My actor friend from Brown who also has an MFA from an Ivy League school had to move in with his parents because he couldn’t afford to live on his own.
My other actor friend only lives on his own because his parents have more money to give him than the first actor friend.
^^^A kid I know had just graduated from a film school and had her first self produced movie, it was shown in limited theaters. She could do that because her parents estate is over 50 million.
My daughter is deciding b/w Cornell, WashU and UVA. Do any of these schools give her an advantage or disadvantage when applying to med school?
@gallentjill Your daughter sounds like a smart and promising girl. While everyone on here is telling you that there is a big chance she won’t succeed: the truth is they don’t know her, and there’s another chance she might do amazing and blow everyone out of the water. She sounds dedicated and many of these forums are discouraging. GPA and MCAT are just a piece of an ever changing puzzle. Don’t push, but let her pursue her dreams. Also, don’t be discouraged on here as there are many doctors with incredible stories who still made it despite non-traditional set backs.
@iwannabe_Brown I’m sorry if this has already been addressed, but do adcomms take into account the rigor of the major (past the 3.6 “human eyes” cutoff) when looking at GPA? I’ll be matriculating through the NJIT/NJMS program but am hoping to apply out to the really competitive MD/PhD programs. I’m considering majoring in BME, though I’ve heard that NJIT is tough in its engineering dpt. I’m not afraid of hard work and genuinely believe in and enjoy studying engineering, but I don’t want to be punished by not being able to achieve the program of my dreams simply because I’m choosing a different major.
How was your experience with BMEs as a reader? I could definitely be hearing a lot of flawed information.
First off, just to clarify: I think a 3.0 is the cutoff for human eyes. 3.6 is the cutoff for being read ASAP.
Readers can do whatever they want. We are not told anything about any individual schools or majors.
For applicants who had AP credit in BCPM subjects, did you or other readers judge their academic choices differently if they (a) used the AP credit to skip the introductory course and take a more advanced course in the same general subject area instead, or (b) repeated the AP credit by taking the introductory course that could be skipped?
I’ll admit that I often didn’t look at it that closely to notice but i would definitely see it as a negative if I did. I feel like I didn’t see many people BOTH claim the AP credit and redo he course. I wouldn’t know it was a repeat if the AP credit isn’t on the transcript. Again, no official stance or instruction.
Some colleges remove AP credit from the records if the student takes the duplicating college course, so it could be that repeating one’s AP credit could effectively be hidden at those colleges.
As a medical school application reader, how much awareness did you have of harder versus easier course sequences (e.g. organic chemistry for chemistry majors versus for biology majors) at the applicant’s undergraduate school, and how much did it matter in the evaluation?
In other words, did it matter whether the applicant chose the more challenging course options to learn more, or did just enough to meet pre-med course requirements while hunting for the least difficult A grades?
I only know what the committee letter tells me and they typically rate an applicant’s “academic strength” which often included that.
Hoo boy haha I made a grave mistake by reading this thread, as someone currently preparing for the 2018-2019 application cycle!
If the applicant started college after high school graduation at a community college and later transferred to a four year school to complete his/her bachelor’s degree, would that affect how you view the applicant? Would the choice of BCPM courses taken at the community college versus four year school affect your evaluation?
I didn’t have any applicants who fit into that description so i’m speaking purely on speculation.
Again, no official stance on the matter but I would definitely consider all CC courses with a grain of salt with regards to GPA and would certainly highlight in the free response if a BCPM GPA was largely CC courses instead of 4 year courses or if the GPA was skewed upwards by CC courses. I’m talking about significant differences here. The 3.9 cGPA who had a 4.0 at CC but who gets a 3.8 at the 4 year with a 50/50 split in BCPM courses is not going to get any comments questioning their academics. The 3.6 cGPA with a 4.0 at CC and a 3.2 with no BCPM courses at the 4 year is definitely getting some remarks though.
As far as I can tell, the GPA screens in terms of either getting thrown out (3.0) or getting put to the back of the pile (3.6) wouldn’t make any of those distinctions though.
There would also be no leniency from an EC or LOR standpoint in the sense that the person “only” had a year or two at the 4-year school.
BCPM = Biology Chemistry Physics and Math?
Yes. See https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/article/course-classification-guide/ for more details.
Thank you for sharing. Were you involved in any of the committee deliberations?
Not for MD, I only did pre-interview screening. For MD/PhD I did interviews and was in a handful of committee meetings.
BUMPing so all the rising high school seniors/college freshman can get some perspective on how med school admissions works instead of asking about what to major in for the 500th time