bs/do or ba/md

<p>Hey Im interested in becoming a doctor, and i would like to get into a college that would guarantee med. school. im a junior in one of the best high schools in new york. my gpa is around a 3.85 weighted, but will be brought up to around 4.0-4.1 this year, top 10%, estimated sat score of arond 2200. AP world history, AP bio, AP Physics, AP Chem(plan on taking in Senior year), Spanish 200/201 H from SUNY albany, AP Statiscis (plan on taking in senior year). also im going to do the Boces new visions health program next year. Im a weak in ecs, but, volunteering at hospital (should hit 200 hours), a lot of church work/volunteering, American Red Cross club, mu alpha theta math honors society 2 years. my top choices are the Sophie Davis BA/MD, and the NYIT BS/DO programs as they are close to home, but i dont really have any preference to either as I plan on primary care either how. also any other Ba/md or bs/do programs that are easier to get into in NY? What are my chances of getting into the above? thanks a lot</p>

<p>May I ask how you know you are certain you want to be a doctor? </p>

<p>You're EC's dont particularly show much interest in medicine. You must remember that almost everyone (premeds or not) volunteers at a hospital and does some sort of volunteer work.</p>

<p>A very important admissions factor with these programs is to show something particularly unique and to really convince them that you want to be a doctor. After all, they will be holding a spot in their medical school for you, they dont want to waste it.</p>

<p>The people who I know who have gotten into these programs have taken part in some pretty interesting research with drug/biotech companies. They have top notch grades (4.1+) and SAT's that are intense. </p>

<p>Im curious to hear what high school you are from because I am from NY and I graduated from a highly ranked high school...you can message me. Perhaps I will be able to help you more if I am familiar with your area.</p>

<p>yes im positive i want to be a doctor.</p>

<p>i think the research would be very interesting, but ive never heard of these programs. Can u show me some examples?
Anything else i should do?</p>

<p>thanks a lot for your help :)</p>

<p>why do you want to be a dr...... (i'm asking before i give your further advice)</p>

<p>u want to be a "doctor" or do u want to practice medicine?</p>

<p>make sure u want the 2nd half as well...</p>

<p>i want to practce medicine, becuase i know it sounds corny or w/e but i actaully want to help ppl in my job and also make a good amount of money. i know u can make good money in other occupations but which othey one actaully accomplisehs anything in life? you just make money for your buisness leader, and doctors make just as much money and help others. so, what are my chances of getting into those colleges? Anything to maximize my chances? ill do some sort of medical research internship this summer. </p>

<p>thanks</p>

<p>"you just make money for your buisness leader, and doctors make just as much money and help others."</p>

<p>To the best of my knowledge, most doctors are now working to make money for their business leader, whether it's an HMO or a hospital. The days where doctors practiced independently, made house calls, and didn't carry malpractice insurance are long gone. Don't think you'll ever be free of money constraints.</p>

<p>lol i gues your right but eh becoming a doctor has been a long time goal of mine. and just a question, is there going to be many more doctors from our generation? whenever i ask in my science classes what people want to do, so many of them say become a doctor... was it always like this or are there gonna be many more doctos?</p>

<ul>
<li>do you guys think i have a good chance for a BA/MD or BS/DO program? (particularly CUNY/sophie davis and NYIT's BS/DO)</li>
</ul>

<p>Yeah, everybody always says they're premed and very few end up pursuing that goal as they learn more about the field.</p>

<p>Second, be careful not to demean the contributions that other professions make to the world. Microsoft may put out problematic products, but there's no question that they - or at least, the computer industry as a whole - revolutionized the lives of many, improved quality of life and standards of living, and some of the crucial players involved were the ones making business and marketing decisions. Lawyers defend human rights around the world, argue for constitutional protections, and encourage property rights to promote innovation. Investment bankers help direct venture capital towards products that are "valuable" for their owners - but they're valuable for their owners precisely because people are willing to spend money on them because they feel like the products are valuable.</p>

<p>How different would your life be without consumer-market-research-driven computer software? Rights that have been protected in court cases - voting, search and seizure, desegregated education? Venture capital for biotechnology or computer startups? Investment into pharmaceutical, real estate, or transportation products?</p>

<p>Doctors are far from the only profession that helps people. They are certainly not among the best few compensated professions, especially if you take time costs into account. And they are not the only profession in the world that makes money while helping people.</p>

<p>just wondering , are there any other occupations that make that kind of money pretty much guaranteed once you get out of college? (>100,000)</p>

<p>1.) Notice that doctors in general do not make the salary you're talking about - many family practitioners, pediatricians, geriatricians, etc. don't.</p>

<p>2.) Notice that even those that do don't make that money until 7-12 years after college, so it's certainly not "once you get out of college". Until then, you're paying $50,000 a year and then making perhaps $45,000.</p>

<p>3.) There are no jobs I can think of that will pay that much in guaranteed salary, although some kinds of investment banking have those opportunities available through bonuses etc. your first year.</p>

<p>Your best bet is through the business world - consulting, investment banking, venture capital, etc. Finance jobs in particular escalate rapidly into the $350,000 mean range (see salary.com). Very, very few doctors make that much, and since money early matters more than money late, no medical specialty can ever hope to approach that kind of lifetime earning.</p>

<p>Some plastic surgeons or television doctors could probably make more than your average corporate financier, but no more than a dozen or so per year across the country make more money than that as doctors. (Obviously, for example, the Frist family started a hospital chain, Michael Crichton/Tess Gerritson write books, etc. Many doctors own facilities and make money through those.)</p>

<p>If you want money, go into business. I'm not making an ethical or happiness argument. I'm making a financial argument. Go into the business world.</p>

<p>There are others jobs which will actually "help" people more, one of them is nursing. Nurses do a lot of the helping for the patients. They are the ones with the patient for the majority of the time. The doctors usually are the ones going in and out, the nurses stay and comfort and help.
Another thing with much less school, much less bs, is Physicians Assistant. Pay is usually 100 grand or so depending on area, and you don't have to deal with doctor b.s. you help the patients all day, not much paperwork etc. They are pretty much docs minus stupid bs that comes with being a doc</p>

<p>Just as a reference for your question concerning the number of doctors coming from our generation...</p>

<p>Im a freshman at the University of Virginia and my advisor told me that something along the lines of 1/3 of my class was "declared premed" meaning that they are taking the premed courseload and have intentions of continuing the premed track, since there is NO PREMED MAJOR (if i hear that again i might go nuts...)</p>

<p>Now i have just met with her again for next semester course advising and she told me that 1/2 of her students alone had already dropped premed and that she heard about 1/3 of the original "declared premeds" have already dropped.</p>

<p>Now remember this is still first semester freshman year, the very tip of the iceberg. Usually from UVA, approximately 350 end up applying to medical school when you started with approximately 1200 premeds.</p>

<p>So next time you hear that guy in your HS senior year AP bio class tell you hes gonna be a doctor...take it with a grain of salt</p>

<p>im positive i want to be a doctor,
so what are my chances of getting into Sophie davis ba/md, NYIT Bs/DO, or any other Bs/DO programs in NY? (Or ba/md)</p>

<p>thanks for all the help!!!</p>

<p>I think you should go for MD programs, such as Sophie Davis. DO is sometimes considered not as good as an MD, although there's no proof that it's inferior to MD. It would also be wise to seriously consider the traditional route also because then you'd get a wider choice of medical schools.</p>

<p>yeah but the do programs are easier to get into right? im thinking sophie davis/othre BA/MD programs as my first choice, and BS/DO schools as safety.
also about the traditional route, the MCAT/gpa requirments seem much lower at the combined programs compared with getting into med. school the traditonal way. i wouldnt want to do pre med and then get screwed when i dont get into med school. i know the BA/MD programs are no easy ride but at least they offer some sort of guarantee.</p>

<p>so what do you guys think about my chances of getting into these schools? Is it ok that im considering BS/DO programs (particularly NYIT's) as safety schools, or are those hard to get into as well?</p>

<p>thanks again :)</p>

<p>I've got to say, as an MD, that these posts are pretty amusing. </p>

<p>I wanted to be a doc in high school and also applied to what were, at the time 6 year BA/MD programs. Fortunately, I didn't get admitted. These programs are very difficult to get into. I assume you would need to demonstrate a huge IQ as well as a true commitment to medicine based on your EC's, combined with a great personality (assessed via interview) in order to be admitted.</p>

<p>If you are going into medicine "to help people" you are going to be very disappointed. Yeah it's great when a patient you've done a lot for thanks you. But most of the time people complain that you charge too much, aren't available or even sue you. If you want to help people, do somthing else.</p>

<p>If you love biology and science and want to make a decent, predicatable livelihood, medicine is a great choice. You won't make as much money as your friends who go into business but they are going to be taking risks that you will not have to take. I, personally, feel that most business people earn their money. In addition you can make money for most of your life as an MD.</p>

<p>The way to get into medical school is by doing research. Med schools really love research. You need to do this to get a good residency as well. This assumes you get excellent grades in college. </p>

<p>I went to Cornell Med, as did my husband.</p>

<p>DO's are still very well qualified you know...but yea they are generally less respected in terms of the prestige factor. But one of the presidents of one the hospitals in Toledo is indeed a DO, and I shadowed him, and he was an awesome doctor regardless</p>