BC Residency Requirements/ MDPhD Program

[Guest HHH07]

I was reading a post on MD/PhD progrmams and remembered a point that I think some people may be interested in regarding UBCs MD/PhD program:

 

Those people applying from out of province who are applying to the MDPhD program are treated like BC residents at UBC.

 

This makes it A LOT easier for OOP applicants to get an interview, and subsequently get in. This is probably most appropriate for potential applicants working on/having grad degrees or those with significant research experience, as you have to be accepted into the PhD program independently. However, if you are interested in research, then UBC can act like another 'home province'. I called to the other schools in Canada offering MD/PhD and they all said that they treated all MDPhD applicants like they regularly would for the MD (i.e. you were counted as OOP if you were not from the province of the school). UBC is, as far as I know, the only school that does this.

This is not advertised on the UBC website, but I heard it straight from the Admiss. Dean at last year's interview info session. Hope this helps.

[Guest Ian Wong]

Ahh. This is true, but I should remind everyone out there that there is also an escape clause of sorts. If you apply MD/Phd, but then subsequently are turned down by the PhD committee, you will lose your BC applicant status if you continute to attempt to enter the MD stream.

 

As a result, you NEED to be accepted into the PhD portion in order to get out of your OOP residency status, and into BC home status. This prevents people from applying MD/PhD to get home residency in two provinces simultaneously unless they are going to do the combined 7 year UBC MD/PhD program. If you are interested in research, this is great, but I wouldn't sacrifice that extra three years in an effort to improve my MD admission chances.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3