Applying to MD/PhD programs? Here's what you need to know

Dr. Herman “Flash” Gordon, an Accepted consultant and former chair of the University of Arizona Tucson College of Medicine's admissions committee, provides a deep dive into the application process for MD/PhD programs, highlighting crucial preparation tips. 

Interview with Dr. Herman “Flash” Gordon [Show Notes]

Welcome to the 453rd episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for tuning in. Do you want to get accepted to medical school this cycle? We have a webinar that's just perfect for you. You're invited to the webinar titled Start Medical School in 2023: How to Get Accepted This Year. Watch the webinar here.

Our guest today is Dr. Herman AKA "Flash" Gordon, Accepted consultant and former chair of the University of Arizona Tucson College of Medicine's admissions committee. Dr. Gordon also served on PhD admissions committees while at the University of Arizona. Since joining Accepted, he's guided clients to acceptance at MD, PhD, and MD/PhD programs, sometimes to several acceptances at those programs. Dr. Gordon has been on Admissions Straight Talk several times in the past, and it's my distinct pleasure to have him on again today. 

We're going to focus this show on MD/PhD admissions. How and when did you get involved in med school admissions and then specifically the MD/PhD world? [1:58]

I started on the University of Arizona admissions committee about a decade ago. It was one of these things that's like, "Oh, it's your turn to take on a big service job." I knew nothing about what I was getting into, although I was teaching med students. It was interesting. I very quickly learned that it was actually a great committee and that for everyone who was on it, they felt like it was the best service they had ever done. It's a major responsibility, you're determining people's futures, you're shaping the class that you're going to teach, it's just a great opportunity. And you're doing positive things; it's not like a disciplinary committee or something like that.

How long were you the chair of the committee and roughly how many applications did you evaluate in that period? [3:06]

I was on the committee for four years, and I was chair for the last two years. At the committee level, about 600 applications make it through the interview and then go on to the full committee. So that's 600 a year of which, as chair, you have to look at all of those. But when you're on a subcommittee, or at least we ran with subcommittees, then you get about a fifth of those, so 120 or so. It's a lot of work. For a typical admissions committee member, it's about 200 hours which is a lot. As chair, it's probably closer to 600.

Although I had done PhD admissions in neuroscience, I was new to how the MD/PhD admissions worked. Different schools do it differently. At the University of Arizona, there was a separate MD/PhD committee and both that committee and the regular MD committee had to accept the applicant. So it was this sort of parallel process. At some schools, the MD/PhD committee has more autonomy, you have an allotted number of slots and get to fill them however you want.