If you had a choice between doing BSMD at your second choice undergrad school and doing normal premed at your first choice undergrad school, which would you pick?
That all depends on your conviction in medicine. If you are fully committed, BSMD, if you are not sure if you want to be a physician, your first choice UG.
Please remember, even if you did well in your first choice UG, you might not be able to get in the MD school that BSMD provided. Students in your situation normally think the first choice UG can lead you to a higher ranking MD school, which is not always true. Thousands MD school applicants got denied entry from top ranking UG schools.
Do not look down on any BSMD school admits as they are as competitive as an Ivy league acceptance.
2nd choice UG, not 2nd tier, right? If it’s an 8-year BSMD and the personal preference difference between #1/#2 isn’t that large it’s pretty hard to advise against it. Also depends on how guaranteed the MD admission is - some schools you’d have to actively try to disqualify yourself, others you basically have no guarantee at all.
Also, BS->MD students typically need to maintain a GPA (including in pre-med courses) and MCAT score that would be competitive for medical school admission the normal way and do the pre-med extracurriculars, although those who succeed at that can skip the usual medical school application process.
The other thing to consider is whether the BS->MD program would have a total cost that is reasonable. There was one thread recently where a high school senior was considering a BS->MD program that would have resulted in $470,000 in debt ($150,000 undergraduate plus $320,000 medical school, not including interest and price increases over time) by the time s/he finishes medical school. Even at post-residency physician pay, that is still a very heavy debt burden.
@college1114 It will help to shed more light if you are ok to share the exact BSMD program and the UG choice.
There are dedicated threads for BS/MD program and probably your choice program and the UG college may have been discussed there also and you can check that too.