You have questions. Who better to answer than students who have gone through our program? Learn more from them below.
The salary is $35,000 per year, and you also receive fringe benefits including health insurance. You pay a little bit toward your health benefits (about $55-115 per month, depending on the plan), pre-tax, plus about 20-22% in federal, state and local taxes, social security, etc.
Here, that is enough to live. We all went out a lot and there were not real complaints about not having money. I think we also helped each other out when we could. I would not suggest an additional part-time job—that’s equivalent to death by insanity, and you just won't have time.
Everyone in the program lived comfortably. You will learn to budget it well. There are many discounts available through Access Services, too, like pre-tax bus passes, discounted cable service, etc.
For taxes, some of the downloadable, do-it-yourself ones will offer free tax filing. If you are here for 11 months and claim only yourself (1) withholding allowance, you would pay ~$155/month in federal taxes and typically receive the full amount back in your federal refund (withholding calculator). Your state refund would usually be a few hundred dollars, also dependent upon your withholdings (the lower the number of withholding allowances, the more is withheld from your paycheck for taxes, and the more refund you receive). If you live in Cleveland, you don’t have to pay city taxes because they are taken out of your paycheck; if you live outside of Cleveland, you have to file and pay taxes in that city (usually costs about $400).
It's important to remember that you are an employee, and will use your health insurance to access healthcare providers. You have a choice of providers, and if you anticipate you'll want particular services (i.e. allergist) you may want to compare those services in choosing a provider. Some scholars seek behavioral health care and the Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program office can provide recommendations for psychology/psychiatry providers experienced with students.
CasePREP is designed for recent college graduates interested in eventual research careers that require a PhD or MD/PhD. Applicants only interested in MD programs after completion of CasePREP will not be considered. If you are interested in MD/PhD dual-degree programs after completion of CasePREP, it is strongly recommended that you submit an MCAT score with your application. You can enter the MCAT score yourself in the application, and it can be from a practice test or an official MCAT score. Admitted Scholars interested in MD/PhD dual-degree programs will typically require two years of CasePREP unless you have taken the MCAT and received a competitive score before or soon after applying to CasePREP.
Your personal statement
Your research statement should describe your prior research experience and how your research experience shaped your career goals. If COVID-19 affected your ability to do research (e.g., summer research experience was cancelled or moved to remote only), please explain how your ability to do research was affected.
The cost of living is low compared to cities of the same size. Click here to learn more about Cleveland.
Like everywhere, it depends on where you want to go. Around campus there are shuttle buses that are free for students and employees of CWRU. The Rapid Transit (RTA) will take you to many of the places people like to go (i.e. Westside Market, Downtown, Airport) and the University Circle rapid station is located just minutes away from campus. There is a typical bus system with convenient stops on campus. You can purchase a pre-tax bus pass through Access Services, too.
Click here to view the 2024 CWRU housing guide to explore different areas around town and compare housing cost in different areas. Below is some feedback from former PREP Scholars.
I live on Hampshire Road, Cleveland Heights, in an area called “Coventry.” From there to campus is about a 20-25 minute walk. Places in my area (i.e. street names Hampshire, Euclid Heights, Lennox Road, parts of Mayfield) are relatively cheap because you are further from campus (1-1.5 miles), but you are located close to a supermarket and some really nice places to go out. A road called Overlook is a bit closer to campus. In these areas you are surrounded by mostly graduate students.
There is also Little Italy (5-10 minute walk from campus). The area is pretty safe and you are surrounded by mostly undergraduates and some graduates. The apartments aren't the best around and aren’t always posted online, but they are usually pretty cheap.
There is Shaker Square. The apartments are pretty nice, large-ish (800-1,200 square feet), they are relatively cheap and it is a 30-45 minute walk to campus. Many graduate students, medical residents and postdocs live here. The 48/48A bus goes directly between Shaker Square and campus, which is about a 10 minute ride.
More expensive but really close (5-15 minute walk) option would be Waldorf Towers or The Triangle. Waldorf caters towards the medical students and, for some reason, The Triangle, caters to dental students (or so it seems).
The program staff are very good at helping with that.
In the fall you will feel like things are overwhelming and that you have more work than there is time to do it in, but you will survive and get through it. The PREP Directors have decades of experience for getting others into graduate school.
You may not agree with everything they tell you to do and you may resist (I certainly did sometimes) but they really have your best interests at heart. One of the best things they taught me was the importance of networking. You will learn that your grades tell the schools if you can do the academic work but your recommendations, personal statement, and research experience tells what kind of scientist you will be.
I networked like they taught me and I focused on getting "A's" in my graduate level courses. They will also provide you a tutor if needed. Just be prepared to work hard and don't hesitate to say to your mentors whether you need help academically or dealing with stress. When you are done, you will be ready.
They come in all different flavors. My PI was great! You have to match what you want to learn and your personality type. Some need a PI that will be there often and others like a more independent role. It is not just the PI you need to concern yourself with. You will also need to look at the dynamics of the lab. The grad students, postdocs, research assistants, and lab supervisors are the main people you will interact with. You will do a lot of rotations at the beginning and have mentoring to help you figure that out.
You are required to do at least 3 mini-rotations at the beginning. Although the PREP site lists a number of examples, there are well over a hundred labs you might work in. You can search the BSTP faculty trainer directory. That describes PhD trainers in many but not all areas. You could look up faculty in particular programs. Many of us liked just about everything, so narrowing it down was hard. That's why you will do more than one rotation. I would rotate in very different labs and get a feel for the techniques and research going on in each lab.
The PREP Directors will help you a lot in this context. He is not too keen on PREP Scholars going with assistant professors because they are still learning how to mentor, and he is very protective of his PREP scholars. He will really push to make sure that you have a mentor that matches your wants and needs.
Do you want a small lab where there are only a few grad students or one with a lot of students? Sometimes even if the PI is not available, he or she will have very good post-docs or students that will be willing to work with you. One of the PREP Scholars had that experience and loved it because of the research and the availability of the graduate students in her lab.
Look for availability and organization skills that match your personality, etc. Also ask lots of questions from the graduate students without being shy.
Remember that PREP scholars must work with R01-equivalent funded investigators, so they are actively pursuing interesting research. You might look up the PIs on PubMed and see their recent publications. This is a general way of seeing them, but it will get you off to a great start.
No, you don't. The Directors encourage us to take a month or two break prior to entering our new PhD or MD/PhD programs. Each graduate school and/or program has a different start time. We are expected to join programs in the summer or fall immediately following PREP.