<p>Schools sometimes only include premeds with a certain GPA, MCAT, and activities so that their acceptance rate is artificially high. Unless you know the requirements to be considered a premed at dartmouth, the 90% doesn’t say much</p>
<p>Dartmouth allows everyone to apply. So, the Dartmouth number is real. Since most of the other Ivy s will not let you apply without the blessing of the pre-med committee, the admission rates at most of the other Ivy s do not mean much.</p>
<p>The three big ivies give substantial need based aid up to a parents income or 150k-180k. The rest of the ivies give much less money since their endowment are much smaller. The combined programs give aid based on merit not aid so they tend to be cheaper except for the aformentioned HYP.</p>
<p>RPI/AMC was a 7 year program so save one year of UG tuition.</p>
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<p>My daughter was recently accepted into the AMC program through Union college. She had already sent in her acceptance to another college.
DesiDad1 - We are now in a similar predicament like you are and reconsidering our options. Have you made a final decision about the AMC program? Could you please share with us what were the most important factors in your choice? Thanks.</p>
<p>I turned down UPenn and the umdnj program for SMED, I wanted the acceleration and the premed grind is brutal and BU is a top med school</p>
<p>Neoevolution,
Thanks for your prompt response! It is interesting that you have passed on UPenn to take SMED. Would you have taken the program at UMDNJ if SMED was not an option? Basically, how much of the fact that BU is a top med school swayed your decision vs. taking any other integrated program?</p>
<p>UMDNJ would be pretty cheap for me thanks to being instate but Penn gave good FA too. Without BU I would have probably gone for Penn or Hopkins BME. I also got into the UConn and Drexel programs but didn’t really love either.</p>
<p>Without Penn or Hopkins I would have taken any program.</p>
<p>We have Pm’ed with a few RPI/AMC students and they are all very happy with their decision. No red flags of any sort has emerged - the only one that comes close is the male/female ratio at RPI and the tough classes there but I would think that a premed student is going to be working very hard anyway so that shouldn’t be any major deterrent.</p>
<p>We did visit the BU campus but don’t know much about their program. Campus was very nice - urban which is very different compared to RPI.</p>
<p>From a different perspective (academic physician), I suggest not attending the combined programs.</p>
<p>1) Most pre-meds change their mind. Most college students change their major 3 times. Better to be at a school that can offer things other than pre-med. At the very least, it is better not to prematurely close the door on other options.</p>
<p>2) Pre-meds need a lot of community service and research experience. Deciding to apply in Junior year, even from an Ivy gives little time for such. The admission rates reflect that. GPA and MCATs do not necessarily a strong applicant make. They get you in the door, but you need research (publications are very helpful) that you really understand, and a humanistic perspective. That takes time to establish and nurture. Start as a freshman in a large nationally recognized university (any type is fine), get involved in research and do a lot of community service.</p>
<p>3) From my time on a residency review admissions committee, the younger combined program students were not strong applicants, maybe because they did not have top-notch research, connections or advising. It is hard to compress medical school with undergrad, and those important things seem to be often left out. You may be an MD, but not a competitive applicant for selective residencies.</p>
<p>Just my 2 cents.</p>
<p>^ Is the point 2 specific to going to Dartmouth? Otherwise it seems to support going to 7 year program since they don’t need anything.</p>
<p>3 - I suspect this has more to do with slacking off and not feeling the need to do research with a medical admission in hand.</p>
<p>^Doesn’t that just make RPI/AMC more attractive since the students are required to do research?</p>
<p>It’s tough to make generalities. My D will be attending RPI combined & she is already making plans of various community service to do throughout the year and in her summers in addition to continuing research.
Slacking off should not be part of a future doctor’s mentality - just my opinion.</p>
<p>oops - forgot to say I agree 100% with 2prepmom about changing majors. If you have the slightest doubt about med school, stick to ug with wide options.</p>
<p>Many of the BS/MD directors said their program students had higher step scores and often matched more competitively than the average for their MS, Miami actually showed their 7year match list and it was definitely better than the med school as a whole.</p>
<p>2PrepMom this was typed on a tablet.</p>
<p>Competition at the ivies today is so tough a large percentage of ivy grads couldn’t get in today. With the extreme increase in numbers applying to Med school, many doctors today would not be accepted either. 35 years ago I was one of the 80% percent that did not get in but I did well for myself. However, I resolved that my daughter would learn from my mistakes.</p>
<p>Med school seats have not grown with the US population. Thousands of kids from Asia now add to the 80k chem and bio grads going after the 16k med school spots. Check out this link with shows dozens of top school libraries in the us ttp://asianssleepinginthelibrary.■■■■■■■■■■/</p>
<p>A little ivy admin officer told me she is now forced to count med school admissions up to 10 years after graduation to boast their admission stats. At least 2 of the ivies have such severe grade deflation policies that a B minus is the mean grade, and these are kids that are mostly H.S. Vals and Sals. Accordingly, my D turned down an ivy admission for a combined. Most combineds are Vals and Sals and 20% of ones I met in NY and NJ programs were children of doctors. One doctor I know whose S was a Val could not get into any combineds.</p>
<p>The combineds acceptances seem to be more on merit than the ivies since they don’t care about legacies or sports… Do med schools favor children of legacies? I saw a chart of American med school acceptance floating around the boards, and I saw 3.8 gpa’s with high mcats not getting in. Please post here if found. 2 years ago I saw a Princeton grad post that he had to go overseas since he could not get into NJ’s lowest rated med school with a molecular bio degree. </p>
<p>I also learned that if go to a foreign school not run to US standars NJ will never grant you a lic. NY will if you attend a 2 year mini med school in nyc after you grad from the foreign one.</p>
<p>A doctor in my family went to a foreIgn med school and has ivy med school doctors working for her and said at that level no one cares where you went. My wife’s ortho doctor went to Harvard UG and Yale Med and cuts knees along with state med school grads in our local hospital. A third doctor I know is on admissions at a NYC Med school ,and she sees uber apps who have perfect gpa and just about perfect mcats who had cancer as a child or escaped a despotic country and learned english So an app without such a back story has no hope so she advised my D also to go for the seat.</p>
<p>Finally, most programs are 8 years and accept ap credits. My D will do research her senior year since she had 29 ap credits accepted. She will do research in the summers since she does not have to shadow in the hospital with the combineds since the last 2 years of med school now is at clinics and in the field. Virtually all schools have other majors if you want to change. So go for the seat and worry about residencies when you need to in 8 years since the competion is fierce and only getting worse each year.</p>
<p>Agreed, the poor economy has made med school much more competitive recently too. With premed planning from early on, Ivies produce competitive candidates but it’s still very stressful and ultimately a big risk. If you are sure about medicine, the program is just so much easier on you</p>
<p>Heres a chart but the best one was a y and z axis that I can’t find. </p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/270906/data/table24-mcatgpagridall0911.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/270906/data/table24-mcatgpagridall0911.pdf</a></p>
<p>How were the interviews at AMC? I just scheduled my interview and I’m now freaking out about it.
What are some of the topics or questions I should expect?</p>