Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences Master’s

The iBMS Master’s program exposes you to a broad range of fields that cut across traditional disciplinary boundaries, gives you a solid foundation in different scientific disciplines, and prepares you for your future medical or research career. This competitive two-year program is for students intending to apply for admission to a variety of professional programs. This program allows you to strengthen your academic profile and demonstrate success in a longitudinal fashion. The design of the program also allows for sufficient time to incorporate non-academic experiences that may be needed to take the next step in your career path. Each student can explore their interests as they navigate the program, and receives support and guidance from faculty mentors.

Is the iBMS Program Right For Me?

The two-year program track is for you if you intend to apply for admission to a variety of professional programs such as medicine, dentistry, a physician’s assistant program, or to research-centric programs. This competitive program exposes you to a broad range of fields, and the design of this program allows you to address core competencies expected for students entering subsequent professional programs, such as medical school.

It also allows you to strengthen your foundational knowledge in core disciplines, enhance written and oral communication skills, and gain self-directed learning skills. In this program, you will be closely mentored by the faculty of the GSBMS. Faculty mentoring helps guide you through the application process if you wish to continue into more advanced programs.

Although there is no guarantee of acceptance to the NYMC SOM, students who have successfully completed this two-year program have entered LCME-accredited allopathic and osteopathic medical schools, dental schools and physician assistant programs. Some students use this program as a platform to enter doctoral programs and jobs in the pharmaceutical industry.

Learn more about our guaranteed interview agreements with several colleges and universities.

Program Admissions

The iBMS Master's Program accepts applications directly through the PostBac Centralized Application Service (PostBacCAS) or Touro's Online Application System. Applications are reviewed once they are complete and/or verified. We review applications with a holistic approach, identifying the strength of each applicant. With respect to students who wish to apply to medical or dental schools, we do expect that applicants have completed pre-requisite courses.

Specific Degree Requirements for the iBMS Program

Course requirements are completed over a two-year timeframe. Although many of the iBMS courses are equivalent in content and depth to classes taught in medical school such as biochemistry, physiology and cell biology, the timing of these courses are adjusted to allow you to modify your learning approach and to master all topic areas. The expanded timing of courses allows you to gain stronger critical reasoning skills that will be invaluable in future endeavors, whether that will be medical school, teaching or working in a research laboratory. 

Several of our courses are designed as seminar-based courses that allow students to build stronger communication skills and demonstrate their knowledge base learned in foundational courses. To complete a master’s degree, students are required to achieve a final GPA of 3.0 or greater. All students are required to write a research thesis or a literature review. The literature review is a scholarly review of the scientific literature of a defined area of research or disease process. For both documents, students are required to define questions, identify and analyze data from their own research or credible sources, as well as submit a coherent manuscript and address feedback.

Core courses:

• Cell Biology
• General Biochemistry courses
• Mammalian Physiology courses
• Selected Topics courses

Elective courses include (not limited to):

• Endocrine Pharmacology
• Immunology
• Microbiology
• Pathology
• Pharmacology
• Virology

For this M.S. program, you will have the option to choose an academic track tailored to your goals. Students enrolled in Track A are required to submit a literature review, whereas students in Track B who wish to pursue a research career are required to complete a research thesis describing their independent research.

Kaplan Test Prep

We have partnered with Kaplan Test Prep to allow GSBMS students in good standing to register for one of Kaplan’s MCAT prep courses at a substantial discount from the regular retail price. Online courses are available throughout the year; our academic advisors help you decide if/when such a course would best fit into your schedule and planned application to medical school. If there is sufficient interest, an in-person course with a live instructor can also be arranged.