Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy (MDPhD)

The MD/PhD Program considers students from a variety of backgrounds; no preference is given to any particular degree program. The applicant must hold an honours bachelor's degree with an overall average in the 'A' grade range (or equivalent), and have fulfilled all the requirements of acceptance into the four-year medical curriculum of the Faculty of Medicine (including a separate application to that program), and the doctoral requirements of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

Courses in biology, chemistry and biochemistry are strongly recommended but are not required for application. All applicants are expected to demonstrate proficiency in these areas through coursework and/or MCAT scores. Courses in physics, statistics and the social sciences are also recommended as general preparation for the MCAT and for medical school.

Autobiographical essay of research interest. Applicants are required to submit a concise, well organized essay which clearly outlines why you have chosen the Clinician Scientist path as a career in medicine, your perception of the discipline, and the medical field that best matches the area of your research interest.

Besides academic standard, other strengths including maturity, research experience and potential, scholarship, personal qualities, research field of interest, and proposed research supervisor and laboratory are also assessed. In addition to fulfilling the requirements of the regular undergraduate MD curriculum, MD/PhD students will also undertake graduate level coursework as required by their chosen field of research. All MD/PhD students are required to fulfill the PhD portion of the degree in a department which is affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine and listed in the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. The research supervisor must be a full member of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, and is usually from a Department, Interdisciplinary Program or Institute within the Faculty of Medicine. The research supervisor must hold a current CIHR research operating grant or from an equivalent peer-reviewed, federal or provincial granting agency.

A unique aspect of the UBC MD/PhD program is that it considers its students to be PhD students throughout the duration of the program. As such, it is to the benefit of the student to have identified a supervisor as early possible. This has the additional advantage of allowing students an early start on their research program, increasing the chance a student will be able to complete a combined MD/PhD degree in 7 years.

Applicants should list potential supervisors at the time of their application. If selected for interview it is expected that applicants will set up virtual meetings with a potential supervisor(s) prior to interviews. The research supervisor proposed by the MD/PhD applicant is one of the criteria we use to rank applicants for admission. As for all graduate students, it is to the applicant’s advantage to demonstrate that they have explored potential supervisors, research environments, and projects and hence to have developed a plan for what research they would like to be doing at UBC. The research supervisor must be eligible to take on graduate students in a Faculty of Medicine-affiliated program at UBC or one of its partner universities, and should hold a current operating grant from CIHR or an equivalent peer-reviewed, federal or provincial granting agency in order to provide an appropriate research environment to support an MD/PhD student. Successful applicants will have ~5 months between accepting an offer for admission and actually beginning the program, during which time they can finalize their decision about supervisor. Of note, it is possible to change supervisor during the first two years of the program.