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Resources for Medical Students


Once you are in medical school, you will be launched on a challenging and rewarding path. Learn now about elective opportunities in the fourth year, medical specialties, combined M.D./Ph.D. programs, research and training programs, and medically focused financial aid opportunities.

Fourth-year Electives

  • The American Medical Student Association has information about choosing electives in the fourth year of medical school, including lists of international clinic sites accepting U.S. medical students, environmental and occupational medicine electives available to students, and training opportunities in community-based primary care settings.
    http://www.amsa.org/resource/cardevres.cfm#opps
  • The National Institutes of Health offers a clinical electives program for third and fourth-year medical and dental students.
    http://www.training.nih.gov/student/cep/index.asp

Medical Specialties

M.D./Ph.D. Programs

  • The American Association of Medical Colleges lists schools that offer combined M.D./Ph.D. degree programs. These programs provide students the opportunity to earn both the M.D. and the Ph.D. in areas pertinent to medicine.
    http://services.aamc.org/currdir/section3/degree2.cfm
  • The National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medicine Sciences (NIGMS) supports a combined M.D./Ph.D. program called the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). MSTP provides training in basic and clinical sciences to highly motivated students with outstanding research and academic potential. Students are awarded tuition and stipend. While some universities sponsor M.D./Ph.D. students without NIGMS sponsorship, the most well recognized programs are MSTPs.
    http://www.nigms.nih.gov/funding/mstp.html
  • The National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences Minority Programs offers predoctoral fellowships for students who are in a Ph.D. or combined M.D./Ph.D. program in biomedical sciences.
    http://www.nigms.nih.gov/funding/marcfaq.html

Clinical Research Training Program

  • The Clinical Research Training Program at the National Institutes of Health is a small, year-long program designed to attract the most creative, research-oriented medical and dental students to NIH. Applicants must be currently enrolled in medical or dental school and have completed, or be in the process of completing, one year of clinical rotations. Candidates in M.D./Ph.D. programs are also eligible to apply.
    http://www.training.nih.gov/crtp/overview.htm

Year Off

  • Most schools permit medical students to take a year off without penalty. This time may be spent in research laboratories, community health service projects, or taking courses in other disciplines-for example, public health or law. Funding is obtained on an individual basis from scholarships, private foundations, or investigators' research grants. For more information, inquire at your school's career counseling office. Harvard Medical School's WebWeekly article, "Time Out: Why Some Students Take Time Off from Medical School" explores why two first-year medical students took time off.
    http://webweekly.hms.harvard.edu/archive/2000/6_26_n_7_3/index.html
  • The National Institutes of Health offers Interim or Year-Off Intramural Research Training Award Fellowships for students currently enrolled in medical school. The fellowships support a year of research training in laboratories at the NIH.
    http://www.training.nih.gov/student/Pre-IRTA/irtamanualinterim.asp
  • The Stanley J. Sarnoff Endowment for Cardiovascular Science Fellowship programs offers medical students the opportunity to spend a year conducting intensive work in a research laboratory.
    http://www.sarnoffendowment.org/

Financial Resources

  • The Clinical Research Training Program at the National Institutes of Health is a small, year-long program designed to attract the most creative, research-oriented medical and dental students to NIH. Applicants must be currently enrolled in medical or dental school and have completed, or be in the process of completing, one year of clinical rotations. Candidates in M.D./Ph.D. programs are also eligible to apply.
    http://www.training.nih.gov/crtp/overview.htm
  • The Association of American Medical Colleges offers straightforward information about the cost of medical school and the variety of ways to fund a medical education.
    http://www.aamc.org/students/considering/financial.htm
  • The American Medical Association provides information about financing medical education and includes a link to the Medical Student Section Financial Aid Resource Guide.
    http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2372.html
  • The American Medical Women's Association provides a list of resources including information about their Student Loan Fund program offering medical education loans at 0% interest during medical school.
    http://www.amwa-doc.org/Foundation/student_loans.htm
  • The Howard Hughes Medical Institute-NIH Research Scholars Program, also known as the Cloister program, gives outstanding students at U.S. medical schools the opportunity to receive research training at the National Institutes of Health for nine months under the direct mentorship of senior NIH research scientists. Scholars receive a stipend, housing, medical insurance, and other benefits.
    http://www.hhmi.org/research/cloister
  • The Howard Hughes Medical Institute offers fellowships to medical students to spend a year conducting full-time research in specified fields of study, with the possibility of continued support for another year of research, and additional support for up to two years of medical study.
    http://www.hhmi.org/grants/funding/indiv/medcomp.html

Medical Student Associations and Societies


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