Thank you
Which specialty or specialties?
After a nerve wreaking time till he opened up his email, we finally found out that he has matched Brown Diagnostic Radiology!
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The best advise on how to match a residency that I have came across so far is from:
teamrads.com āŗ index.php āŗ resources āŗ apps-of-steel
or google: āAPPS OF STEELā 2020-2021 16th Edition: Terra Incognita The Post-COVID Match Season
Unfortunately, I came across this website after our sonās interviews, but you guys can benefit greatly since the advise was right on and very detailed.
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Congratulations to your S and proud family! My friendās son matched to Pennās integrated radiology program. Itās nice of you to come back and update in this thread.
Thank you!
Iāll update my thoughts on BSMD/BSDO programs.
Congratulations to your son and your family! you can relax and have a drink this weekend:)
Thank 
you!
Folks
Posting on this thread after a long time.
Update on my D:
She will be graduating form her undergrad this year with >3.9 GPA. She completed her neuroscience major requirements within 2 years and using the 3rd year to minor in Data Science. Her GPA dip was due to the tough probability class she had to take. It was a class with students from both undergrad and grad students. But she likes data science and knows more about Matlab and R then I would ever know.
She received her official medical school offer letter to join Feinberg. This was a formality as she is an HPME student.
Her undergrad experience was cut short severely due to COVID but she likes the Northwestern environment and the fantastic friends she has made. She quickly adapted to the Quarter system at NU but she feels it is tough for regular pre-meds. Her recommendation - as a regular pre-med, avoid quarter system colleges. She has been doing research and is active in a few clubs. She is one of the lead peer tutors in Orgo. And she has also tutored students from PennState and gets requests for tutoring very frequently.
We look forward to July/August when she will matriculate into Feinberg and commence her medical school journey. I canāt believe 3 years passed so quickly!
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Great update. No need for MCAT?
I think NU HPME doesnāt require MCAT
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NO MCAT needed for HPME kids, unless they want to apply for MD/PhD.
My D was recommended by her research mentor to pursue MD/PhD.
She had no interest to add 4 more years.
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PIs like to push good students towards PHD. My sonās PI tried hard.
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Hi Everyone,
I am back as promised after 4 years as I had indicated in my post above. So My DD went to Stanford for her UG. She absolutely loved it thereā¦ she says that it is an experience that she will cherish throughout her life.
She stayed a Premed (
) and really worked hard to pursue her this passion. The road I will not lie was lots of hard work, especially the first two years, as she had set the target to take her MCAT after the second yearā¦ so had to complete all of the science and difficult courses by thenā¦ The 3rd and 4th year were a breeze relatively speaking.
During her journey, she had full days of hard workā¦ She pursued a number of Research efforts at her school and other research facilities. She also did a number of volunteering projects with various dimensions and scope all through her 4 years - So basically she kept herself occupied and challenged during the 4 years.
She applied to all of the T20 schools, the application process was very interesting with Covid and the virtual interviewsā¦Maybe much more challenging than the BS/MD process as in my view. The kids were more well rounded, had more diverse and impressive backgrounds, and again Super credentials with many many applicants with one or two gap yearsā¦
Before I go to the part as to which school, she has committed, I will strongly reiterate that we were very happy with our decision of her not pursuing the BS/MD track, the journey was indeed tough with uncertainties and some sleepless nights. AND all of this before she was accepted to any of the schools.
During the last 4 years, I have firmed up in my view that BS/MD track is not for everyoneā¦in fact it is only for a few, as I feel this is a trap by the schools to get great talent early, (sorry, I know this may upset some or many here), as it can short change a kids experience and opportunities that they may otherwise get pursuing the regular trackā¦ The fact that 90% or more of the kids interested in Medicine donāt even apply to the BS/MD track is a testimony to thisā¦ Believe meā¦ the candidate pool to the MD programs is extraordinary talent, and extremely impressive and Very very diverse in backgrounds and Race. I visited almost 10 BS/MD school interviews for my DD, staying sometimes for couple of days in the schools, mingling with kids and parents, and while the Talent pool was very very impressive, it was certainly not as diverse or deep as we discovered during this regular admission cycle.
I know this may not be the popular view here, but that is not my objective, I am back here to give a glimpse into our journey and convey my views on what we saw of the regular track and what we feel of the BSMD trackā¦ If you see the potential in your child, please let them explore the opportunities through the regular track and the potential is endlessā¦ Also, the destination is Important, but the journey sometimes is even moreā¦
Now to conclude, My DD was accepted into couple of T10 to T20 schools, and 4 T5 schools and has committed to pursue her MD degree at a T5 school.
I again thank everyone for all the great input, help that everyone provided during our pursuit of the BS/MD track 4 years backā¦
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Thanks for coming back and posting the detailed update. GL to your D and come back and post about her residency match in 4 years.
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@BS_MD2017, congrats for your DDās achievements and thank you for sharing the story.
I keep wondering about this after hearing both sides (BSMD Vs Traditional) - why do colleges have BSMD programs at the first place? you are saying - it is a trap to get talented student early but you are also saying there are great students during regular MD cycle. Why colleges bother about getting talented student early when they can get great students during regular MD cycle?
Why do they create this separate process in whole (selecting BSMD students) and not just stick to selecting students during regular MD cycle?
Is it that regular MD students that come to medical colleges who offer BSMD are not as good as BSMD students that they select?
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@rk1235rk your questions are valid.
In my humble opinion, the colleges that have the BS/MD know that they will not get the caliber of candidates they can get now from High school, when the same individuals apply through the traditional route as these kids will more likely will be picked up by the top ranked schools because these are bright kids.
Also, a careful look at the list of schools that offer BS/MD programs and this assertions becomes clearā¦ especially more after NW has stopped their BS/MD program. You donāt see any of the T20 or for that matter T30 offering the combined program (other that UPITT, but then there the UG school is not top Tier) which is another way to look at thisā¦
I will illustrate this with a very specific and personal exampleā¦ In this cycle my DD applied to Case (she was admitted in the BS/MD program and thought it would be a safe school). She was not even offered interview this timeā¦ Schools know which kids will ultimately join them and thats why they donāt end up picking the kids who are so interestingly picked by T5 or T10 schools. This in a way makes sense because otherwise all top schools will end up with almost the same list of accepted kidsā¦
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Adding to that, my kid didnāt apply to two BSMD ones that gave him acceptances (RPI/AMC and BU). He applied to Northwestern and Case Western which didnāt give BSMD intervews, both interviewed this time and put him on waitlist. For Northwestern they initially deferred him and since he didnāt send an LOI so they put him in waitlist. Case Western is known for yield games. For UG they gave him 30K scholarship and put him on waitlist at the same time.
Here is the final update for my DSās UG journey as premed.
As you all know he gave up 2 BSMDs, UPenn and JHU BME for Vanderbilt with CV scholarship. He is fully aware of the risk he was taking and stayed focused from day one. In fact he secured research position even before committing to Vandy (that was one of the deciding factors). He chose to hard sciences major given his strength in Biology and Chemistry and CS related minor. Our plan was to kept it simple i.e. no double majors or double minors (briefly considered second minor), didnāt use any AP/IB credits except math (he did IB HL so got more math credits), mixed science classes with liberal arts classes (requirement) and cruised to practically 4.0 GPA (A- in 1 credit lab course). Did moderate prep for MCAT and took it spring of junior year after completing all premed courses.
As per ECs, main focus was on research. He did computational research in one of the big labs in the country with several post docs and graduate students. His PI knowing his previous HS research experience gave him his own project and indicated he could get a first author paper in 2 years, but with some changes in lab, systems issues paper was completed recently only. Even though he didnāt have paper his PIās LOR was extremely strong and that was one of the reasons for success at T5s. He didnāt do popular EMT or Medical scribe given the time those takes and chose to do a public health project in a Spanish speaking country and then used the Spanish skills to become an Spanish interpreter at a free clinic. As per non-clinical he came up with new curriculum for STEM teaching to middle schools in Nashville. Again both ECs he didnāt spend crazy amount like others. In fact on SDN he was told his service hours are not good enough. He also won a scholarship to do research in an European country for summer. With all these ECs, Vandy premed advisor was very confident about his chances and also gave strong committee letter.
DS applied to 23 schools all within T30s, received 11 interviews, 5 acceptances, 4 WLs and 2 Rs. His goal going into UG is to get into UCSF, Hopkins,Harvard,Stanford and UPenn. He ended up getting 3 out of 5 in his list and pretty happy about it. He didnāt expect scholarships from UCSF and UPenn.
For those who are looking for advice here are my two cents.
- Pick right UG school (schools like Cornell, JHU, UCB, UCLA, Princeton are known for grade deflation). Medical schools love to show Harvard and Stanford in their press releases so there is some bias towards them.
- Stay focused from day one
- Plan classes carefully (no need for double majors and triple minors, medical schools donāt care).
- Use AP/IB credits wisely. If you use them you need to show good grades in higher science classes.
- Start with research and ECs from second semester of first year. Focus on one or two ECs and rest can be box checking. If you do couple of hours a week you will have enough hours by application time.
- Engage in some social activities (DS participated in dance programs even though he never danced before)
- Pick proper school list, apply on first day and start working on essays early (some schools may need personal statement for committee letter)
- If you get multiple acceptance go to medical school that is fit for you and donāt go into loans for prestige.
In conclusion, with careful planning and execution success thru traditional path is not extremely difficult.
Good luck to all future applicants!
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Congratulations to all graduates(UG/MD) of this year !!!. This is graduation ceremonies time for proud graduates. Best wishes and good luck to all in their future endeavors.
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