Information for Participants

The 2026 survey period will open on Monday, September 14, and close on Friday, September 25.

All students who began a Rackham Ph.D. program in Fall 2019 and beyond will receive an invitation to participate in the 2026 MDES survey.

Yes! If you received an invitation to participate in the MDES survey, then you are indeed eligible. We want to hear about the full range of student experiences, including from those who just started their programs, those who recently defended their dissertations, and everyone in between. We also want to hear from those in dual degree programs such as the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) and Student-Initiated Degree Programs (SIDP or IIDP).

If you received a survey invitation directly from the study team, then yes, you will receive a payment, as long as you complete the payment form upon completing the survey. There is also an option to decline the payment for those who do not want to be compensated.

In 2026, all members of the study population who complete the survey will receive $20. The payment will be sent within 10 to 15 business days of completing the survey.

The purpose of MDES is to advance research on how ph.D. students develop over the entire trajectory of graduate study. The survey data is used in studies of various aspects of the PhD student experience. You can see results from previous studies here and you can examine the interactive data here.

Only study team members are able to view identifiable data. All data is stored on protected university servers with restricted access.

Yes, all survey data is held confidential. Survey responses are NOT accessible to graduate departments/programs or Rackham leadership. When study team members analyze and report data, survey responses are aggregated across respondents such that no individual can be identified.

Yes, to improve our communications, we may track whether you open emails about MDES or click links within them, using standard HTML-based tracking. To better reach specific segments of the Ph.D. student population, we may also combine this information with university data about your demographic and academic background. All data is stored on protected, restricted-access university servers and is not shared with third parties. See the full MDES Communications Privacy Policy for more details.