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You would much much more information through searching the forum than anyone one would be able to list here in this one thread, I think that could answer a lot of your questions. Instead of waiting for responses you could see ones already given, which there are a lot of.
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The MD part comes first (MD/PhD).
Yes you need to be publishing research as an undergrad to get into MD/PhD. They are paid for (no MD tuition, and a moderate income like a grad student usually gets). All MD/PhD programs are competitive, but the best ones tend to overlap with the best MD (eg Harvard/MIT, Stanford)
MD/PhD is for people who want to do research with a medical bent. These are people who end up as PIs running labs, and would've been PhDs as their alternative. The majority (like more than 75%) of their time goes to running research projects. If you want to be a surgeon or someone who spends the majority of their time doing clinical work, you want an MD.
MD/PhD is not a free, improved MD. It leads to a different type of career.
Yes you need to be publishing research as an undergrad to get into MD/PhD. They are paid for (no MD tuition, and a moderate income like a grad student usually gets). All MD/PhD programs are competitive, but the best ones tend to overlap with the best MD (eg Harvard/MIT, Stanford)
MD/PhD is for people who want to do research with a medical bent. These are people who end up as PIs running labs, and would've been PhDs as their alternative. The majority (like more than 75%) of their time goes to running research projects. If you want to be a surgeon or someone who spends the majority of their time doing clinical work, you want an MD.
MD/PhD is not a free, improved MD. It leads to a different type of career.
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The above post is mostly, but not entirely correct. Here is some basic info. If you want more, go take a look at the Physician Scientist forum on this board.
1) MD/PhD programs are for people who think that they want predominantly research careers. You'll hear "80/20 balance" thrown around a lot - this means that the ideal is 80% of time spent on research and 20% spent in clinic. There are hundreds of threads talking about how hard it is to actually do this, and many people ultimately choose to pursue only clinical medicine or only research.
2) MD/PhD programs are long: usually 7-9 years of total training. The total length of time it takes each student to graduate depends on their PhD project, and this is not something you can predict ahead of time.
3) To get into MD/PhD programs you need a lot of research experience, but you do not need publications. You should be planning, executing, troubleshooting, and writing up/presenting your own projects. Unless you have at least 2 years of experience doing this, you probably won't stack up against the other applicants. You also need to be able to talk intelligently about your research. MCAT scores also need to be a bit higher if you are aiming for MD/PhD programs.
4) Most (but not all) programs will pay for medical school, living stipend, and health insurance. Some do this with government money (MSTP programs) and others are supported by the school or local funding sources. A few programs pay for students during their PhD years but make them take out loans/pay for MD training. Schools will be upfront about their funding situations when you interview and you can find a list of MSTP programs online.
5) Nearly all medical schools have some form of MD/PhD program. They vary in terms of class size - smaller programs may take 2 MD/PhD students per year while other programs may take 15-20. How good a program is depends on the reputation of the medical school and how many big-name researchers are available in your PhD field of interest.
1) MD/PhD programs are for people who think that they want predominantly research careers. You'll hear "80/20 balance" thrown around a lot - this means that the ideal is 80% of time spent on research and 20% spent in clinic. There are hundreds of threads talking about how hard it is to actually do this, and many people ultimately choose to pursue only clinical medicine or only research.
2) MD/PhD programs are long: usually 7-9 years of total training. The total length of time it takes each student to graduate depends on their PhD project, and this is not something you can predict ahead of time.
3) To get into MD/PhD programs you need a lot of research experience, but you do not need publications. You should be planning, executing, troubleshooting, and writing up/presenting your own projects. Unless you have at least 2 years of experience doing this, you probably won't stack up against the other applicants. You also need to be able to talk intelligently about your research. MCAT scores also need to be a bit higher if you are aiming for MD/PhD programs.
4) Most (but not all) programs will pay for medical school, living stipend, and health insurance. Some do this with government money (MSTP programs) and others are supported by the school or local funding sources. A few programs pay for students during their PhD years but make them take out loans/pay for MD training. Schools will be upfront about their funding situations when you interview and you can find a list of MSTP programs online.
5) Nearly all medical schools have some form of MD/PhD program. They vary in terms of class size - smaller programs may take 2 MD/PhD students per year while other programs may take 15-20. How good a program is depends on the reputation of the medical school and how many big-name researchers are available in your PhD field of interest.
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^they're on point describing the programs. As for competitiveness for acceptance, you've got to have a ridiculously competitive application. Along the lines of 3.8-4.0 GPA in a science heavy major, an MCAT that is +90th percentile, you're own presentations and publications in research projects (so working several years/100's of hours of undergrad in a lab), strong letters of rec from professors, MD's, AND PhD's, plus all the usual stuff that makes a stellar medical applicant. So you've gotta fit shadowing, clinical experience, volunteering, leadership, etc in there. Surgery can be done with MD/PhD, but you usually need a PhD that's aligned with your surgical field (not sure how much neurosurgery research there is out there). I work with an MD/PhD Transplant surgeon who both runs a lab in transplant immunology and does quite a bit of surgery, but he doesn't sleep more than a couple hours a night and rarely sees his kids and wife.