A few things:
If you are sure that you want to be a doctor, would it be smart to do a seven year medical program, or just do the traditional 4 year undergrad and 4 year medical school. Do employers after med school care if you did a 7 year program, or do they prefer the traditional method?
Also, which seven year medical programs are the best? Are some better than others? Will any 7 year program land me a job in the medical field upon graduation?
If you are accepted into a 7 year medical program, are you tied to it for the full 7 years, or are you allowed to apply to other medical schools after you take the MCAT?
Thanks
There is no general answer. Some students prefer accelerated program, others prefer 4 + 4. Having 3 acceptances to different combined bs/md programs, my own D. preferred non-accelerated program. She took advantage of regular college experiences that 4 years at college allowed her to have. She was not any different from the general student body at her UG, including the pre-meds outside of her program, with one significant advantage (for her!) - she had a guaranteed spot in one Med. School as long as she met the requirements of her program. Realizing at the end that she wants to expand her horizons beyond her program, she applied out of her program (while retaining spot at the Med. School in a program) and gained acceptance to 3 additional Med. Schools.
There was no advantage for her to be in accelerated 6-7 years program, which she had been accepted. She was on full tuition Merit scholarship in college for all 4 years, there were no hurry. Again, each program is different, some do not require MCAT, the others while require an MCAT have different score requirement. Program that D. ended up attending, required only score of 27 (the old MCAT). In order for you to understand that it is actually very low, some have a score of 25 on the first diagnostic MCAT before they start preparing and before they take some med. School requirements, like Physics.
OK, after reflecting on the D’s experience, I have to mention that the acceptance to combined bs/md is very selective (some think that the selectivity is the same or exceeds the acceptance to Ivy’s). Most do not aim at “best” program when applying to bs.md’s, but rather applying very widely. One has more chances at these programs at in-state publics. The other details you need to research on each program website, the difference between programs are multiple and not limited to few categories. However, I would not dwell too much on theoretical question which one to choose. First, gain acceptance to few, then decide which one to attend.