Process
For a detailed admissions timeline, including details on AMCAS's Choose Your Medical School Tool, please visit the Harvard Medical School Admissions' page "When to Apply."
- Apply via the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS)
- Complete and submit AMCAS Application:
- Designate "Combined MD-PhD Program"
- Select Harvard Medical School
- Complete the two additional AMCAS MD-PhD essay questions. AMCAS MD-PhD essay questions are standard for all MD-PhD Programs.
- On the Harvard Medical School Secondary Application:
- Select appropriate categories for curriculum choices at Harvard Medical School: Pathways and/or HST and "I am applying for the MD-PhD Program." There is no disincentive to applying to all three.
- Complete several questions that are pertinent to MD-PhD applicants only. These questions concern:
- A Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program-specific short essay question;
- The PhD program type you anticipate applying to: Basic and Translational Sciences or Social Sciences;
- Your research interests/areas;
- The research supervisors submitting letters of recommendation on your behalf;
- MD-PhD applicants are expected to have letters of recommendation from research mentors.
- All letters of recommendation should be sent directly to AMCAS.
- Your Manuscripts/Publications:
- Please list the paper reference (author list, title, journal, date), and indicate its current status using the appropriate letter below (a-f):
- Published
- Accepted
- Under Revision
- Under Initial Review
- Submitted
- Manuscript in Preparation
- For a, provide the citation and article link (do not upload the publication).
- For b-e, provide the journal's email correspondence that documents the stage of your submission (do not upload the manuscript).
- The journal's email documentation is an email provided by a journal verifying the status of a manuscript/paper (ex. out for review, under revision, accepted in principle, in press, etc.). We recommend consulting with your PI to obtain this documentation.
- If you are unable to provide the journal's official email documentation, please substitute a letter from your PI supporting your manuscript/publication status.
- For f, provide signed documentation from your PI confirming your manuscript(s) in preparation. This can be accomplished by using the upload link in the MD-PhD section of the secondary application or via the Admissions Portal after submitting your application.
- For each manuscript in a-f, please also indicate whether the work was conducted as an undergraduate or as a post-baccalaureate using the codes UG or PB, respectively.
- Do not upload publications, manuscripts, journal articles, or senior theses.
- If you have more than one document to upload, please combine into one PDF and then upload. Should this documentation exceed the file size, we recommend compressing the PDF file prior to uploading.
- Application statuses for selected awards (e.g. Rhodes, Fulbright, Marshall)
- Social Science Applicants ONLY:
- Statement of Purpose
- Supplemental Application Materials: PhD program dependent. Additional information can be found on our PhD Programs of Study page.