation session, students arrange for nine clerkship rotations in medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics-gynecology, psychiatry, neurology, ambulatory care medicine, critical care, and advanced medicine in 13 months, with additional electives if time permits. MD/PhD students may join the clinical rotation sequences through clerkships (or "palettes") at a variety of times between November and January. These clerkships provide a rich experience on the wards of the NYU teaching hospitals, where students learns to deal with the most serious problems in physiological dysfunction. Fellows in clerkship become members of the health-care team and participate in all phases of the patient's care, from admission through discharge.

Residency Placement

After completion of the MD degree, MD/PhD graduates generally move on to residency programs in their chosen medical specialty or specialties or to research-oriented clinical programs as graduates of the NYU Medical Scientist Training Program.