Students interested in a research career in academic medicine may wish to apply for admission to the joint M.D.,C.M. and Ph.D. program. This is a seven-year program in which the basic and clinical sciences portion of the medical curriculum are completed from September of Year One to December 31 of Year Two, prior to the beginning of full-time graduate studies. The latter are expected to last three, but no more than four, years by which time all course work and the research requirements for the Ph.D. degree must have been completed and a thesis submitted. The defence of the thesis will ordinarily take place at a later date. From January of Year Five to May of Year Seven, students will complete the requirements for the M.D.,C.M. degree. Throughout the seven years, students in the M.D.,C.M./Ph.D. program meet each Thursday evening during the academic year to discuss their research, hear research seminars from clinician-scientists, and network with other students in the program.
Acceptance into the M.D.,C.M./Ph.D. program is conditional upon fulfilling the requirements for and being accepted into the four-year medical program. Students applying to the program should have had experience in research, such as a master's degree, honour's research project, or summer research. Once accepted to the M.D.,C.M./Ph.D. program and during the first year of the combined program, students begin the process of choosing a supervisor and research laboratory for their Ph.D. studies. The McGill Faculty of Medicine Winter and Summer Research Bursary programs are useful for screening potential laboratories. Research is usually carried out on a topic in the biomedical sciences within one of the Basic Science or Clinical Science Departments within the Faculty of Medicine. With the help of the M.D.,C.M./Ph.D. Program Advisory Committee, students must choose a supervisor and department for their Ph.D. studies by September of Year Two and be accepted for admission to graduate studies by McGill Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.
Students currently enrolled in the first year of the medical curriculum at McGill and who have a Bachelor's or Master's degree are eligible to apply before September 1 of their second year of medical school.
The language of instruction is English. The student is expected to have a working knowledge of the English language (comprehension, spoken, and written). The student is expected to be functional in the French language by the time clinical rotations commence (January of the second year of the program). Students will interact with francophone patients in the teaching hospitals and may also be assigned to francophone training sites for their clinical rotations.
The Faculty does not accept students for part-time medical studies.
More information is available in
section 7.4.1 “Curriculum Outline”.
