<p>Hey I just got this question from an excited Mom so I thought I'd share my answers with a new thread and would be willing to answer any other questions as I gain time. </p>
<p>Hypermom - "My D got admission to the SMED program.</p>
<p>Would you be kind to answer a few questions for me?</p>
<ol>
<li>Is it hard to maintain 3.2 GPA (given the reputation for BU's grade deflation)</li>
<li>How stressful is it?</li>
<li>How many students drop of the program in a year?</li>
<li>What are the positives and negatives of this program?</li>
<li>Do SMED students interact with students not in the program?</li>
<li>Any advice?</li>
</ol>
<p>Really appreciate your help!
THANK YOU!"</p>
<hr>
<p>First off, thanks to Hypermom for reaching out to me, congratulations to your D!, and I'll try to answer all of these questions to the best of my ability. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>It can be a slight challenge at times, but is generally not too difficult for the students who are able to get into the program. I would say that in order to account for BU's notorious deflation, the 3.2 at BU would be a 3.5 at other schools. Still very manageable. </p></li>
<li><p>The stress can build at times when exams in various classes fall on the same day, and at times when there are projects that are extensive and thorough, however, this too is very manageable and never gets to be too difficult. A healthy balance of stress to reward.</p></li>
<li><p>Around 1</p></li>
<li><p>I'd say that the program fits a very unique niche of students that act independently and are given the freedom to choose their own minor and dabble in a variety of course while still having the core foundation of mandatory sciences. The accessibility to the city of Boston and the wide array of research opportunities attest to the fact that certain students would love and take advantage of these factors while for others it may not be nearly as important.
Although there are no major negatives in this program from the lucky position that I'm in, some would say that the program's MCAT requirement is another hoop to jump through that could be avoided. </p></li>
<li><p>Most SMED students interact as any regular student attending Boston University would with this added social group from the get-go. That means that although about half of your classes each year would include the rest of your SMED class, it is up to you to decide how much time you want to spend either with the rest of the SMEDs or with other students. Nothing is forced upon you, although similar situations and troubles generally leads to bonding. </p></li>
<li><p>If your means allow you, attend the open house, get to know the campus and some of your potential classmates and see if you'd want to spend some of the best years of your life with us on Commonwealth Avenue!!</p></li>
</ol>
<p>What are the research opportunities for SMEDs, and when do most start participating?</p>
<p>Is the summer session mandatory to be taken at BU, or can it be done a a public uni at home?</p>
<p>Hey, I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to answer all these questions and post them. I’m most likely coming to BU SMED and this helped a lot :)</p>
<p>@neo- I remember when I had lunch with the SMEDs the day of my interview, one of them was going to the medical school for research that day. She was a freshman, so it looks like the opportunities are definitely available if that’s what you’re interested.</p>
<p>Would you recommend living on the premed/accelerated med floors? I plan to dorm in Warren, but I am considering dorming with someone I know who is going to be an engineer.</p>
<p>Thank you so much BigBDawg812!
Really appreciate you taking the time to post your response.</p>
<p>Any comments on the safety? Since it is in the city, am a bit concerned about the safety.
Do you have classes in the evenings or after dark, that you have to go from one building to another? </p>
<p>For the candidates that drop off the program, is it on their own volition? or is it because it is tough to keep up with the pace?</p>
<p>Do you have time to relax and enjoy what Boston city has to offer?</p>
<p>How many SMEDS do you have in your batch? How many of you plan to ‘Study Abroad’?</p>
<p>Does the stress decrease from freshman to sophomore to junior year?</p>
<p>THANK YOU!!!</p>
<p>Boston is generally a safer city and BU especially is located in a pretty safe area. If you live on campus, all areas are pretty well-lit and only rarely do you hear of any incidents occurring with students. The BU medical area, located in the South End (2 miles away from BU undergrad campus) and closer to some lower-income areas, is not as great of an area, but as long as you’re aware of your surroundings/try to be in a group late at night, its fine. Its still safer than most other big cities.</p>
<p>We do sometimes have classes in the evenings, but again its pretty safe and there are a ton of students out.</p>
<p>Most students who drop out that I have heard of is because they were caught cheating/something that required disciplinary action. Very few students have trouble with the GPA/MCAT and they are generally pretty lenient about letting you make it up by putting you on probation if are in academic trouble. </p>
<p>We absolutely have time to relax and enjoy. Much more so than the typical pre-med student at least. Although there are some students in the program who feel stressed and work 24/7 (understandable given the population of students that enters programs like smed), 90% of students have time to enjoy/go out/whatever during most weekends and some weekdays. I know students who were involved in tons of clubs and activities (dance, martial arts, politics, business clubs), went out to dinner/movies/etc on the weekends, hung out with friends after classes during the week…and still manage to do great academically.</p>
<p>There’s about 20-25 students/class. About 10-20% of students study abroad. The others either don’t want to study abroad or want to take advantage of the modular medical classes that are offered that you can take in your 3rd year.</p>
<p>Again, its not that stressful. The beginning of freshman year is probably the most stressful for some because some of the science classes (Chem 111 lab) are pretty time intensive, but once you get into the rhythm of things, its all pretty manageable.</p>
<p>Just to repeat some earlier questions:
Does the summer session need to be completed at BU or can it be done at a public uni?
Would you recommend dorming in the premed floors?
Is it worthwhile and possible to take extra credits per semester and skip the summer session?</p>
<p>You have to do one 6 week summer session between the 2nd and 3rd year at BU. All the smeds take Systems Physiology that summer at BU.</p>
<p>I would definitely recommend living in Warren Towers freshman year because you get to meet a lot of people/generally make most of your friends on your floor/near you. Living on the premed floors is great because you can hang out with a lot of the people you have classes with as well, work on projects together, etc. I found a lot of the smeds that didn’t live on the pre-med floors came to visit the pre-med floors very often to hang out with people. Living on the floors isn’t completely necessary though if you have someone in mind you want to room with that is not pre-med.</p>
<p>You can’t skip the summer session.</p>
<p>I know you said the 3.2 GPA isn’t usually a problem for SMEDs, but are the claims of BU grade deflation true?
What are the modular medic courses that 3rd years take? The website doesn’t really say.</p>
<p>Thanks for answering so many of my questions, this has been very helpful.</p>
<p>It is definitely harder to earn a high GPA as a BU pre-med than at some other schools. Especially in science courses. I found the average grades to be pretty high in many other departments at BU (around a B+), which made it relatively easy to get As in most of my non-science classes.
For science classes, oftentimes tests were curved around a B or B-, which made it tougher to earn an A/A- in the class.
Still, overall students are able to earn the 3.2. (At one point, I remember the smed advisor telling us that the average smed finishes BU with a 3.6ish GPA and a 33 on the MCAT)</p>
<p>The modular medical courses are courses you can take in the 3rd year as an undergrad at the medical school. They are kind of like “AP courses” for medical school in the sense that if you do well in the courses, you can opt out of some classes during medical school, making your med school course load easier. There has been talk of getting rid of these classes though due to new changes that may be implemented in BUSM’s curriculum, so no promises that will be around 3 years from now.</p>
<p>What minors do most students go with? Are there any that are particularly easy to complete with a high GPA or ones that fit better with premed courses?</p>
<p>Is taking 18 or 20 credits per semester common for SMEDs, and are overload fees waived with a certain GPA for them?</p>
<p>There are a lot of different minors that students pursue depending on their interests. Psychology and econ seem to be the most common ones. Other common ones include business, political science, public health, anthropology, Spanish, history, and English. Some students even choose to double major in one of these in lieu of the minor (usually 2-4 people/year).</p>
<p>18 and 20 credits is very common. Anyone can take 18 credits without an extra fee. And the fee is waived for anyone that takes 20 credits and has a GPA above…it might be a 3.3? I’m not sure, but basically the fee is almost always waived for smeds because we tend to have high enough GPAs.</p>