Welcome from the Student Advisory Committee!

As Chair and Chair-Elect of the Student Advisory Committee, we welcome your interest in Vanderbilt and are excited to share more about our incredible program. The Vanderbilt Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) offers an unparalleled community of aspiring physician scientists who are working to shape the future of academic medicine. While there are many reasons to choose the Vanderbilt MSTP, a few are noted below:

One-Year Preclinical Medical Training

Vanderbilt offers a unique curriculum in which students spend their first year of medical school taking preclinical coursework and their second year in clerkships on the hospital floor. A one-year preclinical curriculum allows for students complete their clerkship year before entering graduate school which creates the opportunity for specialty-specific clinical work during graduate training. Our G-phase students have the opportunity to build longitudinal relationships with clinical mentors that are able to offer advice upon the transition back into medical school and a well-informed letter of recommendation for residency applications. Vanderbilt’s medical curriculum allows for students to weave their clinical and scientific interests together throughout their time in our program, mirroring their future career as a physician scientist. Furthermore, innovative programs like Vanderbilt Program in Interprofessional Learning enables students to start working with nursing, social work, and pharmacy students from their first year of medical school. This builds critical skills to serve as a foundation for the rest of our professional careers.

Broad and Accessible Scientific Training

Vanderbilt MSTP students scatter across both the Vanderbilt Medical Center and Vanderbilt University for their graduate training pursuing PhDs in departments ranging from Bioinformatics to Epidemiology. A full list of students by graduate departments can be found here. The MSTP Leadership encourages interdepartmental collaborations between faculty members so that students can receive training that precisely targets their interests. Furthermore, students have a high success rate of applications for independent funding; current students have been awarded 31 NIH F30 awards and 2 American Heart Association fellowships.

Supportive Community

Wednesday MSTP seminar allows for the entire program to gather together on a weekly basis. Students discuss their research, give journal clubs and present clinic cases that facilitates peer to peer learning. It’s not uncommon for all 8 members of a big-little family to be in one room, compiling the differential diagnosis for jaundice or discussing Western blot data. Students are sorted into 1 of 4 Hogwarts-style advising colleges in which they will remain throughout their time in the MSTP. Members of each college develop close relationships not only with their college-mates, but also with their three faculty College Advisors and three resident-level Associate College Advisors. We also have a yearly retreat where the entire program gathers to discuss advances in science and medicine and celebrate both mundane and exciting student achievements.

Additionally, community outreach is very important to our students. Vanderbilt students have created community programs like Mini-MSTP, in which middle school students come to Vanderbilt to participate in a day of scientific exploration. Our students are also involved in leading many programs to create a better and more inclusive academic environment, including a Wellness committee with dedicated programming time in Wednesday seminar and at retreat.

We are so encouraged by the support and guidance of the Leadership Team and cannot speak highly enough of the Vanderbilt MSTP. Please feel free to reach out to either of us with questions, concerns, or excitement.

Kelsey McNew, SAC Chair: Kelsey.mcnew@vanderbilt.edu
Maxwell Roeske, SAC Chair-Elect: Maxwell.j.roeske@vanderbilt.edu