Thank you to everyone on this forum, posting in this results forum for my DC.
GPA: 3.95 UW, 4.45 W (at the time of application)
SAT: 1570 (only attempt)
Math 2: 800
Chemistry: 790
Biology - Molecular: 800
ACT: not taken
APs: 12 (11- 5s) at the time of application +4 (attempting in May 2021)
Rank: No ranking in the School District, Class Size: 350+
IB: None
Recommendations: 5 (teachers & counselor) +2 (others); not seen any recommendation, assuming they are strong.
State: OOS for most BSMD universities
Gender: Prefer Not to Disclose
Income: Over 150K
Hooks: none
ORM
ECs:
Papers published: 1
Papers accepted for publication : 3
Papers in review with editor: 1
Job Shadowing Drs : 80+ hours
Local Hospital Volunteering : 80+ hours
Volunteering at Non-Profits and Local City Depts : Over 600 hours
Honors and Awards:
National Merit Scholarship Finalist
National AP Scholar (2020)
AP Scholar with Distinction (2019)
Brainbee - National Finalist 2X
Recipient of Point of Light Award
Over 10 years in Vocal and Percussion Music - 29 stage performances, and received several performance awards
Applied to below BSMDs:
Accepted:
- Stony Brook - Accepted with Presidential Scholarship ($40K - Honors College)
- CNU - Accepted 3/4 BS/MD with (30K Scholarship)
Interviewed and Rejected:
3. Hofstra - Accepted UG (Hons) with Presidential Scholarship(126K); Rejected post interview.
Rejected:
4. Baylor - Accepted UG (Hons) with Presidential/academic Scholarship(92K); Rejected pre interview.
5. FAU - Accepted UG Hons at Boca and Wilkes (with Full Ride - NMF) ; Rejected pre interview.
6. Rochester REMS - Accepted UG with Whipple Science and Research Scholarship - $ 22K/yr; Rejected pre interview
7. CWRU PPSP - Rejected pre interview, UG - Waitlisted
8. BU - Rejected pre interview
9. Brown - Rejected
Applied to following UG programs:
- U of Southern California: Accepted (half tuition - NMF Presidential Scholarship)
- UT Dallas - Accepted (Full Ride - NMF)
- U of the Pacific (private): Accepted (nearly full tuition - Powell Scholarship)
- U of San Francisco (private): Accepted (28.5K per year scholarship: Univ Scholar+Global Award)
- U of Nevada - Reno: Accepted for UG (Hons) with scholarship
- U of San Diego (private): Accepted with half tuition
- UCs (6): UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis - Accepted; UCLA & UC San Diego - Waitlisted; UC Irvine - Rejected.
- John Hopkins: Waitlisted.
- Vanderbilt: Waitlisted.
- University of Washington at St Louis: Waitlisted.
- Stanford: Rejected
- Harvard: Rejected
- Duke: Rejected
- U of Chicago: Rejected.
Decision: Stony Brook BSMD (4+4)
Reflection:
Some Things we learned:
- If BSMD is under consideration seriously, then cast a wider net to avoid disappointment at the last minute due to heavy competition, especially if you are ORM. We learned this after seeing Baylor2Baylor pre-interview rejection. DC chose to apply for the top 5 BSMDs initially (note that almost everyone applies to the same 5 BSMDs), after Baylor2Baylor rejection DC decided to apply for 4 additional BSMD programs. By that time most BSMD programs’ end dates were already passed by, so we missed the boat for the most. Per our experience, we realized we should have applied to a dozen BSMDs at least. Baylor BSMD rejection put us in steep descend from the clouds to the ground. LOL.
2.While ordering BSMS schools list by ranking (or tiers whatever), do not forget to add additional information like how many seats in each college, and OOS preference. We would have avoided Baylor in the first place had we known Baylor2Baylor had only 6 BSMD seats, with nearly half of them going to in-State. There was a lot of time and effort spent by us on Baylor for answering prompts in the common app, completing essays for the honors college and baylor2baylor essays, scholarship essays, and so on. We found DC shouldn’t have invested a vast amount of time on Baylor BSMD application with just 3 seats, especially from ORM category. If Baylor is your dream college, go ahead and apply, otherwise think about other colleges where you may have better chances, especially if you are in a time crunch. On the positive side, looking at the BSMD results thread for the past 3-4 years, some lucky ones were able to get into BSMD colleges with even 3-6 spots in each program. We found it was a waste of our time, as DC could have easily used that time to submit applications to another couple BSMDs.
3.As DC started applying to colleges DC refined essays further, based on this we learned better to apply to low priority in the college list first.
4.We sent application updates to the colleges late in the game, we received a couple of responses saying it was too late or some colleges closed their application update page. With that, we advise that better send your application updates to the colleges as early as possible, if you have any. If you send your application update towards the end of the admission cycle, probably it could not reach out to the committee on time or they might have in fact made your admission decision and a decision might have been documented in their system already.
5.Research last 3-4 years BSMD application result threads, and spend decent time on reflections so you will get a general idea of where you should be casting your net based on your GPA, ECs and other stats.
6.DC applied to 28 colleges finally, but our initial college list was about 18 only. One can face a similar situation as additional college choices come up (from college counselors, friends, and or CC). Be prepared to sign up for Senior year coursework accordingly. Juggling college applications and rigorous senior year coursework might be a challenge for some kids. Note that it’s not just application over the common app you are turning to, depending upon where you apply, you may need to address additional prompts for honors college admission, BSMD essays, scholarship applications, preparing profile videos (music or personal), Alumni interview, Interviews with Admission Counselors, and so on will be added to this list. Making yourself aware of all these ahead of time can help you to sign up for the right amount of senior year coursework accordingly. DC was busy with applications until 1/31, and then DC got some interviews for the scholarships randomly, an Alumni interview in Feb, and BSMD interviews in March, and Honors college interviews in April 1st week, so we felt at one point…damn…this was never-ending. LOL.
7.Have heard many cries and or disappointments in the BSMD thread while the valedictorian kids get rejected by the BSMD programs. While we feel bad to hear about their rejections, note that there will be always tight competition for almost every BSMD college with limited BSMD seats. Sometimes getting Ivy is relatively easier than getting a BSMD in a mid-tier college or even a low-tier BSMD college. Plus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a majority of BSMD colleges got even more applications for Fall 2021 (heard BU got nearly double the number of applications, and StonyBrook got 5000 instead of 2000 last year). For example for Fall 2021, there were 2,520 applicants to CWRU Pre-Professional Scholars Program with a target class of 12 to 20 incoming students. Assuming CWRU calls out 60 candidates for an interview, the odds of getting into the interview pool is about 2.3% Vs Harvard acceptance for the year 2021 was 5.2%. The numbers could change a bit between college to college, but I would like to give a snapshot of tight competition. Having said that, do not get disappointed if you did not get picked by your favorite BSMD college, because it’s not your fault at all.
8.There are a couple of no interview BSMD programs like…Augusta professional Scholars program, CNU, Toledo, Seton hall, Brown PLME, Wayne State Med Direct, and so on. Well, DC only applied to 2 in this list because DC decided to cast a shorter net initially, but you can explore the full list and see if any of these BSMD programs are interesting to you. In addition, one needs to figure out the BSMD college location and undergrad/medical school ranking before committing to applying for BSMD colleges. We realized much later that BSMD college ranking does not matter much, because even T20 premed undergrads goes to (largely but not all) middle tier, low tier, and even to unranked medical schools.
9.Why did DC pick Stony Brook BSMD?
CNU was always our backup option if none of the other BSMDs works for us and no competitive UG offered admission to DC. DC mostly debated between “USC half scholarship premed traditional route” Vs Stony Brook BSMD for nearly 4 weeks. USC picks about 4-5 students from DC’s high school each year from a pool of about 100 applicants. This is the lowest acceptance rate college after Stanford from DC’s High School. USC has been a target school for most students in DC’s high school. With that, I can say USC is considered prestigious in DC’s high school plus some hype/craziness added fire to it. Some of DC’s classmates cheered for DC’s USC acceptance not knowing anything about BSMD (forget StonyBrook) program at all. DC reached out to nearly 20 people including several medical students (some were in the BSMD path and some in the traditional route), prospective medical students, and also few doctors & parents (who were parents of BSMD or traditional path MD students) to get some insights. Almost all except 2 people suggested Stony Brook BSMD if DC’s goal is to become a doctor. Of those 2, one person ditched two low-tier BSMD offers for a full-ride USC pre-med UG, and the other person suggested taking the third alternative which is UT Dallas premed full ride and explore choices to become a TX in-state student and then pursue TX medical schools. Over 90% of the respondents suggested Stony Brook BSMD in response to my post in BSMD Fall 2021 Applicants CC forum and Interestingly in the USC Regular Decision CC forum too.
After thinking for a while, DC doesn’t want to explore the traditional path, instead, DC wanted to focus on research opportunities during Stony Brook BSMD, and strengthening residency application. We have come to know that, in order to stand out for a good instate MD school application, DC needs to maintain a 3.7+ GPA and about 520 MCAT score plus ECs, LORs etc. DC isn’t ready to take the risk in the traditional path while the golden ticket to StonyBrook medical school is already in the hand (with 3.4 GPA and 75 percentile MCAT is needed for matriculation, with no interview). DC visited StonyBrook medical school campus, spoke with 2-3 people there before committing. The cost was not a big concern for us, because the UG part expense difference between Stony Brook UG and USC premed UG was about $12K/year (USC UG costing us an additional $12K/year).
Watching and participating in CC forums during this application cycle was fun. We learned a lot from watching advice from senior members. With our 8 months of little experience, we can take questions if anyone has one for us. Good luck to everyone in whatever path you are on!