I am a junior in high school, with the aspirations of becoming a cardiologist in the shortest amount of time possible (7 years).
I am the first child from generations of immigrants that is going to a college in America, so I am new to all of this.
I need to know: What is the best BA/MD accelerated program 7-yr program there is out there overall?
Take a look here: http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/BA_MD_programs.html
The best ones would probably be Brown and Northwestern. However, don’t just think you’ll get into one of these programs. It’s hard to get into these schools, let alone an advanced program that only accepts ~20 students a year out of thousands of applicants.
Also, becoming a cardiologist does not take 7 years. It takes 4 years of undergrad and 4 years of med school (7 years total if you get into one of these accelerated programs), and then another 6-8 years in specialization. In total it will take between 13 and 16 years to become a cardiologist, so think carefully before setting yourself up for this path.
BA / MD programs are extremely competitive, who wouldn’t want to trim a year off of college and be guaranteed the holy grail of medical school admission.
So the answer is the best one is the one that you are actually accepted to and that you can afford (some are very pricey with 7 years of private school tuition which can be half a million dollars at say Drexel).
Also these programs vary, some guarantee admission without MCAT scores or a lot of prereqs and reasonable GPAs and some are not really guarantees at all (if you need stellar MCATS + GPA + then what is your program really doing for you).
Northwestern is probably the best out there - highly ranked undergrad and med school with a relatively easy requirement of 3.5 GPA. No MCAT is required.
You should ignore all the published Gpa requirements from ANY bs/md programs. Those are the minimum requirements not reality, the accepted applicants have much higher Gpa than 3.5.
@artloversplus I think the above posters were not referring to the high school GPA required to enter the combined program as a freshman but the college GPA required of the admitted students to continue on to medical school. You should very much pay attention to that GPA requirement of a combined program.
EDIT: and HPME is an 8 year program and thus would not satisfy the OP.
I don’t like accelerated programs, but FWIW, UMKC has a 6 year program: http://med.umkc.edu/bamd/
My mistake IWBB, I thought the topic was on a HS student seeking admissions to a BS/MD program. Yes, if the BS/MD requires a GPA of 3.5, it must be paid utmost attention by the attendee. But for a HS applicant, he should worry about to get in first before even pay any attention to the UG GPA requirements. And to get into a BS/MD program is a very difficult process, as discussed in an up thread. There is no such thing as “The BEST” program, every program is a lottery for any applicant.
If your state school has a BS/MD program that’s your best bet. If you get accepted you will most likely be offered a good scholarship(possibly full tuition) for an undergrad portion and your star school will be significantly cheaper then any private school. Those programs are VERY hard to get into. Aside from good GPA and SAT/ACT scores you need some clinical experience. Like shadowing and volunteering in hospital. My son applied to several out of high school. Got to the interview round in our state school but ultimately didn’t get in. He had very high stats but no clinical exposure. I’m convinced that was part of the problem. These programs are harder to get into then Ivies.
Anybody is lucky to be accepted to any bs/md or ba/md.
Get very high HS GPA, great SAT/ACT, do Med. Research, volunteering, shadowing and apply widely.
Actually non-accelerated 4+4 is preferable by some applicants. These will allow you a normal college experience while providing great peace of mind. But whatever you prefer if you will have choices. My D. was accepted to 3, all at in-state publics. She choose 4+4 non-accelerated and eventually applied out of it. Yes, if accepted, you most likely will be on full tuition (at least!) Merit at UG. In our state the difference in cost between state med. schools and privates is not that significant, about $30k+ in total cost, so eventually D. had chosen the private Med. School.
Best wishes!
HPME is an 7 or 8 year program.
Northwestern is best, BU then maybe brown next- if Baylor has one still amazing med school. BU has reputation about being real difficult undergrad program
Another thought…my father got to go to medical school without graduating from college. If you are well rounded with activities…great GPA in college and have high MCAT…they do early admission shaving a year or two. He always jokes about not having a college degree!