Chance for BS/MD

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

My S who is in Junior Year want to do the BS/MD program and has below Stats. Please help to review his stats and leave your thoughts.

Current Grade:11th
Current Weighted GPA: 4.4706 (By end of year high possibility of increasing)
Position in Class - Within Top 5%
ACT: 32 first attempt, planned to attend in June for next attempt
AP’s: AP Computer Science, AP World History, AP Psychology, AP Language, AP Environmental Science, AP Biology

Senior Year Course Selection: AP Lit, AP Statistics, AP Comparative Government and Politics
AP Macro Economics
Science Subject: anatomy

Volunteer Experience

Academic:
• Tutored Middle school kids for trumpet
• Tutored Highschool kids for Science subject

Community:
• Continuing volunteering at the local organization since 2017 and organized many kids’ activities
• Established Own volunteer organization and volunteering under that for international kids.

Medical/health Experience:

Volunteering:
• Hospital Volunteer Lab Assistant for a month
• Worked with a rehabilitation center to schedule monthly volunteering activity for a group of kids including him (4 months passed and Due to COVID-19 it took a pause)
• Health Awareness Videos which are scheduled to telecast in schools(multiple)
• Scheduled Volunteering and shadowing for summer – Cancelled due to COVID-19

Research:
• He is recognized as a state scholar for his research paper on Infectious deceases. (Waiting for results on moving on to nationals)
• Selected to competitive state-funded summer program summer Ventures (competitive program - 1-month research)

Leadership Positions:

• An international volunteer organization’s Youth-Wing, President from 2 years
• Marching Band, Drum Major (Jr/Sr Years)

Extra-Curricular Activities:

Marching Band for 4 years
Indoor Winds for 4 years
Band for 7 years
Odyssey of the Minds competitive team for 3 years

Honors/Awards: Awards achieved in and out of school

BAND

 Elected to the top-rated band after Freshman year.
 Most improved performer in all of the school,2018-2019
 Providence Cup champion x3

Odyssey of The Mind
 5th best in the world – 2018
 World Participants - 2017
 State Champions-2017, 2018
 State 3rd position - 2019
 Regional Champions-2017, 2018, 2019
 Best Omer award – 2018

Other:
 Presidents Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) – Bronze 2019
 AP scholar award (Academic)
 NC Junior Marshall (Academic)
 State Scholar for Science research(Academic)

2

I don’t know your high school or its history with competitive programs. In my neck of the woods, this course selection would look curiously heavy on “lite” AP’s, and missing Physics, Chem and Calculus. Does the high school not offer a rigorous version of physics, chem and calculus (whether AP or not) or did your kid choose not to take? AP stats is NOT a good substitute for AP Calc-- it’s generally a MUCH easier course, and usually taken by the kids who are not heading for a math/science heavy course of study in college. (a STEM major in college is usually going to have a harder statistics sequence to take as part of the major).

Did the guidance counselor sign off on this program??? No chem or physics for a kid interested in research on infectious diseases???

3

@blossom Since he has AP Biology he thought it is good enough and went for diversity in senior year course selection. One question : Do collages see all AP Physics, AP Chem And AP Calculus, or 1 of them during senior year? My school offers them. I will check with him on that point. Other than that, how is his stats look like? Any Idea?

4

4.4706 weighted GPA tells people outside of your high school nothing, since you did not give the weighting method. You also have not mentioned what else he took besides AP courses (e.g. math to what level? foreign language to what level? which non-AP sciences? etc.).

Better to give an unweighted GPA and describe what courses he took in all of the academic subject areas (English, math, science, foreign language, history and social studies, art, other academic electives).

5

Many colleges want to see the core science classes taken- bio, chem and physics. And in many high schools, the strong students take calculus. Your son’s “stats” are fine, but I don’t think his schedule is signaling “strong science and math student”. How is he demonstrating significant interest in medicine, at such a young age, without having taken chemistry, for example? At some high schools, AP bio is the easiest of the AP sciences… so he’s not sending out “academic rigor” signals with his course selection.

If he were interested in majoring in econ- or just “undecided” like most 17 year old kids, his schedule and stats are fine. The combined BS/MD programs are brutally competitive.

What did his guidance counselor say about his schedule? You will want the counselor to be able to check off “Most Rigorous” on the counselor’s recommendation… which this schedule likely will not qualify. He can have all the EC’s and awards in the world- but no physics, chem, or calculus??? That’s a red flag, and I think he needs a sit down with his guidance counselor to discuss.

The strongest students at my kids HS (and the HS’s in my area) take BC Calc; the next tier down take AP Stats. And virtually all college bound seniors have taken bio, chem and physics, even if they don’t take the AP version. Anatomy and Environmental Science are not typically taken by the kids aspiring to the most competitive academic programs.

Your high school may have different results…

6

@blossom Thank you for a detailed explanation. @ucbalumnus I don’t have his exact unweighted GPA. In all finished courses, he has A. 2 AP’s currently holding B but he is sure to bring up the final grade to A. I am giving the other course list he did. Since he is a band and foreign language not much room for electives.

Junior Year other courses:
Honors Spanish III
Honors Pre-Calculus
Honors American History I
Wind Ensemble (Advanced)

Sophomore courses:
Honors English II
After NC Math3
Honors Chemistry I
Spanish II
Wind Ensemble (Advanced)
Honors Amer His: Found Prin, Civics & Ec

Freshman Year:
Honors Biology I
Honors World History
Honors NC Math 2
Concert Band (Intermediate)

All 4 years marching Band.

7

All A grades would be a 4.0 unweighted GPA. You can calculate GPA by adding all grades (A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0) and dividing the sum by the number of grades.

Comments on his schedule:

  • After completing precalculus in 11th grade, strong students typically take calculus in 12th grade if available. Statistics courses in college suitable for pre-meds may be calculus-based.
  • Will he take any kinds of physics in high school? Physics in college will be harder if he does not have any physics in high school.
  • In health care settings, a higher level of proficiency in Spanish (to the level of being able to listen and speak it) can be helpful. In addition, many applicants to more selective colleges and programs will have level 4 or AP in foreign language.
8

If he’s taking anatomy as a “head start” on med school- he can drop it, and replace it with physics. I am not aware of any high school in the US which can replicate a med school appropriate anatomy lab.

9

@blossom and @ucbalumnus Thank you for your inputs for one more time. I have calculated his Unweighted GPA. With existing 2 B’s his GPA came 3.95. Hopefully, B’s turns to A by final grade.

Regarding Course Schedule:

  1. Since he has covered “Honors Chemistry I” in the sophomore year he is good with that subject.
  2. Instead of Anatomy Course, He needs to replace with Honors Physics I
  3. Looks like AP calculus is needed. So, He needs to replace Stats with calculus.
  4. Regarding Spanish IV - If he takes the Honors Spanish course, it is a year-long subject so, He needs to replace one of his AP selections.

    The question I have is, If he doesn’t want to go with AP Spanish and shift to year-long course of Spanish IV, GPA may be impacted correct? How expensive it can be?
    What is your recommendation? Spanish IV or AP Spanish?

Thank you for all your inputs!!

10

His guidance counselor is the best source of advice on Spanish- your son needs to be in the “most rigorous curriculum” category to be a credible applicant to one of these programs.

Your son also needs to work on Plan B. Safety schools, match schools, what happens if he doesn’t get into one of the very few accelerated med programs.

The difference between a 4.0 GPA and a 3.95 GPA is not going to keep him out of any college- it’s all the other stuff. Drop Econ (for example) if that gives him time to take the most rigorous physics your school offers… The electives are nowhere near as important for an accelerated med program as covering off all the basics. Math, English, Foreign Language, History, and the core sciences, including labs.

Recognize that these programs do not give the luxury of time for a kid to get acclimated to college level science classes- he’d be hitting the ground running. That’s why solid preparation is so important (not just to get admitted- but to keep up). He’ll be in classes with kids who took AP Chem, Physics, Bio and BC Calc-- and did well in all of them- so they are already building on a solid foundation.

Does your son have Plan B?

11

Thank you @blossom Yes, he has Plan B. Planning on applying good liberal arts with Bio combination collages and regular premed majors as well.

I have 1 question though senior year courses are just to see the course selection or collages do matter on 1st-semester scores? I hear multiple things about this.

12

No specific major is required to do pre-med, although many pre-meds do biology because of heavy overlap with pre-med courses. However, as a “plan B”, biology-major-related jobs will be competitive and not well paid due to the large number of biology graduates each year. Of course, a biology graduate can also seek general bachelor’s degree jobs as well (competing with those from lots of other majors).

Some colleges only see planned or in-progress 12th grade courses for current seniors applying to them, while others want a mid-year report including fall semester grades. In all cases, if the applicant changes schedule or earns a D or F grade, the colleges applied to should be notified rather than waiting to surprise them with the final transcript in the summer.