My son is a potential candidate for BSMD program and he wants to be a doctor too, but I was told by some that getting a good specialization and residency is difficult for candidates from BS MD programs.
As you may know only very few BS MD programs like Brown, Case western, North western, Rice and BU have good research and not just primary care.
I want to give him good guidance, but I need advice for it.
@PVNova, do you know what specialties your son is interested in? It’s really hard to know this early on in the game in high school since he doesn’t have much experience to go off of. Quite honestly, most students change their mind entirely on the specialty they wish to go for from the 1st year to the last year. Even in residency, there are those who change their mind and decide to subspecialize. For example, if he was interested in Gastroenterology, he would apply for an Internal Medicine residency first in med school, and then apply for a GI fellowship during residency to subspecialize (subspecialize means you do a fellowship after an initial residency). Or if he decided he liked working with children initially, he could do a Pediatrics residency and then subspecialize in one of the organ systems (GI, Cardiology, Hematology/Oncology, Pulmonary, etc.). Even if he didn’t want to do a Pediatric residency, he could still work with children as other residency specialties – Derm, Ophtho, Anesthesiology, Radiology, ENT, Neurology, etc. have pediatric fellowships that can be done after the initial residency is completed. There are a lot of combinations and options.
Most medical schools have you rotate through the required clerkships in the third year of medical school as an accreditation requirement: Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Family Medicine, Neurology, and Psychiatry. Medical students apply during their last year of medical school for residency programs.
The name of your medical school isn’t everything, and that alone won’t be enough if you’re interested in a residency specialty that happens to be competitive. You’ll still need good grades and clerkship grades, good board scores, and research, but the main difference among schools is usually the amount of resources they have for their students readily available on site – whether that’s for board preparation, research involvement, the specific hospitals they rotate at in the third year which are usually led by academic clinical faculty who write letters of recommendation, etc. It doesn’t mean that if you have a big name medical school, you can get to any residency you want, if you don’t have the scores & grades, but med schools like you mentioned Case, Northwestern, etc. tend to have those extra resources readily available – either because it’s part of the infrastructure, or they’re located in a city in which those things are readily available. And thus, because of that, those programs can be relatively more competitive and their medical schools tend to run more expensive since they happen to be private med schools. That being said there are also excellent public state schools that are cheaper and have more opportunities than even some private medical schools. It all depends what you’re comparing.
Are there any programs he’s thinking of specifically? I think a good start would be getting the Medical School Admissions Requirements book, and flipping thru and looking at their mission statements. You can tell a lot based on that the philosophy of the medical school. I think the best thing to do is find a BS/MD program that is the right “fit”.
This is a good start to stratify medical schools based on what you’re looking for: https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/370872/35questions.html
@Roentgen, I have looked through various BS/MD threads, and all of them recommend extensive volunteering, medical exposure, and research. How would one go about doing these things given the volunteering age requirements in most hospitals and labs? How do you even begin finding a research position if you have only taken, say, introductory high school chemistry and biology? In what year of high school is it absolutely crucial to begin volunteering and researching, and what if one can’t go around the age requirements? What would you recommend to get into BS/MD programs? What ACT/SAT score is desirable? What classes are most important (AP Chemistry, AP Biology, Physics, AP Calculus, etc., etc.) Thanks so much in advance!
@Roentgen Thanks a lot for detail explanation. He is very interested in alzheimer research and neuro related field.
@logosoverpathosm There are multiple opportunities that a kids can participate. You can be part of local scouts / church to volunteer. Yes hospitals have 16 years minimum requirement to volunteer.
@logosoverpathosm He can also shadow a doctor
No problem! What he can do is apply to the normal undergraduate places he would normally go to if BA/MD and BS/MD programs didn’t factor into the equation, and then apply to some of the combined programs he wouldn’t mind going to if he got an acceptance, based on the medical school. If he’s interested in programs like Brown, Northwestern, Case Western, etc. then for some of them he may need to take the SAT subject exams that they specify in order to apply. His standardized SAT/ACT score will probably have to be pretty good as well, so he should try and prepare as best as he can.
Neurology as a residency isn’t competitive, although the very top programs in Neurology, will, of course, be competitive, but even those aren’t assured coming from the schools you mentioned. This is assuming of course, that he sticks with Neurology, when things will likely change, and of course there are related fields like: Neurosurgery, Radiology (w/Neurorads fellowship after), etc.
@logosoverpathsm, to answer your questions:
So, for research, often times colleges & universities & even medical schools take part in STEM research opportunities that serve as a good jump off point for those interested in medicine, usually in the summer. That’s a good way to network your way in to participate in a scientifically related and/or medically related research project.
For healthcare volunteering, I would start with private practices of physcians and work your way up to hospitals, and if you can, hospitals in academic medical centers that have an attached medical school, so you can see rotating medical students and residents.
My guess is the usual age to be allowed to do volunteering/research is what, 15/16? That’s perfectly fine. You definitely don’t have to be doing stuff like that as a freshman 14 year old. So it’s not crucial to do it a specific year, necessarily. You’ll have to deal with the logistics that are available in your area regarding the minimum age that a hospital volunteer must be. You can also participate in healthcare activities that might not be hospital related but are peripherally related-- fundraising for cancer research, working at a blood bank, etc.
See my post above, there are books that go into great detail the areas of the application to buff up on: grades/class rank, healthcare volunteeering experiences (including but not limited to physician shadowing), research, school extracurriculars, honors/awards, etc. There is no set formula, but the more competitive ones tend to want some type of research participation as well as having participated in healthcare volunteering activities.
I would aim for as high as you can, but I think an SAT of 2100 and higher is a good goal. Some programs are more competitive and selective and thus can demand higher standardized test scores, but if you look on websites, you’ll see the average accepted or matriculant SAT or ACT score.
I would say to try to take the most rigorous and challenging coursework that is available at your high school and still do well academically, esp. in the sciences and math.
A good reason to take AP Chemistry, AP Biology, and AP Physics, etc. is that they serve as a good way to expose you to the material in premedical coursework. So if you end up doing the traditional route, you’re retreading the same water, except this time for college credit and a grade. It is not a requirement to have all of them completed before you graduate high school, although I did, in case I ended up doing the traditional route, which I would have been perfectly fine with. Most students take about 2 – one AP science in junior year and one AP science in senior year.
@Roentgen Thank you, I just saw this. It is very helpful!