This is a place holder for discussing college (undergraduate and medical) experience of BSMD applicants.
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My DS received admissions to Albaby/RPI and BU SMED for 2017, but chose to attend Vanderbilt with full-tuition scholarship. He would like to try for better ranked medical schools (including CA in-state) and felt BSMD programs are too expensive. He was offered $25,000 per year scholarship at RPI.
@srk2017 Thanks for starting this thread.
All: The plan is to keep this thread as a running thread for ever. 3 primary objectives for this thread.
@GoldenRock - Thanks for expanding on my initial post. Also, please tag people who participating in previous years threads if you remember any.
Not sure if this applies to me, but am posting anyways.
Applied UMKC BAMD (interviewed / not admitted), Rice/Baylor (not selected for interview), and Brown PLME (not selected).
Committed to Rice UG. Will hopefully remember to come back here in 4 years to update status re: med school admissions.
Thanks @MedSciBud. Yes, you are one of the expected participants 
You donāt need to wait for four year. Please update as you progress at Rice. Tell us once in a while how you are doing with classes, research and other medical related ECs.
I posted this in the BS/MD official discussion but Iād just like to put it here for future reference. My sister was accepted out of high school to a drexel affiliate BS/MD, transferred out after first year to an ivy league, took a year off after undergrad, then got accepted to Drexel again among other MD and DO schools. Reason for transferring was college life, most definitely not academic rigor
DC is attending RPI/AMC BSMD. For DC traditional option was never in play, simply because in our opinion we feel that competing against 10x as many applicants 4 years later was just a risk we were not willing to take. Luckily for DC, multiple BSMD options presented itself and RPI/AMC was chosen. Chose RPI/AMC over the other BSMDās due to scholarship money offered and the feeling of being a ābetter fitā. Was very impressed with the professionalism of the AMC staff we met at interview day and felt they handled the process much better than any of the other schools which granted interviews. First year was for the most part good. Excellent academically, more challenging in terms of learning to grow up and live on your own. Was told that RPI professors are approachable and very willing to help. Course work has become progressively more challenging as time went by but grading was fair. Very happy with decision to go BSMD.
DD applied to a few mid-tier BSMD programs and was lucky to have a few admission offers. She chose to attend Temple BS/MD because of full-tuition scholarship, proximity to home (driving distance) and based on recommendations of students we know and teachers from her school. She had some other UG alternatives in Engineering and Computer Science.
@srk2017 thanks for starting the thread. Ours is same situation as @MedSciBud . Applied to few top BS/MD programs, but did not work out. DS was deciding between Cornell and Rice and finally made decision to attend Rice UG. I will try to post some updates on how my DS is doing academically and his preparation for traditional route. Long ways to go. Another suggestion is we can use this thread to share MCAT and any other resources that may be helpful for MD application process. Collective knowledge is better than individual knowledge. Good luck to all the applicants and parents who went through the painful applicaiton process. I am glad its over.
Note to students who are going in the traditional route, specifically in the top tier/IVR league schools. Though you are all very talented and capable, first check and get the details from the Pre-Med office the requirements to fulfill for your school. Then for the 1st semester, donāt do no more than 2 science course with lab to fulfill the pre-med req. That will help to get a feel for your college and your water mark so that you donāt put your self in a situation which may damage your grade.
I keep reading the threads in the Pre-Med topics and see all kind of challenges / situations students face. There are few dedicated volunteers who provide lot of information on everything ranging all topics.
To expand the on the point that @GoldenRock stated, IMHO it may be helpful to not use every single AP credit from HS in the first year of college. I am speaking to those on BSMD path. Reason being is that even though every student on this board is exceptional academically, there is still a difference in the level of rigor between HS and college. Especially in weed out classes like Chem or Physics, not using the AP credit and basically seeing something you have seen before can really help nail a high GPA that first semester and give you some breathing room to maintain the GPA requirement to stay in the program. Not to mention boost your confidence to prove to yourself that you belong (some students are by nature are very confident, I am speaking for those who are not). Iām only suggesting to do this for 1 science class in fall of freshman year.
Thank you for starting this @srk2017 !!
My DD applied to most BSMD programs, top, mid and low tiers. She was turned down from all top tier programs and most low tier programs, and was offered admission to multiple mid-tier programs.
She visited the undergraduate colleges wherever she was offered BSMD admission, took BSMD options off her list where she felt like a total misfit, read through the conditions of maintaining the standing for remaining programs and decided to go with the NJMS program as it offered her the best fit and least stressful conditions for continuation into MD.
Med school choices: She had a really hard time turning down UH and FAU because of the amazing faculty and management she met in those schools. Texas is known for low fees and FAU offered full ride to UG and also waived in-state tuition and fees for MD - very attractive from financial perspective also for parents and student. It was her call finally to go to NJMS. We joke that she picked the farthest school from home, but her decision was based on the fact that they require reasonable and MCAT, vs stringent GPA and/or MCAT requirements at other schools that seemed to contribute to very stressful UG years. The stress levels were evident in the current BSMD students she interacted with at these schools, and she chose to go where the students seemed most content.
Undergrad: She was lucky to have multiple undergrad options for NJMS between TCNJ, NJIT and Rutgers Newark. After visiting all three, she was drawn to NJIT more than other UGs as she did not want a secluded rural atmosphere, and found NJITās urban setting, proximity to NY and easy access to research/ healthcare opportunities most appealing. NJIT and Rutgers Newark are right next to each other but she found NJIT community much more welcoming than Rutgers. It also helped that NJIT offered her a full-ride to UG. We heard concerns about safety around NJIT, but felt quite at home (compared to San Francisco, downtown San Jose) during our visits there.
UG only options: She didnāt try too much for regular BS except for Rice, which she loved and was admitted to. I spied some sadness when she withdrew from Rice, and we talked to her about it. She said her regret was of not getting into Rice/Baylor rather than of turning down Rice for undergrad. Oh well! Of course, she applied to UCs and was admitted to Berkeley, UCSD, UCSB, UCD, UCI and UCR with scholarships.
Parentsā perspective: I was so clueless when DDās journey started, and still feel somewhat clueless. We went through all the emotions that our child did through every single acceptance, interview invitation, post-interview reactions and roller coaster ride for each BSMD acceptance/ rejection. I stressed out, maybe more than others due to my lack of knowledge, about each school, what they look for, negative experiences, shared concerns etc. I still worry about how DD will adapt to cold weather in NJ. I āvirtual-metā many āneighborsā in this journey, including @GoldenRock , @srk2017 , @Empire007 , @WayOutWestMom , @mom2collegekids , @dblazer , @bearchichi , @texaspg , @narkor , @grtd2010 , and many more - all of whom were generous with their time and advice, and helped keep it sane for us and our DD. Ultimately, where you go for college does not matter as much as how you feel when you start there, and I can say that, thanks to these folks and many more, our DD feels successful and confident in starting this journey. For that - thank you all!!
Iāll drop in time to time to report on her journey at NJIT-NJMS.
@srk2017 Thank you for creating the thread. We are also in same boat as @ MedSciBud and @AllenTx15. My DS applied few BS/MD programs and he went to 2 interviews.
Fianlly it did not work out. My dear son was debating between Vanderbilt, UC Berkley and Rice. Finally, he decided to attend Rice Undergrad.
I will try to post updates from my end.
@cc2021 - Thanks for the update. What was the reason to pick Rice over Vandy and Berkeley? GLol to your DS!
In UC Berkley, he got into EECS program. He does not want to go in that path.
Choosing Rice, he got good amount of scholarship than Vandy that is the one reason and also we went to Rice, we thought more research opportunities for kids since Texas Medical Center is there across the road that is the second reason.
@cc2021 - Getting EECS is @ UCB, but he made a good choice by not taking it as a premed. Vandy also has medical school in same campus, but Rice is an excellent given the scholarship. I meant say GL earlier one part I donāt like about CC is 15 min limitation for edits.
Wow! Congrats to your son! Also just curious but what were your sonās stats to get into the Albany BS/MD program? I heard that medical program is very competitive, so Iām just trying to see what types of kids get in those type of programs
Most BS/MD applicants (including my son) perfect or close to perfect stats. ECs, essays, gender, ethnicity and location are big factors in colleges decision making.
When my DD started the application process her goal was to get accepted into a good BS/MD program and she applied to a number of these programs. She also applied to Ivies as a backup in case she did not get into the programs.
By the end of the application process, she was accepted at NW HPME, Brown, BU SMED, Case, TCNJ/NJMS, Rutgers/NJMS, Penn State and RPI/AMC programs.
She was also accepted at Yale, Stanford, Princeton, Cornell, and Georgetown UG programs.
After much consideration and debate she decided to pursue UG degree at Stanford as she felt that this will give her the best UG exposure and experience. She decided to take a chance and give up all the programs. At the end she knows this is a big risk, but she felt this that this is what she wants to do and we supported herā¦
There is no right or wrong decision - it all depends on your situationā¦ As long as she has a good time academically and otherwise at Stanford, I think we will be very happy. Cheersā¦