Chances/Advice for BS/MD and Premed T-20's

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • US domestic: Citizen

  • State/Location of residency: Georgia (suburbs of Atlanta)

  • Type of high school: Public

  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity: Indian, Male

  • Other special factors: Legacy at Hopkins/Emory

Intended Major(s)

  • Thinking about neuro or cognitive science, but not 100% sure - please advise here

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0

  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.676 (4.0 system, only AP classes are given quality point so no weightage for honors)

  • Class Rank: 1/712

  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1580 SAT (780 ERBW, 800 Math)

Coursework

AP Psych, Stat, Human Geo, World History, Calc AB and BC, AP Bio, AP CSP, AP US Gov - All 5’s

APES, Micro/Macro, Lang, Phys C: Mech, APUSH, Chem - Exam pending

Completed Linear Algebra and Multivariable Calculus

Awards
My three main spikes are scientific research, communciation/debate, and healthcare/shadowing experience. You can’t really earn awards for the third one, so I put awards for the first two here.

Science Awards:

  • 2 time State Science Fair Grand Award Winner, out of 300 projects
  • 2nd Place at Georgia JSHS, qualified for Nationals as an oral presenter, which only 100 out of 8000 students achieve
  • Pete Conrad Scholar at the Conrad Challenge, highest honor given to a presenter (out of 800 teams)
  • Gold Medal at iGEM International Competition (Collegiate Synthetic Biology Competition)
  • 2nd Place in State Science Olympiad
  • 3rd place, HOSA International Leadership Conference

Debate Awards:

  • Ranked 1st in the world by the National Debate Coaches Association for Public Forum Debate
  • 3rd Place at National Championship hosted by National Debate Coaches Association
  • 3rd place at Tournament of Champions (only top 100 debaters in country invited)
  • Top Speaker at Columbia University tournament
  • Champion of tournaments hosted by Harvard, Princeton, and UChicago
  • Some other small 3rd place finishs and stuff

Extracurriculars

Leadership:

  • 2 State Officer Positions (one of these is HOSA, a medically-oriented career technical organization where I served 15,000 members and guided them towards a career in medicine)
  • Past Student Government President
  • iGEM International Ambassador
  • President of 3 Clubs
  • Founder/President of nonprofit that has provided $10K worth of services and reached over 80K internationally

Work Experience:

  • 3 Research Internships at universities (co-authored on 4 papers currently in the process of being published, first author of 2 abstracts that I presented at a national conference of the American Chemical Society)
    • One paper is on sleep cycles/neuro, two papers are on Covid-19 inhibitors, one paper is on enzyme kinetics for drug delivery, both conference abstracts are also synthesis of drug delivery systems (for background into my fields of research)
  • 400+ clinical shadowing hours at clinics/hospitals

Summer:

  • Garcia Summer Research Scholar (top 10 summer research program)
  • NYSC Delegate (only 2 chosen per state)
  • Selected to attend Boys State

Volunteering:

  • Helped out at nursing homes and local nonprofits, earned Gold PVSA

Essays/LORs/Other

LOR: 7.5/10 - all my teachers know I’m a fairly driven student but I also have a dominant personality, planning on getting a PhD letter of rec too

Essays: 8/10 - above average writer

Cost Constraints / Budget

Do not qualify for aid, no cost constraints

Schools

  • Safety: UGA, GT (auto-admit based on class rank), Augusta

  • Likely: Emory, Mercer BS/MD

  • Match: Vandy, Hopkins

  • Reach: Brown PLME, Rice BSMD, BU BS/MD, UAB BS/MD, Casewestern BS/MD, HYPS, Duke

This is not a complete list of all of my ec’s/awards, but its the mostly relevant ones that will have a tangible impact on admission

*I am aware that the list is top-heavy, I plan to whittle it down at some point but for now, just looking for advice on what major to apply as, where I should apply, how to increase chances at BSMD admission, etc.

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First of all Hopkins doesn’t consider legacy. Secondly, the debate accomplishments should be able to get you into one of your reaches. Especially the ones that are not BSMD or PLME. Even your BSMD options may be reachable given your research accomplishments. I think you are generally a very strong candidate. What you can do to improve your situation is to soften your image and get stellar LORs – positively effusive ones.

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You will do amazing no matter where you end up.

Shoot your shot for the universities and programs that interest YOU.

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Congrats on your achievements. You will be competitive anywhere. Mercer bsmd (18 max slots per year), Emory, Vandy and JHU are reaches.

Can you articulate why you want to do a BS/MD program?

Why is Augusta on your list…would you really go there if you have guaranteed admission to GT?

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post here Thread for BS/MD BS/DO 2021-2022

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Any BSMD program is a reach for anyone. Emory, Vanderbilt, and Johns Hopkins are also reaches, for everyone. I think you have a respectable shot to get into one or more of your non-safety choices, but they’re all reaches. There are simply far more qualified applicants than there are spots at these colleges.

What kind of college experience are you looking for? Your safeties are the only schools which are large, as everything else appears be mid-sized. Is a mid-sized school your preference? Except for Stanford, your preferences seem to be in the eastern half of the U.S. Are you trying to stay within a certain distance from home (whether by car or plane)? It appears that except for YPD, that you would prefer an urban campus. Is that correct? Would you like to continue debate in college? What is it about Augusta that you like? Would you attend it over UGA or Georgia Tech?

Mercer (non BS/MD) or UAB (non BS/MD) would be two options on your list that would be extremely likely for admission, should you want to consider those as well.

With respect to neuroscience vs cognitive science, I think you should major in whichever you find more interesting. Med schools aren’t likely to care either way so long as you take the necessary prereqs.

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Just to give you some food for thought, here are three colleges in cities that are mid-sized and have ranked debate teams, and all are likelier acceptances for you, should you be trying to create a more balanced list of schools to apply to.

• Wake Forest (NC)
• Trinity (TX)
• Samford (AL)

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In today’s world, no top school is ever a guarantee (and even more so with the combined programs). But you have as good a chance as anyone. Applying early where possible, demonstrating interest, making your essays shine, and I’d be surprised if you didn’t get into at last some of your reach schools.

You may want to consider adding the BS/MD program at George Washington University to your list – It may be “match”

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I am a bit confused on your AP credentials. Are you saying that you have 8 APs completed at the end of 10th and all with 5s and you are taking 6 exams in 11th now?

If you are a national AP scholar with 1580 SAT with several science awards and research, you have a good shot at pretty much every school. You may be giving up a lot by pursuing BSMD route since there are not that many good programs left for your caliber.

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@Aarav_Patel1
With reference to match, reach, hard reach (super reach) avg acceptance rates widely published over google, you need to adjust your schools in your list accordingly. Here is one example below.
You have great stats. However many with super impressive stats did end up not getting what they need (Ex. T10 or T20s or BSMDs) because they apply to a very short list of programs. As you add reach and super reach colleges in your list, you need to apply widely to increase your chances knowing that acceptance chances are practically slim or razor-thin.
Almost all BSMD programs fall in the Super Reach category with hundreds and thousands applying to these programs typically, competing for 10-20 seats or even fewer at some of these programs, saying this again…so you need to apply widely to increase your chances. Good luck.
https://www.csusb.edu/educational-talent-search/online-advisor/safe-match-and-reach

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Wow, I was pretty blown away by your accomplishments. You’ve got a wonderful profile. I’m sure many colleges would love to have you.

You obviously are a very smart and motivated student. Many bright students like you enter college and start-off as pre-med but then end up changing their mind. Lately the trend has been to go into finance or tech industry. The downside of a BS/MD program is that you’ll be locked in to the undergrad college. So if you decide against medicine you’ll probably be at a lower ranked college than you would have otherwise.

Personally with your talents, I would shoot for one of the T10 colleges (Ivy+). You’d have an excellent chance, especially if you applying binding ED. But I would avoid the T10 colleges known for grade deflation: Princeton, Chicago, MIT, JHU. Of your list of reach schools, have you considered applying EA/ED to any of them?

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I want to do a BS/MD program as a means to further immerse myself in medicinal education, as a lot of the programs provide early access to clinical shadowing, medically-oriented courses, etc. Specifically, some of the programs like PLME give you the opportunity to pursue concentrations in other interests so I can pursue my passions outside of medicine while still furthering my goal of becoming a healthcare professional.

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I want a fairly urban college experience, and yes, I would prefer staying on the Eastern side of the US so that I am not too far from home, since I live in GA. With regards to debate, if possible/if the schools I get into have a debate team, I would like to, but that is not a major deciding factor for me.

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I plan on applying REA to Harvard! My top two choices would be Brown PLME and Harvard, but Brown uses an ED policy, so I do not want to apply to Brown and get into the school, but not PLME, and still be bound to attend.

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Yep, that’s exactly what I’m saying for my AP creds!
I also feel somewhat the same sentiments, but I am pretty certain that I want to pursue a career in medicine, and a BSMD program (albeit there are not many good ones left) provide a fast-track to that education, since it seems like (to my knowledge) most pre-meds have to take a gap year before applying to med school.

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Got it! Thank you so much, I will definitely add these to the list to balance it out a little.

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Not true at all about needing a gap year.

If you are already a national AP scholar before you finished 11th, you could probably attend a state school and complete undergrad in 2 years with AP credits. If you end up attending a big name school, you will probably need to retake many of the classes but you should already know your material and so you can use your time to polish your resume. GAP years at top schools are taken by people in at least 3 categories I can think of: Those who decide on medicine after one or two years; those who are not focused on grades and find out they fell behind in the needed GPAs to apply to med schools; and those who are fixated on attending a top med school because they feel just attending a medical school too far below their current elite school attendance status. I have come across many people who have done 2 years of research just to get to a top 10 medical school.

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I don’t really understand why you are posting. It’s pretty obvious you have as good a chance as anyone at the top tier schools. It’s not really possible to have better credentials. Cast a wide net but you will get into multiple top 20 schools unless you screw something up on your application.

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