@SteyrFWB, it seem like you are very familiar with FAU BS/MD programs. Could you please provide me with some pros and cons between Med Direct at Boca Raton and Wilkes Medical Scholar at Jupiter. Also, do all students accepted in the BS/MD programs get undergraduate full ride?
@sunflower2000
We are non- Florida residents. My son commited to the FAU BS/MD with Wilkes Honors college. Is there any FB group where all the commited students can connect?. My son particularly liked the Wilkes Honors College for the undergrad due to the proximity of the Max Planc and the Scripps institutes.
@SteyrFWB
Thank you for sharing all the details.
@hopeful_sid We are also non-Florida residents. We are from NJ. FAU takes only 12 students (6 for Med Direct in Boca Raton and 6 for Wilkes Medical Scholar in Jupiter). I am not aware of any FB group. I think all Med Direct students get undergraduate full ride, but I am not sure if that is the case for Wilkes.
There is a FB group for the kids at Boca ( I think there are 8 in the group currently), although I don’t know about Jupitor.
Boca also has advantages like proximity to research (and clinical research) at the Schmidt SOM and hospitals, more classes to choose from, more student activities, closer to the beach and football games, more kids around on weekends (I heard Jupitor campus is deserted on weekends), more dining choices…etc. FAU allow you to choose between the two campuses and you can also switch campuses later on. At Boca, they give a conditional guarantee for a single room in a suite to the BSMD kids. For classes you are placed in a “learning community” with other pre-health and BS/MD kids during the first year and you take all your classes together and live close to each other. Also closer to the big airports like Miami and Fort Lauderdale for your trips homes. Southwest airline is out of Fort Lauderdale. In my opinion Boca will give a better college experience overall. GL!
Last I heard from Wilkes Jupiter campus is 6 students had already commited in the medical pipeline program. So the count is going beyond 12 total between the two campuses right?.
@bsmdmom18 , thanks for your input. If you dont mind what is the name of the FB Group the kids created at the Boca Campus?.
Thanks @bsmdmom18 and @hopeful_sid . For my undergrad application, I chose Wilkes Honors College, which awarded me Honors College and Out of State scholarships. I was interviewed by College of Medicine in mid April and accepted on April 30 via a phone call. For now, I enrolled to Wilkes Honors College. I did not receive the official documents with details from College of Medicine yet. If they give me option to choose campus, I am concerned if my Wilkes Scholarships be transferred to Boca. I also don’t know if all FAU BS/MD accepted students get full ride for undergrad. I hope to receive official documents soon. How and when did the College of Medicine send you official documents?
@sunflower2000 - Don’t worry they will send you a big envelope soon. I think it took them a few weeks to send it to my son. You will get full ride at both campuses. I think everyone in the bsmd has full ride. There is a Florida law (i think it is call Banaquiesto) that gives full ride scholarships to all National Merit Finalists. All national merit semi/finalists get full ride to all Florida (public) Universities. You can even take it with you if you decide to transfer to another Florida School.
Personally I was a little worried about maintaining the required 3.7+ gpa at the honor college so I encourage my son to go to the Boca.
@hopeful_sid - sorry I don’t know the facebook group name off hand. I will need to get it from my son but he had been so busy lately and had not send it to me yet.
Thanks a lot @bsmdmom18 for detail info. Feeling much better now. I was very nervous after not enrolling at Drexel BS/MD and not having the FAU package in hand.
@sunflower2000 @bsmdmom18
Are you planning to attend the STAR session?. For Wilkes it is on June 22nd or July 27th. I believe for out of state students it is not mandatory and we will be asked to come one day earlier before the FALL Orientation starts.
@hopeful_sid June 22nd is my high school graduation. I will probably go on July 27th. I received the phone call on April 30th, I still did not receive the official package. I don’t know the undergraduate portion of my financial award. After I receive the package, I will start planning everything. I am not sure if there is any STAR session for Boca, where @bsmdmom18 will attend.
@hopeful_sid @sunflower2000 we are not planning on attending anything until the day before “freshman move-in” since we are OOS. Hopefully the kids can all meet soon - given there is only approx. 12, they should all know each other after a while. GL!
@bsmdmom18 I received a large envelope today with 4 pages. Page 1 says “Congratulations on your acceptance to the Wilkes Medical Scholars Program at FAU Jupiter Campus”. Page 2 is Student Acknowledgement Form, which I need to sign and send back shortly. Page 3 is the FAU College of Medicine Pipeline Program Expectations and Requirements. Page 4 shows Expectations and Requirements for Promotion to the College of Medicine. I don’t see any financial package and option to choose campus. I am not sure if I will receive any additional package or not. Please advise.
@sunflower2000 Congratulations!
I think you will need to call someone at FAU to discuss the campus selection. For my son someone asked him during his interview where he would like to go. For the scholarship, I believe there was a letter in the package saying he was offered “cost of Attendance” scholarship, which he got clarification with someone (I think the admissions office) at FAU that it would be a full ride to include OOS tuition, room, board, and books. If you did not get the letter you should contact the school.
If you don’t know where to start you can start with either the admission counselor or Debbi Johnson… If you call FAU’s main # someone will transfer you to Debbi Johnson or Admissions Office.
I copy and pasted the following from their webpage: Please contact us to receive more information about the Combined Bachelor’s/MD Programs: Ms. Debbi Johnson-Rais fau.djohnsonrais@health.fau.edu
Just a note, this is a UCF thread. Thu2s discussion may be better suited for the FAU page so future FAU medical scholars may find it.