{"id":1784,"date":"2025-05-15T02:28:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T02:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetoptenwebhosts.com\/?p=1784"},"modified":"2025-05-20T13:49:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T13:49:53","slug":"nyu-grossman-rescinds-program-acceptances-after-losing-federal-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thetoptenwebhosts.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/15\/nyu-grossman-rescinds-program-acceptances-after-losing-federal-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"NYU Grossman rescinds program acceptances after losing federal grant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"N.Y.U.<\/a><\/p>\n

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For 60 years, the NYU Grossman School of Medicine invited students to join its Medical Scientist Training Program \u2014 a federally funded, dual-degree MD-Ph.D. program \u2014 and develop the specialized skillset of physician-scientists. However, the tradition came to a halt when administrators suddenly rescinded nine prospective students\u2019 acceptances in January after losing the program\u2019s federal grant amid an indefinite \u201cpause\u201d in admissions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As dozens of medical schools opened applications earlier this month, Grossman kept its MSTP application closed \u2014 pointing to a second year with no students matriculating into the program. In conversations with WSN, four MSTP students, who requested to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation, discussed how they learned about the development on social media and how \u201cvague\u201d plans for MD-Ph.D. training have ignited concerns about the fate of the program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe program is great, which is why I\u2019m here,\u201d one MSTP student said. \u201cBut even once, hopefully, they start admitting students again for the MD-Ph.D. program, I won\u2019t be comfortable. I don\u2019t think I could ever in good conscience recommend someone to come here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The \u2018famous Reddit post\u2019<\/h2>\n
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Grossman administrators first announced their decision to \u201cpause admissions\u201d in a Jan. 2 email to students obtained by WSN, stating that the move would help \u201cstreamline\u201d initiatives \u201cto restructure physician training at NYU.\u201d MSTP leadership \u2014 Director Erik Sulman, Chief Science Officer Dafna Bar-Sagi and Chief Academic Officer Steven Abramson \u2014 also said that any structural changes to MSTP would \u201cnot have an impact\u201d on current students.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, students said that much of the MSTP student body found out specifically that applicants\u2019 acceptances were revoked through a <\/span>widely-circulated Reddit thread<\/span><\/a>. Administrators told admitted students that they \u201ccannot offer\u201d them sufficient MD-Ph.D. training in anticipation of modifications that \u201cmay differ significantly from traditional programs,\u201d according to copies of an email posted online.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a statement to WSN, NYU Langone Health spokesperson Steve Ritea confirmed that previously accepted MSTP students were still offered admission to Grossman as MD-only students. He said that the \u201ctiming of this decision afforded applicants ample time\u201d to consider MD-Ph.D. programs at other institutions, and a separate Reddit thread in January detailed that <\/span>NYU refunded the $110 application fee<\/span><\/a> for all applicants.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One current MSTP student said that when they first read the Jan. 2 email, they were confused and questioned if it referred to the following year\u2019s application cycle. After their friend sent them the \u201cfamous Reddit post\u201d a couple of days later, they realized that the halt in admissions was more immediate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlready, I can get the vibe that our program director simply would not have invested his time in an entire admission cycle, and students\u2019 time and all that, just for acceptances to be rescinded,\u201d the student said. \u201cSo already, there\u2019s an assumption that he was thrown under the bus here. We don\u2019t know what happened.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Students said the email and Reddit post were publicized over their winter break and sparked mass confusion in the program, filled with questions about whether the information on Reddit was true and what the \u201csuper vague\u201d restructure to MD-Ph.D. training entailed. However, in the email, MSTP administrators had also invited students to attend an on-campus \u201cdirector\u2019s dinner\u201d on Jan. 8 to ask questions about the developments and give their input on the \u201crestructuring process.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat proceeded was more or less an exercise in futility,\u201d another MSTP student said about the meeting. \u201cWhen it came to what they were planning to do, basically the statement they were giving was that they\u2019re viewing this as an opportunity to revamp and make the program more efficient. But, when pressed on what that means, it was more like \u2014 to tie it to current events \u2014 having a concept of a plan rather than an actual plan itself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2018An exercise in futility\u2019<\/h2>\n
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At the director\u2019s dinner, Sulman sat among Bar-Sagi, Abramson and other administrators and confirmed that they rescinded admission to nine prospective MSTP students, according to an audio recording of the event obtained by WSN. Sulman also said that, for admitted students who had canceled their applicant interviews at other institutions after receiving admission to NYU, he was contacting those schools\u2019 program directors to try and get applicants a second chance to study the dual-degree curriculum elsewhere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sulman also told students that the decision to pause admissions came after the National Institutes of Health did not renew the program\u2019s grant funding. The T32 training grant \u2014 which will expire in June and covers around 15% of the MSTP\u2019s total cost, according to Sulman \u2014 has financially backed NYU\u2019s MD-Ph.D. program since 1964, making NYU one of the first institutions to host a MSTP.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGrants don\u2019t get funded all the time. This is not to say that we\u2019re never going to have the T32 \u2014 as part of the discussions that are going to go on over the next weeks and months, we\u2019re going to decide the strategy for that,\u201d Sulman said at the meeting. \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt in my mind that NYU is committed to physician scientists as a career, as a discipline and in the training. That commitment has never been stronger than it is now.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawrence Brass \u2014 the MSTP director at the University of Pennsylvania and former president of the National Association of MD-PhD Programs \u2014 told WSN that although there is no public data on the success rate of federal grant renewal proposals, <\/span>getting the T32 grant renewed<\/span><\/a> is a \u201chighly competitive\u201d process. Brass explained that the NIH evaluates if institutions are presenting a program that sufficiently merges scientific study with the practice of medicine, including a \u201cstrong pool of candidates for admission\u201d and a \u201cstrong track record of attracting and training MD-Ph.D. students who go on to have successful careers as research-focused physicians.\u201d\u00a0 From 2020 to 2024, the <\/span>NIH granted about 50.4%<\/span><\/a> of T32 grant applicants their requested funding.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the director\u2019s dinner, Sulman told students that \u201cfor now,\u201d he intended to resubmit the T32 grant proposal but that he could not estimate the specific timeline for the process. Ritea also told WSN that despite federal grant cuts, the university has \u201cmaintained financial and programmatic support\u201d for current MSTP students and is \u201ccurrently working to develop alternative models and funding sources for MD-Ph.D. training.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Several MSTP students said that upon learning that their program lost its federal funding, their primary concern was with NYU\u2019s \u201cunprecedented\u201d response to halt admissions and rescind acceptances. Students also expressed concern for administrator\u2019s vague language about reapplying for the NIH grant, saying that their MD-Ph.D. program\u2019s reputation and designation as an MSTP, which is defined by its federal funding, is beneficial for students when applying to residency and individual federal grants.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an upper administration that is unwilling to recognize that it itself is the problem when it comes to how it\u2019s running an academic institution,\u201d an MSTP student said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t take a rocket scientist to put two and two together to realize what happened. They probably submitted the most half-dashed, confused grant resubmission, and the NIH took one look at it \u2014 you really have to bungle it up for the NIH to say no.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sulman also said that the nationwide attrition rate for physician scientists is <\/span>exceptionally high<\/span><\/a>, citing that only a third of MD-Ph.D. graduates pursue research, and that administrators hope to establish NYU as a leading institution in combatting the yearslong concern by drastically restructuring its MSTP. He also said that Grossman leadership has considered restructuring the program since last year after recently seeing four students drop out of the MSTP over six months, without clear understanding as to what challenges they may have faced in the program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bar-Sagi and <\/span>Abramson<\/span> discussed that an aspect of the MSTP restructure might be to reduce the time commitment needed to complete a Ph.D. without compromising on the quality of education. They referenced Grossman\u2019s 2013 initiative to <\/span>condense the MD curriculum into three years<\/span><\/a> instead of four \u2014 which MSTP students said was implemented into their curriculum in the summer of 2021 \u2014 and questioned whether it would be better for students to complete Ph.D. research while in residency programs, rather than during medical school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

MSTP students said that the prospective plan to incorporate Ph.D. research into the same time frame as residency was floated in the program\u2019s community through word of mouth, and expressed concern that students\u2019 quality of research would diminish if urged to prioritize speed. They alleged that with continuous pushes to condense the time for graduate degrees, Grossman was placing too much emphasis on maximizing profit by reducing its operating costs of hosting MD students \u2014 who all receive <\/span>full-tuition scholarships<\/span><\/a>, while MSTP students get <\/span>an additional annual stipend of around $50,000<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessary to rush people doing a Ph.D.,\u201d an MSTP student said. \u201cWe\u2019re in a really rich institution in a developed nation, the richest country on earth, and our life expectancies are way longer than they were in the past. So, what\u2019s the point in rushing? I think that\u2019s ridiculous.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2018Unnecessary distress\u2019 <\/h2>\n
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During a Q&A portion of the director\u2019s dinner, students asked administrators why they could not have allowed the accepted students to matriculate into the MSTP and implement the structural changes afterward, expressing concern for the \u201cserious damage that was done to the reputation of the program\u201d without their input or prior knowledge. One student at the meeting accused the administration of subjecting applicants to \u201cunnecessary distress\u201d by accepting them into the MSTP in October and not communicating with them until January.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not a decision that was made lightly,\u201d Bar-Sagi said at the dinner. \u201cMany of us felt that it would be very disingenuous to invite people and showcase them something that we are not certain that this is what they are coming to see.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Students continued to push for answers regarding how long the MSTP leadership plans to close admissions. They said that as more years go by, the amount of number of students in the program \u2014 which currently hosts 98 students total, including 13 first-year students \u2014 will shrink drastically and that subsequently, the strength of programming will decline. In response, administrators said that current students will be unaffected by any structural changes and that they hope to incorporate students\u2019 input at future stages of the decision-making process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re stuck in this frustrating situation of a total lack of communication and just total unknowns,\u201d an MSTP student said. \u201cThe only thing we do know is the fact that \u2014 this is just through word of mouth and discussions \u2014 that this decision to do this solution came from the dean\u2019s office straight from Dr. Grossman\u2019s mouth himself.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2018A culture of retaliation\u2019 <\/h2>\n
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MSTP students said that after the director\u2019s dinner, it became clear through discussions with principal investigators and faculty members that the decision to rescind acceptances was made unilaterally by Dean Robert Grossman, who also serves as CEO of NYU Langone, because of the program\u2019s falling student retention rate. One student described that allegedly, Sulman had advocated for NYU to enroll the accepted students despite the loss of the T32 federal grant, and was then \u201cthrown under the bus\u201d to take ownership in explaining the controversial decision to the rest of the school\u2019s MSTP community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have leadership that\u2019s so erratic that we have leaked emails every few years, and such a culture of retaliation, such that one person can throw a tantrum and stop one of the first MSTPs that ever existed, and to just throw it away like that is bad,\u201d an MSTP student said. \u201cI don\u2019t understand the vision and it\u2019s not a collectively decided vision. It\u2019s like a couple people at the top decide what\u2019s the best for the school, and they just do it \u2014 what the hell?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After several instances of community members facing retaliation under Grossman\u2019s leadership, students said there is a \u201cculture of fear\u201d and \u201comnipresent concern\u201d to engage in speech that goes against the school\u2019s actions. They referenced widely-publicized scandals in recent years \u2014 including when <\/span>Benjamin Neel, the former director of NYU Langone\u2019s cancer center, was terminated<\/span><\/a> after making posting \u201canti-Arab\u201d cartoons online in 2023, and when hundreds of <\/span>residents petitioned for hazard pay<\/span><\/a> during the COVID-19 pandemic and saw internal emails about the situation leaked online. Regarding fears within their program specifically, two students cited that an MSTP student allegedly had their guaranteed NYU residency rescinded after engaging in a Black Lives Matter movement protest in 2020. Ritea did not respond to requests for comment about the rescinded residency acceptance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

MSTP students also agreed that there has been an air of anticipation for <\/span>Grossman to retire<\/span><\/a> in August. Although they acknowledged that it would be too late for his successor to reverse the rescinding of acceptances this year, they expressed hope that the <\/span>incoming NYU Langone CEO and dean Alec Kimmelman<\/span><\/a> may work toward reinvigorating their program and unpause admissions. Kimmelman \u2014 an MD-Ph.D. graduate of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai \u2014 currently leads the medical center\u2019s Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center and is slated to begin his term in September.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor NYU, I think they can still preserve their name just because <\/span>they already have such a reputation,\u201d an MSTP student said. \u201cBut for the people who are in the program now and who have seen what just happened \u2014 and for the nine students who had their offers rescinded \u2014 it\u2019s only for us that this will remain on our minds for a while.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact Aashna Miharia at amiharia@nyunews.com.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This story NYU Grossman rescinds program acceptances after losing federal grant<\/a> appeared first on Washington Square News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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