Medical Student Summer Research Fellowships

Summer Research Scholarships for Medical Students support summer research opportunities during the first summer of the medical curriculum (between years 1 and 2). The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry has a long and enduring history of training physician-scientists interested in academic careers that combine teaching, clinical medicine, and research. As part of a broad initiative to establish an Academic Research Track (ART) within the medical school curriculum, the Schmitt Program offers scholarships for summer research in neuroscience. Our goal is to promote the initiation of the scholars’ passion for research on the nervous system and its disorders and to prepare them for a year of research beginning a year or two later, either within the ART or as part of the MD-MS Program in Medical Neurobiology.

We anticipate that 2-4 first-year medical students will be selected each year for this competitive program. Applications are linked centrally with the Office of Medical Education's student enrichment programs. Please apply through that portal and register your interest in the Schmitt program in the application process. In general, consider the following guidelines for submission:

• Satisfactory performance in the first year medical school curriculum to date.
• Letters of support; one from a previous research mentor and the other from a medical school faculty member familiar with the candidate. (If not already submitted, use the following form for letters.)

Please send this Reference Form to those supplying letters with instruction to return to the Program Director by email.

• A CV and a personal statement (one page) outlining career goals and plans for the ART and/or MD-MS. (If not already submitted, use the following form.)

Please use the Application Form and return it by email as noted on the form.

• Strong interest and aptitude for academic medicine and an interest in neuroscience in particular. It is expected that most applicants for this program have had significant undergraduate research experience, although not necessarily in neuroscience.

Applications should be completed and sent to the Director of the Schmitt Program. The deadline for 2009 is February 6.