Hello, looking at both BU pre-med and SLU (St. Louis University) guaranteed medical track program.
Anyone know if one offers better clinical research, Guaranteed, or easy admission process than the other. How do I compare them both to make a better decision?
Which one of them is a better one to maintain GPA and which has a better success rate of admitting their undergrads into their medical schools even though both say they give preference to their undergrads?
Any info is appreciated. Thanks!
If you search under Thread for BS/MD 2021 thread, someone knows more about SLU med scholars program. I think @babySimba1. Think has a sibling who went to the program and matriculated into med school. You may want to private message to find more.
Heard the program has a high attrition in the first year or two and whoever survives it has good chances of matriculation. So if you are sufficiently confident about your high school rigor and college preparedness you can go for it.
Regarding the chances of research and ECs opportunities BU is a much better place. It is also rigorous so may be more difficult to get equivalent gpa since you will be competing with many top notch class/batch mates. Their overall acceptance rate last year was 18.5.
Yes BU has a preference for their undergrads and anyone else associated in anyway. They fill about 1/3 of their incoming med class every year with those associated with BU in someway, SMED, undergrad, EAP/MMEDIC, graduate students, alumni. Not known how many of these are undergrad.
BU is far more reputed (and may be expensive in your case), and has many well known areas of study. In case if for some reason one decides medicine is not for them, easier to find another field of study of excellence at BU and switch paths and gears. Not sure if that will be the case at SLU.
IMO any program that offers an easier way into Med School should be given proper thought.
That is IF you’re 100% sure you want to pursue it.
Thank you, @rk2017. I will PM you.
In case you haven’t, check out the above thread for BS/MD. Some folks announced getting into SLU program and are very happy and shared some info.
Pay attention to “guaranteed” medical school programs’ requirements for retaining the guarantee.
For example, SLU requires maintaining a 3.65 college GPA (overall and science):
This is the GPA typically needed to have some chance of medical school admission the usual way, although with the guarantee, you would not have to apply to dozens of medical schools in hope of getting one admission (all medical schools are reach or high reach).
In 2019 at BU (Boston not Baylor), the entering class had 22 students from the 7 year BS/MD program. There were also 5 from the MMEDIC program. So, much of the internal bias comes from those 2 programs.
@ucbalumnus, assuming that all the requirements, GPA ot coursework related, are met, which one has a better chance of getting into a medical school?
Obviously, if you fulfill the conditions to maintain the guarantee, you are guaranteed the medical school admission at the guarantee school, while if you do the same (GPA, MCAT, etc.) at some other school, you still have to apply to dozens of medical schools and hope you get into one (most medical school applicants get none).
The program provides early application privileges but does not guarantee acceptance to the School of Medicine
I don’t know where people are getting the word guarantee from but all I see is that you can start the application process early. You still have to pass an interview and take the GMAT.
In that case, the program is far less valuable than one that guarantees admission, although a chance for an early application and admission is still somewhat valuable (if you do get an early admission, you can skip the step of applying to dozens of medical schools the following year).