This post was meant for @mygrad2021
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Thank you to everyone on this forum, posting in this results forum for my DC.
GPA: 3.95 UW, 4.45 W (at the time of application)
SAT: 1570 (only attempt)
Math 2: 800
Chemistry: 790
Biology - Molecular: 800
ACT: not taken
APs: 12 (11- 5s) at the time of application +4 (attempting in May 2021)
Rank: No ranking in the School District, Class Size: 350+
IB: None
Recommendations: 5 (teachers & counselor) +2 (others); not seen any recommendation, assuming they are strong.
State: OOS for most BSMD universities
Gender: Prefer Not to Disclose
Income: Over 150K
Hooks: none
ORM
ECs:
Papers published: 1
Papers accepted for publication : 3
Papers in review with editor: 1
Job Shadowing Drs : 80+ hours
Local Hospital Volunteering : 80+ hours
Volunteering at Non-Profits and Local City Depts : Over 600 hours
Honors and Awards:
National Merit Scholarship Finalist
National AP Scholar (2020)
AP Scholar with Distinction (2019)
Brainbee - National Finalist 2X
Recipient of Point of Light Award
Over 10 years in Vocal and Percussion Music - 29 stage performances, and received several performance awards
Applied to below BSMDs:
Accepted:
- Stony Brook - Accepted with Presidential Scholarship ($40K - Honors College)
- CNU - Accepted 3/4 BS/MD with (30K Scholarship)
Interviewed and Rejected:
3. Hofstra - Accepted UG (Hons) with Presidential Scholarship(126K); Rejected post interview.
Rejected:
4. Baylor - Accepted UG (Hons) with Presidential/academic Scholarship(92K); Rejected pre interview.
5. FAU - Accepted UG Hons at Boca and Wilkes (with Full Ride - NMF) ; Rejected pre interview.
6. Rochester REMS - Accepted UG with Whipple Science and Research Scholarship - $ 22K/yr; Rejected pre interview
7. CWRU PPSP - Rejected pre interview, UG - Waitlisted
8. BU - Rejected pre interview
9. Brown - Rejected
Applied to following UG programs:
- U of Southern California: Accepted (half tuition - NMF Presidential Scholarship)
- UT Dallas - Accepted (Full Ride - NMF)
- U of the Pacific (private): Accepted (nearly full tuition - Powell Scholarship)
- U of San Francisco (private): Accepted (28.5K per year scholarship: Univ Scholar+Global Award)
- U of Nevada - Reno: Accepted for UG (Hons) with scholarship
- U of San Diego (private): Accepted with half tuition
- UCs (6): UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis - Accepted; UCLA & UC San Diego - Waitlisted; UC Irvine - Rejected.
- John Hopkins: Waitlisted.
- Vanderbilt: Waitlisted.
- University of Washington at St Louis: Waitlisted.
- Stanford: Rejected
- Harvard: Rejected
- Duke: Rejected
- U of Chicago: Rejected.
Decision: Stony Brook BSMD (4+4)
Reflection:
Some Things we learned:
- If BSMD is under consideration seriously, then cast a wider net to avoid disappointment at the last minute due to heavy competition, especially if you are ORM. We learned this after seeing Baylor2Baylor pre-interview rejection. DC chose to apply for the top 5 BSMDs initially (note that almost everyone applies to the same 5 BSMDs), after Baylor2Baylor rejection DC decided to apply for 4 additional BSMD programs. By that time most BSMD programsâ end dates were already passed by, so we missed the boat for the most. Per our experience, we realized we should have applied to a dozen BSMDs at least. Baylor BSMD rejection put us in steep descend from the clouds to the ground. LOL.
2.While ordering BSMS schools list by ranking (or tiers whatever), do not forget to add additional information like how many seats in each college, and OOS preference. We would have avoided Baylor in the first place had we known Baylor2Baylor had only 6 BSMD seats, with nearly half of them going to in-State. There was a lot of time and effort spent by us on Baylor for answering prompts in the common app, completing essays for the honors college and baylor2baylor essays, scholarship essays, and so on. We found DC shouldnât have invested a vast amount of time on Baylor BSMD application with just 3 seats, especially from ORM category. If Baylor is your dream college, go ahead and apply, otherwise think about other colleges where you may have better chances, especially if you are in a time crunch. On the positive side, looking at the BSMD results thread for the past 3-4 years, some lucky ones were able to get into BSMD colleges with even 3-6 spots in each program. We found it was a waste of our time, as DC could have easily used that time to submit applications to another couple BSMDs.
3.As DC started applying to colleges DC refined essays further, based on this we learned better to apply to low priority in the college list first.
4.We sent application updates to the colleges late in the game, we received a couple of responses saying it was too late or some colleges closed their application update page. With that, we advise that better send your application updates to the colleges as early as possible, if you have any. If you send your application update towards the end of the admission cycle, probably it could not reach out to the committee on time or they might have in fact made your admission decision and a decision might have been documented in their system already.
5.Research last 3-4 years BSMD application result threads, and spend decent time on reflections so you will get a general idea of where you should be casting your net based on your GPA, ECs and other stats.
6.DC applied to 28 colleges finally, but our initial college list was about 18 only. One can face a similar situation as additional college choices come up (from college counselors, friends, and or CC). Be prepared to sign up for Senior year coursework accordingly. Juggling college applications and rigorous senior year coursework might be a challenge for some kids. Note that itâs not just application over the common app you are turning to, depending upon where you apply, you may need to address additional prompts for honors college admission, BSMD essays, scholarship applications, preparing profile videos (music or personal), Alumni interview, Interviews with Admission Counselors, and so on will be added to this list. Making yourself aware of all these ahead of time can help you to sign up for the right amount of senior year coursework accordingly. DC was busy with applications until 1/31, and then DC got some interviews for the scholarships randomly, an Alumni interview in Feb, and BSMD interviews in March, and Honors college interviews in April 1st week, so we felt at one pointâŠdamnâŠthis was never-ending. LOL.
7.Have heard many cries and or disappointments in the BSMD thread while the valedictorian kids get rejected by the BSMD programs. While we feel bad to hear about their rejections, note that there will be always tight competition for almost every BSMD college with limited BSMD seats. Sometimes getting Ivy is relatively easier than getting a BSMD in a mid-tier college or even a low-tier BSMD college. Plus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a majority of BSMD colleges got even more applications for Fall 2021 (heard BU got nearly double the number of applications, and StonyBrook got 5000 instead of 2000 last year). For example for Fall 2021, there were 2,520 applicants to CWRU Pre-Professional Scholars Program with a target class of 12 to 20 incoming students. Assuming CWRU calls out 60 candidates for an interview, the odds of getting into the interview pool is about 2.3% Vs Harvard acceptance for the year 2021 was 5.2%. The numbers could change a bit between college to college, but I would like to give a snapshot of tight competition. Having said that, do not get disappointed if you did not get picked by your favorite BSMD college, because itâs not your fault at all.
8.There are a couple of no interview BSMD programs likeâŠAugusta professional Scholars program, CNU, Toledo, Seton hall, Brown PLME, Wayne State Med Direct, and so on. Well, DC only applied to 2 in this list because DC decided to cast a shorter net initially, but you can explore the full list and see if any of these BSMD programs are interesting to you. In addition, one needs to figure out the BSMD college location and undergrad/medical school ranking before committing to applying for BSMD colleges. We realized much later that BSMD college ranking does not matter much, because even T20 premed undergrads goes to (largely but not all) middle tier, low tier, and even to unranked medical schools.
9.Why did DC pick Stony Brook BSMD?
CNU was always our backup option if none of the other BSMDs works for us and no competitive UG offered admission to DC. DC mostly debated between âUSC half scholarship premed traditional routeâ Vs Stony Brook BSMD for nearly 4 weeks. USC picks about 4-5 students from DCâs high school each year from a pool of about 100 applicants. This is the lowest acceptance rate college after Stanford from DCâs High School. USC has been a target school for most students in DCâs high school. With that, I can say USC is considered prestigious in DCâs high school plus some hype/craziness added fire to it. Some of DCâs classmates cheered for DCâs USC acceptance not knowing anything about BSMD (forget StonyBrook) program at all. DC reached out to nearly 20 people including several medical students (some were in the BSMD path and some in the traditional route), prospective medical students, and also few doctors & parents (who were parents of BSMD or traditional path MD students) to get some insights. Almost all except 2 people suggested Stony Brook BSMD if DCâs goal is to become a doctor. Of those 2, one person ditched two low-tier BSMD offers for a full-ride USC pre-med UG, and the other person suggested taking the third alternative which is UT Dallas premed full ride and explore choices to become a TX in-state student and then pursue TX medical schools. Over 90% of the respondents suggested Stony Brook BSMD in response to my post in BSMD Fall 2021 Applicants CC forum and Interestingly in the USC Regular Decision CC forum too.
After thinking for a while, DC doesnât want to explore the traditional path, instead, DC wanted to focus on research opportunities during Stony Brook BSMD, and strengthening residency application. We have come to know that, in order to stand out for a good instate MD school application, DC needs to maintain a 3.7+ GPA and about 520 MCAT score plus ECs, LORs etc. DC isnât ready to take the risk in the traditional path while the golden ticket to StonyBrook medical school is already in the hand (with 3.4 GPA and 75 percentile MCAT is needed for matriculation, with no interview). DC visited StonyBrook medical school campus, spoke with 2-3 people there before committing. The cost was not a big concern for us, because the UG part expense difference between Stony Brook UG and USC premed UG was about $12K/year (USC UG costing us an additional $12K/year).
Watching and participating in CC forums during this application cycle was fun. We learned a lot from watching advice from senior members. With our 8 months of little experience, we can take questions if anyone has one for us. Good luck to everyone in whatever path you are on!
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Thank you to everyone on this forum, here I am posting my Ds stats
GPA: 3.98 UW, 4.81 W (at the time of application)
SAT: 1550 (only attempt)
Math 2: 760
Biology - Molecular: 740
APs: 11 all 4s and 5s
Rank: top 5% , Class Size: 450+
Recommendations: 3 (teachers & counselor) +2 (others); hope they must be strong
ORM
ECs:
Job Shadowing Drs : 160+ hours
Local Hospital Volunteering : 300 hours
Volunteering at Non-Profits and community centers : Over 200 hours
Research : wrote one research paper didnât published yet
Honors and Awards:
National Merit Scholarship Finalist
Gold Award from Music state level competitions and performed at symphony hall
ECs : president in 3 clubs at school and vice president in Social justice club and community service club , Tennis captain from Junior year , she has been chosen as all school representative for town comity in our town.
She is an artist and she conducted a TownArt shows for social causes , where here Art on social justice was bought by state representative and kept it in the statehouse for a motivation.
Over 8 years in Vocal and Music
Applied to below BSMDs:
FAU - Interviewed - Accepted -(Full scholarship )
Case western - Interviewed - Rejected - (UG with 35K scholarship )
UMKC - Interviewed - Accepted
Temple (WashJeff) - Interviewed - Accepted
BU - Rejected before Interview
Rochester - UG Rejected before Interview
Baylor - Rejected before Interview - (UG with 30K scholarship)
NJMS (NJIT) - Rejected before Interview - (UG Honors with 30K scholarship )
CUNY - Rejected before Interview
UCONN - Rejected before Interview
Brown PLME - Rejected before Interview
UGS
NorthEastern - Accepted (35K scholarship)
Umass - Accepted
Tufts - Rejected
Hamilton - Waitlist - withdrawn
Rice - Waitlisted
Vanderbelt - Waitlisted
Harvard - Rejected
Here is our experience :
As an IT parents we have no clue about the BSMD process, we have started following this thread very late in the game , other wise we would have gotten some more exposure of our college choices about the BSMD programs and their stats. it is a very roller coster ride for all of us and it was a huge stressful time for my D as well , which she never felt that level of stress though out her High school time frame , this process is very much emotional, If we would have follow this thread a head of a time we would have prepare ourselves and made her prepare . We are so glad and happy that we have got 3 acceptances where we thought we will not get at least one after going through this thread . Having said that we have learned a lot from this thread and we have received great suggestions from seniors , I am very thankful for all your suggestions and thoughts to do our analysis and choose one of our choice. very special thanks to @srk2017 , @NoviceDad and @grtd2010
As far our decision there was a big struggle between Temple and UMKC , After my D visited the colleges , she was accepted UMKC over temple with in the BSMD choices she want to considered , she knew that its going to be another roller coaster ride for her next 6 years . but she said she would like to take it and she said she donât want to go to a small place where she canât have any college experience for another 4 years. so we do respect her decision at the end she is the one who is studying 
Thanks again for all the help !!!
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Thanks for the compliment. I didnât understand last paragraph. which one did she chose, UMKC or Temple?
@srk2017 She did choose UMKC instead of temple
Thatâs what I thought but then got confused by âshe said she donât want to go to a small place where she canât have any college experience for another 4 years.â Isnât Temple in a larger city and gives 4 year experience vs 2 years in UMKC?
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How are you guys finding shadowing opportunities given that most hospitals/clinics are not taking anyone due to COVID protocols
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@srk2017 actually she should to go to Washjeff for undergrad for 4 years before Temple, which is very small campus with total 1300 students in whole campus, when it compare to UMKC where it has a big campus and more students , town around UMKC is easier accessible to campus compared to washjeff.
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Got it.
WashJeff is not the best undergrad option.
Congratulations!!!
Thank you for the your kind words.
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Post your question on this new discussion thread for upcoming admissions cycle:
Longtime lurker. didnât end up getting into any bsmds.
Male
ORM
NY
GPA: 97 u/w, no rank
SAT/ACT: 1510/34
Subject Tests: 770+ on Bio E, chem, math 2
National Merit commended Scholar
APs:
5s on US History, BC Calculus, Chem
4s on Bio, World History
Senior aps/dual enroll - 9 (phys 1/2, micro/macro, psych, stats, linear algebra, csa, lang)
Major ECs: research (300+ hrs), science olympiad (co-captain), medical club (vp), tech helpdesk
Volunteering: local hospital (very few hrs due to covid and age requirements), red cross, library (total over 150hrs)
1 day of shadowing - also low due to covid
rpi/amc - no supplement
Pitt - no supplement
nijt,tcnj,drew,rutgers,NJMS - interview at njit/drew, not forwarded to NJMS
Hofstra - waitlisted for interview - interview - reject
Case western - reject from bsmd, waitlist from undergrad
Boston u - reject
Rochester - reject
ualbany/Upstate - very late upstate supplement - reject
Stonybrook - rejected from honors college and university scholars (requirement for bsmd)
Decision: NJIT
NJIT gave full tuition and housing + honors college.
Even though I was in state for Stonybrook, I only received 3k merit and got rejected from both honors programs. It was supposed to be my safety when I applied. I expected more merit on top of being in state as I saw others get full tuition there, but maybe that was just naĂŻve of me.
Didnât really bother applying to ivys or other private schools - wonât qualify for financial aid (60k+ efc) and they donât really give merit. I have to pay my own tuition. Not worth the extra loans on top of med school loans.
Disappointing? Yes. Did I go into the cycle expecting it? Sort of, but thought I had a pretty good shot. Last fall I had already had my mind set on going to Stonybrook if the bsmd path didnât work out, expecting to get into the honors college and getting full tuition, if not close to it. Unfortunately neither happened and honestly it was the one rejection that hurt the most. Iâm glad I applied to NJIT for their bsmd as well. I wouldnât have applied to it without the program but itâs ultimately what Iâve chosen for ug.
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I am posting for my DD:
GPA: 4.0 UW, 4.45 W (at the time of application)
SAT: 1530 (didnât get a chance to re-take)
APs: 9 APs all 5 + 3 APs in Senior year
Rank: Doesnât rank (in top 10) Class Size: 650+
Recommendations: 5 (teachers & counselor) + 2 (physician mentor, hospital admin): must be strong as she is well liked by counselor and teachers.
ORM, Doesnât qualify for financial aid
ECs:
Senior Living Center - Volunteer caretaker: 200+ hours
Hospital Volunteering : 400+ hours
Volunteering at Non-Profits: 600+ hours
Research : 80 hours (limited due to COVID - no publications)
Shadowing: 10 hours (limited due to COVID)
President for multiple clubs at schools
Over 12 years in Vocal and Music: Various stage performances (local)
Honors and Awards:
2nd Place (team) at National Science Competition
Presidential award for Non-profit volunteering
High School Diplomats winner (Japan student exchange cancelled due to COVID)
National DECA and Speech Debate participant
Japanese-Language Proficiency Test
AP scholar
BSMDs:
RPI/AMC - Accepted (merit: 32.5K/yr)
Syracuse/Upstate - got supplement - but no interview - reject
BU SMED - Rejected before Interview
NJIT/Drew/Rutgers-NJMS - No interview at UG to forward to NJMS - reject
Upitt - No secondary - reject
Penn State - No secondary/interview - reject
GW/GW - No secondary - reject
Rochester REMS - Rejected before Interview
Temple - Rejected before Interview
Drexel - Rejected before Interview
Hofstra - Rejected before Interview
UAlbany/Upstate - no supplement - reject
Stonybrook - Rejected from honors college
Brown PLME - Rejected
UG:
UNC Chapel Hill - Accepted
Vanderbilt - Accepted
Emory - Accepted (merit: 15K/yr)
UVA - Accepted
Brown - Rejected
Dartmouth - Rejected
Cornell - Waitlisted
State Schools - Accepted (full tution)
Decision: RPI/AMC
Reflection:
-
As DD wanted to seriously consider BSMD path, hired college counselor to guide us to initial process (common app, why medicine eassy review + college list selection). Counselor loved her essays and assured us that we will have many acceptances to choose from - which set our expectations very high. We also thought, we applied widely. Boy! We were wrong. Rejection after rejection - not even a single positive news till late December. Got Syracuse/SUNY supplement late December - again silence after that.
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DD got into all the undergrad programs from BSMD list with nice scholarships and Honors programs. But she had very low success rate when it comes to their BSMD program. We are guessing, she got filtered out for most of the BSMD programs (NJMS, REMS, BU, PennState, Upitt) due to her low SAT (1530) score for an ORM. We also think some of the program have instate preference (Upstate, SBU). We feel, this is where Counselor failed to make good recommendations on the school list carefully considering her stats + schoolâs history/ preferences. Spend time on old BSMD threads (I wish I had known about these before) to get a better understanding of kids stats, their state of residence and where they got interviewed/offered to come up with a decent school list. If you are hiring a Counselor, do your background work to make sure that Counselor is expert in the BSMD programs (our fault).
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Looking at senior year class schedule, Counselor recommended course(s) at local college to demonstrate the academic rigor. Due to the quarter system, that course proved to be very fast paced with daily assignments, weekly tests, constant engagement. Added more stress to already stressful college application process. Plan first half/quarter off of the senior year properly.
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We didnât even expect secondary from RPI/AMC as DD doesnât have strong research background. Pleasantly surprised to receive supplement followed by interview request. Since she interviewed ONLY at one place + RPI/AMC being research focused - kept our hopes really low. But in the end, all we need is ONE acceptance.
-
Heavily debated traditional (Vandy, Emory, State) vs RPI/AMC for a long time (as we had tremendous success with my son through traditional). DD made the final choice and decided to take RPI/AMC route.
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Congratulations to your D on RPI/AMC. You D has excellent UW GPA, medical related ECs, Volunteering, leadership and other ECs(music/vocal). Agree that low SAT score was the reason for so many rejections before interview. The paid counselors are not always helpful since they do not have a crystal ball. They are also making educated guess. One can do all the research and cast a wide net and see how things go.
IMO, one does not need several hundreds hours of volunteering both non-clinical and clinical. It seems a overkill. A shadowing 80-100 hrs a few different physicians will be desirable.
As someone who has worked with BS/MD applicants with lower SAT scores, I donât think it was the SAT score. But yes, BS/MD programs are unpredictable.
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This cycle has been more unpredictable than the previous ones.
However, I am surprised your counselor did not set clear expectations around the low score.
We do it with our students and parents. Even with the best score and GPA, the odds are low.
One can overcome low scores but that requires a lot more work and with clear expectations of lower odds.
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Hi
Congratulations !!!
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Hearty congratulations!!!
Can you please share when your DD got RPI/AMC results?
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We got RPI/AMC result around Apr 12.
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