Timeline for an organized return to Year 3 of Medical School
August:
Think about whether it may be possible to return to medical
school with 10-16 months (e.g. by January* of the following year).
December-January: Hold a thesis committee meeting to find out
in what time frame your advisor and committee think you can finish.
If it is hopeless to finish by December (or earlier, depending
on your interests), then plan to meet with the committee again
in a year and aim for July 1st of the following summer or later.
- If the committee
and your advisor are positive, then set a date for the defense as
a goal, even if it is many months in advance. This will
ensure that your committee members are available when
the time comes, which can otherwise be a step that causes
serious delays at the last moment.
- Counting forwards, you can then plan on two weeks to revise the
thesis and submit it; the re-entry date should be after
this. Adding a month or two of reserve time would be prudent.
If you wind up finishing early, Marilyn can usually squeeze in a small
clinical elective for you to do, or you may wish to prepare
better for re-entry, or take a short vacation, or there
may be things you could productively do in the lab.
- Counting backwards, you will need to give your thesis to the committee
two weeks before the defense, and will need 1-2 months
to write it (less if you start on it at this point in
January and do as much as you can).
- Keep in mind that you will spend part of June in re-entry activities
– count on losing two
weeks here.
- Once you have a thesis defense date, send an e-mail to the MSTP
Director and Administrator, to request a specific re-entry
date. We will discuss the feasibility of the date with
your advisor and thesis committee chair and return a message to confirm
the re-entry date or request additional discussion.
- Note – in order to participate in the electronic 3rd
year clerkship selection program, you must have an approved
date of intended return by March 10th. Failure to do so
will mean that your clerkship schedule will be generated from available
openings such as they are when you do return. Electronic registeration
for 3rd year closes on 3/10th. You should receive schedules on 3/23rd.
IMPORTANT: Once the re-entry date is set, do NOT contact just
Marilyn London to change the re-entry date. If it becomes increasingly
clear that the thesis defense date can not be met, then the issue
of timing will need to be re-addressed by discussion with Marilyn
London, the advisor, committee chair, and MSTP director. A new
date will be set that represents the best, new, safe, guess for
completion of the PhD requirements.
Failure to comply with this rule may lead to a failing grade
in a 3rd year clerkship, suspension from the program, and / or
loss of stipend.
* The formal requirement
for graduation is approximately 14 months of clinical training (i.e.,
entering as late as Feb). However, most MSTP students nationally take
16-17 months of courses (i.e., entering by mid-late Fall), and some
like to have a full two years (i.e., entering July 1st). Many factors
determine the best course of action and the ideal path differs for
students when considered as individuals. The factors include whether
the student is interested in post-graduate residency training (most
are) versus basic science training; whether the student knows what
type of post-graduate residency training they wish to undertake, or
at least have significantly narrowed down the choices; and how well
the student performed in their first two years of medical school and
on the Step I exam, which will affect their competitiveness for top-ranked
residency programs. Students with strong academic records who know
what type of residency they wish to pursue can safely enter on the
later side. Students with weaker records or who wish to determine
their clinical career path after experiencing most of all of the 3rd
year courses should plan to enter on the earlier.
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"Version:
March 31, 2009. This version supersedes all previous versions."
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