The Geisel School of Medicine has suspended admissions to its M.D./Ph.D. program, Geisel School Dean Wiley Souba announced in an email to the Geisel community Thursday morning. Since the decision was first revealed in a Feb. 6 meeting, around 1,000 students and faculty have signed a petition outlining concerns.
Admissions were suspended to allow the administration to examine the program, determine its optimal size and discuss how to attract the best students, among other reasons, Souba said.
The 25 students currently working toward their degree and those who have already been offered admission to the program will not be directly affected by the policy change.
M.D./Ph.D. programs aim to train physician-scientists, a group uniquely able to participate in both basic and clinical research and patient care. The program takes around eight years to complete, with students completing two years of medical school, then finishing a thesis before returning to medical school for the final two years.
Souba mentioned the program’s cost as a reason behind the decision, as Geisel’s M.D./Ph.D. program is not funded by the National Institutes of Health. Forty-three of the institutions that have M.D./Ph.D. programs receive NIH funding.
The M.D./Ph.D. program defers and then waives medical school tuition costs for participants upon completion. It also provides health insurance and a stipend. For the 2013-2014 year, the stipend is $27,500. Overall Geisel spends around $80,000 per student in the program each year. Souba said Geisel will look for other funding mechanisms that could sustain the program.
Souba said he believes the decision will not harm Geisel’s 20x20 plan, an initiative to elevate Geisel to one of the country’s top 20 medical schools by 2020. When Souba unveiled the 20x20 plan in 2011, U.S. News & World Report ranked Geisel the 32nd best medical school for research. The most recent rankings slot the school at 38.
On Feb. 13, Souba met with upperclassmen in the M.D./Ph.D. program to discuss its future. Souba said he plans to compose a task force of faculty and students by the end of the month to determine creative solutions.
The deans decided to suspend admissions, program coordinator James Gorham said, and told the program’s directors after a decision had been made.
This abbreviated process upset faculty members, including professor Lee Witters, who teaches medicine at Geisel and biology at the College.
“The decision affects many student groups but was announced to a small group of students,” Witters said.
The petition encouraged students to reach out to College President Phil Hanlon directly, and it was accompanied by a letter to Hanlon and to the Board of Trustees.
Noting its over 900 signatories, Witters said the petition was the strongest reaction to an academic decision he has seen in his 30 years at Dartmouth.
Cynthia Hahn, an M.D./Ph.D. student, said the decision to stop accepting applications is against the institution’s mission, which states that Geisel’s vision is “to be the medical school that sets the standard for educating physicians, scientists and teachers to be leaders of change in creating a healthier, better world.”
Citing the fact that all other top 30 medical schools ranked in the in U.S. News & World Report have a M.D./Ph.D. program, Hahn said Geisel is not acting like a leader in its field.
The petition echoed these sentiments, citing a potential “ripple effect.” The cost of suspending M.D./Ph.D. admissions will outweigh the benefits of any financial savings, as Geisel’s standing in the medical community will decline, it said.
Witters agreed, saying the decision is inconsistent with the national image Geisel seeks to portray and noting that students are image-conscious.
Geisel saw a 27 percent increase in applications to their medical program this year.
All other Ivy League institutions have M.D./Ph.D. programs, including Princeton University, which does not have a medical school but runs its program in conjunction with Rutgers University. -With over 180 students, the University of Pennsylvania’s program is one of the nation’s largest.
Skip Brass, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s M.D./Ph.D. program, said that he continuously reviews and works to improve his university’s program.
Brass noted, however, that M.D./Ph.D. programs have high costs and said each university must decide if the investment is worthwhile.
Witters also expressed concern about the status of the Clinical and Translational Science Award, an $18 million grant the College received last fall. In the letter to Hanlon and the trustees, students said that every institution to receive a similar grant has an M.D./Ph.D. program.
Students and faculty also said they feared that the quality of students attracted to the program may decline if admissions resume. Qualified prospective applicants would not see Geisel as valuing the program, M.D./Ph.D. candidate David Qian ’11 said.
Several M.D./Ph.D. and medical students said having students at Geisel for an extended period of time is beneficial. M.D./Ph.D. students serve on student government and can provide continuity and valuable institutional memory, Geisel student Marietta Smith ’12 said.
Smith said she interacted with M.D./Ph.D. students throughout her years as an undergraduate.
Josh Lange ’17, who works in a lab with an M.D./Ph.D. student and signed the petition, said he would be interested in pursuing a similar program in the future.
“I think there is a move towards more collaboration between medical doctors and patients and directly relating that toward lab work,” he said. “If we’re moving in that direction, then it won’t help us for the future if we get rid of the program.”
