Chance High School Junior for Premed programs and BSMD

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hey! Im a Junior in High School and I’d love any advice about how I stand for BSMD programs such as the Rice-Baylor Scholars program, Penn LSM, and Brown PLME and other top schools for premed such as Northwestern, Rice, etc. All advice is accepted and any suggestions about schools to apply to!

Demographics

Female
Asian

Academics
4.0 uw/4.7 w GPA
35 ACT/ 36 Superstore
Rank 25/1330 (top 1%)
Taking the most rigorous course load 14 AP classes
AP Scholar
Duke Tip National Merit Scholar
Member of National Honor Society & National Spanish Honor Society
Presidential Education Award (2015/2018)

Extra-Curricular/Volunteering

Founder/ Executive Director of Global Non-Profit Organization (Over 100+ volunteers in 10 different countries 2020- now (600+ hours)
Recognized by US House of Representatives as ‘hometown hero’
Featured on prominent local, state, and national news sources
Keynote speaker at Global Conference with almost 2,000 viewers
Recipient of $500 Grant from International Corporation
Collected nearly 1000 books for Students in Schools

Biology Research Intern at a T-10 University and Medical School and co authored a study published in top 10 prestigious biology journal
Invited to attend international Conference August

Shadowed numerous physicians (neonatologist, Internal medicine, Pain management) for over 200+ hours
Volunteer at Nursing Home in the healthcare building (2020-now)
Volunteered in low income areas through my religious community (200+ hours)
Youth Leader for global non-profit for the past 5+ years

Speech and Debate Competitor and Captain of one of the top teams in the nation
Qualifier to TFA State, TOC, NIETOC and made outrounds at numerous national tournaments including Glenbrooks, Harvard, and UT Classic

Helped raise thousands over the span of three years for a hospital medical center through leading and performing a musical concert for charity

Youth mentor and 2-time recipient of a distinction level certificate for ethnic anguage from an accredited university

Distinction level certification for Music Theory and Piano examinations
Levels 3,5,8 passed with honors and distinction

Some of the BSMD programs I’m interested in are Brown PLME, Rutgers, UPitt, Rice/Baylor, Boston University, Case Western
and other universities are UPenn, Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Rice, UT Austin, Duke, UCLA, Northwestern, NYU and Johns Hopkins.

I’m open to all advice!!! Thanks

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Congratulations on your achievements.

You will be a serious contender for a BS/MD program, but as you know they have very low admit rates. Why do you want to do a BS/MD program?

The rest of your schools look like you chose from a list of top ranked colleges, they are all reaches too. What are the most important criteria you are looking for in a school and for your college experience?

You haven’t mentioned budget, do you know how much your family can pay per year of college? Once you know that, please add at least one affordable school that you would be happy to attend where you have a high chance of admission.

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Your accomplishments are very good….but your list is very top heavy. If you are a resident of Texas in the top 6% of your class, you will be admitted to UT Austin. The rest are reaches…they are reaches for everyone.

Also, make sure your EC list is believable. You have a lot of hours in a lot of different things. I’m wondering how you could evoke that many hours to that many things…and go to school full time.

Is cost a factor at all?

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And this…I’m not sure I would use a line on my application for this unless it was acknowledging some very very very special accomplishment. Lots of people have been featured in the news (including me).

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Cost is not too big of a factor, and I do plan on applying to texas schools and other safety schools. I totally agree with you about my EC’s, how do you recommend that I condense it to make it focused and believable?

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Thank you for your reply! For me, cost isn’t too large of a factor; however, I do plan on having most Texas public schools as safety schools. I think that BSMD programs seem appealing because it does ease a bit of stress regarding the MCAT as well as applying for med school. What are your thoughts about other premed schools and programs?

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A thought (and this isn’t something I thought of). The MCAT is a test you can repeat if you aren’t happy with the score. Once a medical student, you will need to take your STEP tests. Step 1 will be pass fail. But step 2 has a score cutoff for “passing”. If your score is lower than you might like…you really can’t repeat that test.

Do you really want your Step tests to be the first really important tests you take? Consider that the MCAT might be a better first choice.

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Congratulations on your accomplishments. I agree with others that your descriptions of ECs border on hard to believe. Make sure to be very clear on what your role was for each. Your rank is great but 1% would be top 13kids. Again, do not embellish.
BSMD programs look closely at your transcript, as do your other reaches: What APs have you taken and what were the scores? What APswill be finished by the end of this year?

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Why do you want to go to college? Why not work for your global organization?

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What does cost being “not too big of a factor” mean? What is your family willing and able to pay and for how many years, without depending on loans while remaining on track for a financially secure retirement? When running the net price calculator at these schools, is your family’s expected contribution higher or lower than the number they are comfortable paying? If higher, then most of these schools should be out because they don’t offer merit aid.

With the schools you have listed, it’s probably about $320,000 for college and even more for medical school. For now, let’s say $700,000 to get you through medical school, and that estimate is on the low side. Is $700k affordable for your family? It’s not for most families.

With the information you’ve provided about your time in high school, you could get a full ride to college, thus saving about $320k right there. Would your family be willing to then use the money saved from college on medical school? Debt is a big burden, and I would not recommend taking on more than absolutely necessary.

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If you want to be a doctor, apply widely to BS/MD programs (do not focus on rank or perceived prestige of undergrad component and use that to limit your choices: getting into an American med school should take precedence over Ivy/T20 IMO). Give it your best shot, and if you get into one (or more), then great - you are now in a very very nice place for future career. If it turns out you don’t get a spot at any of these, and you are still committed to the goal of becoming a physician, choose your undergrad institution based on cost (so some $ can be saved for med school), and where it seems you’ll be able to maintain a strong GPA and do the extracurriculars relevant to your “angle” on medicine (clinical volunteering, in some cases research, etc.) but also start to consider alternative paths if you are unable to secure a spot in a medical school (unfortunately all too common these days). Again the prestige factor is less important in some ways for pre-med. Yes, historically it was “easier” to get into med school from Harvard than other colleges, but you can face that dilemma in the (statistically unlikely) event you are holding a admission to Harvard come spring of your senior year…so many qualified high schoolers will not be in that position. It’s important to note that the Harvard prestige bump for med school admissions dies out very sharply as you drop out of “T5” colleges so that’s why prestige shouldn’t be a strong factor for pre-meds choosing a college.

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@Dazzling_Damsel
You have impressive stats. Is 1330 your school size or your class size?
IMO, you need to apply broadly for BSMD programs. All BSMDs in your list, are on the list for avg BSMD applicants. Almost every BSMD applicant applies to these speaking in general. The acceptance rate for BSMD programs is usually worse than Ivy’s acceptance rates, especially for the programs you have listed. Unfortunately many applicants in the past with stellar stats, didn’t end up getting even a single BSMD acceptance, not because of something wrong in their profile, that’s the nature of the BSMD program’s wild spin.
IMO, you better start reading the below thread for the BSMD program discussion for the Fall 2022 cycle and also start reading the BSMD results thread for the past few years to get an idea of how widely BSMD applicants usually apply, their stats, their acceptances, and their shared experiences. IMO, you may need to add a couple of in-state colleges, as in-state colleges usually offer scholarships/lower fees, that way you can explore them in the event you end up choosing the traditional path. Good luck.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/t/thread-for-bs-md-bs-do-2021-2022/3513271/9999

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I’m generally not a fan of BS/MD programs. It’s because so few high school “premeds” actually go to medical school, because they find passions in other things. It’s nice to have guaranteed admission to medical school, but chances are, you’re not going to do it, and you’re stuck in a school you probably can’t afford otherwise. I would recommend going the traditional route. If you have top grades and MCAT scores, you should be fine.

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You look like serious contender fr the Rice-Baylor which only takes 6 people

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This is definitely true, but note that nowadays the prevailing wisdom is to take the MCAT only once. After you’ve prepared adequately. Adcoms will see all of your MCAT scores, so taking it early does not help. It is possible to take the USMLE exams more than once (but only if you fail).

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Your stats look fine. As point out earlier by @thumper1 be careful how you frame the ECs. Based on first glance, it appears to me that you’re probably the son/daughter of a physician. And probably have connections to someone in an academic lab. That probably helped you with the shadowing and the lab research.

There’s nothing wrong with it. But just know that the admissions reader will be able to sniff this out. Nowadays almost every top applicant has “founded” their own nonprofit. So be careful when mentioning this to avoid looking like a braggart.

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There is a focused and active thread for BS/MD applicants. Link is here:

Suggest submitting your questions on that thread.