Research & Dual Degrees

I’ve wanted to do an MBA ever since I knew it was a possibility — in fact, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do medicine until I decided to go for it years later! WUSM students have an established tradition of taking a year off to do additional research or earn another degree. As I have a robust background in health care business and had taken a year off to work in health care consulting, one of the deciding factors for me while choosing WUSM was the accessibility of getting involved in the Olin Business School and taking selectives there as a medical student.

A few students will choose to do the MBA each class year. Most stay for the generous scholarships given to medical students at Olin, but every now and then, some decide to go to a different institution as well. Whether you want to get involved in health innovation, administration, or operations, an MBA is becoming increasingly useful in a rapidly changing health care market.

A great irony of the medical school application process is that at applicant pizza parties, it is the current students who are most heavily scrutinized. That is, of course, after you differentiate who among the sea of 20-somethings are the current students and who are the applicants. From here, the small talk commences, until you, the applicant, pull out the hard-hitting questions you spent the entire flight into Lambert crafting.  Do you need a car? Is St. Louis safe? What’s the deal with the curriculum? I, the current student, deftly parry your concerns with witty yet thorough responses, until finally, you deliver the coup-de-grace: Why should I choose WashU?

When asked this question during my first semester here, I would not really know how to answer the question other than, well — it is WASHU — by throwing out platitudes about the collaborative environment, the diverse patient population, the research opportunities. But last November, I made the crazy decision to take an MD5 year after only one semester. The MD5 year is a year-long, non-degree conferring, research program designed to give medical students the opportunity to take a step back from medical school and do research, for whatever reason. Many invoke the MD5 between third year and fourth year, in order to pad their residency applications with field-pertinent publications for competitive specialties (read: orthopedic surgery), but there are myriad reasons why one may choose to pursue a research year. Personally, having proceeded directly from college to medical school, I felt I needed time to explore my burgeoning interest in research and more broadly, reflect on my goals as a person and professional.

This past year has been one of the most fulfilling and productive periods of my life. As I prepare to re-enter M1 classes, I feel a renewed and augmented sense of wonder and excitement for the field of medicine. I also feel profound gratitude for the opportunity to have left medical school behind for a year to pursue research, with no fear of administrative consequences. Perhaps most importantly, however, is that I now have an engaging and genuine answer to your dastardly pizza party question. Choose WashU not only because of the collegial faculty and students, the boundless resources, and the unmatched quality of its biomedical research, but because of the respect WashU has for you, the medical student, in choosing your own path to becoming the best doctor you can possibly be.

What makes the WashU Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) special are all the ways in which our structure provides us room to grow. First of all, I love, love, love that our MSTP class is so big. I’ve made many of my best friends within the MSTP, but because there are so many of us, I’ve been able to really find my people and I don’t feel like there’s social pressure to only hang out with MSTPs all the time. This leads to my second point: We are 100 percent integrated within the larger medical school class. I have as many friends among my MD classmates as among my MSTP classmates. This is not the case at all MSTPs, and it’s something for which I’ve learned to be truly grateful, because I honestly find myself reflecting on how much I learn from my MD friends at least once per week.

Finally, the MSTP gives us immense freedom to make our education what we need and want it to be. Maybe you’ll realize that global health is your calling and want to do research abroad, or maybe you’ll have a parent fall ill and want to take time off to care for them, or maybe you’ll decide to go into a specialty that makes it hard to balance clinic and research. Being part of the biggest MSTP program in the country means that whatever problem you run into, someone else has probably dealt with it before, and the entire staff has been with WUSM MSTP for so long that they know exactly what to do. Brian, Wayne, Linda, and the rest of the MSTP staff will support you through it all. They are really the MSTP’s greatest asset.

There is a fairly robust contingent of programs and researchers at WashU involved in public health work. The secret is knowing where to find them.

The university divides public health into three main organizational units: the Brown School (brownschool.wustl.edu, on the Danforth Campus), the Institute for Public Health (IPH, publichealth.wustl.edu, on both campuses), and the Division of Public Health Sciences (publichealthsciences.wustl.edu, on the medical campus). Dr. Koong-Nah Chung, Associate Dean for Medical Student Research, is a great resource when looking for research opportunities at WUSM. Dr. Chung facilitates pairing M1s with research mentors across the School of Medicine. If you still have trouble finding a good match, reach out to Jacaranda van Rheenen — she knows just about every public health researcher at this institution.

In addition, population-health minded researchers are hidden in most departments and divisions, even where you might not expect — as a WashU undergrad student, I spent several years doing public health nutrition work through the Program in Physical Therapy. Public health is more flexible than basic science research, where you may have to regularly go into lab to check on experiments. Personally, I ended up doing a lot of my research work at home in the evenings.

Additionally, the IPH hosts a few half-day conferences every year on public or global health topics, which are a great way to supplement your public health education or present your research. I’m sure the interested souls reading this will enjoy being part of WashU’s personal yet prestigious public health community.

For most medical students, the summer between first and second year is the only time they will spend doing full-time research. Dr. Chung will give a number of presentations first semester about how to find a research mentor, so don’t worry about that too much. There are faculty in every department who are looking for med students to mentor during the summer. I would suggest finding out if past medical students have worked with the professor you’re interested in doing research with, and speaking with them.

From basic metabolism to human genome sequencing to microbiology, WashU has been at the forefront of advancing our collective medical knowledge. If you happen to love research, you are most certainly in the right place.

M1 is a great time to balance research, school, and your life. I can’t speak from experience, but word on the street is that M2 and M3 years are no joke, so it never hurts to start when classes are more chill. Most students do research on campus the summer after M1, but it’s important to me to go home and do nothing important, so I’m trying to not feel too guilty about that. There’s a bunch of different types of projects students can get involved in, but a case study, retrospective chart reviews, and a textbook chapter are the three I’m working on. These can mostly be done on my computer, and it’s nice to get bits and pieces done throughout the day. Other M1s do basic science research; I’ve sworn that off like the plague, but those who’re involved in it enjoy it a lot. PIs are usually understanding when you tell them you want to stretch out the timeline to not overextend yourself. Residencies like to see sustained research in an area, so M1 is a good time to start a general project that can branch into future follow–up projects. Most specialties don’t mind if your research is in a different field, so don’t shy away if you don’t know what you want to do yet.

MSTP students are required to complete at least two research rotations before starting grad school, but the program strongly encourages students to do some research on campus in the summer before the M1 year. About half of matriculating MSTP students do start early with research, aided by an advance stipend that helps cover living and moving expenses. Especially for matriculating students who took a gap year or more between college and medical school, spending 1-3 months in a lab before orientation is a great way to get acquainted with St. Louis, the campus, faculty/staff, other students, and what it feels like to clip on the WashU ID badge every morning. Starting early with a PI also opens up opportunities to continue the project through the M1 year and potentially into grad school. Interested students should begin directly reaching out to PIs as soon as a decision is made to attend WashU. Early research opportunities are open to matriculating MD students as well, although they generally take part in research during the summer after the M1 year.