Do I have a shot at BS/MD or should I stop spending my time on applying?

Pre-Med & Medical School Multiple Degree Programs
1

I’m applying to a bunch of med schools. I want to know if I have a shot or should stop spending my time.

GW, Drexel, BU, SUNY downstate, Stonybrook, Miami…

ACT: 34 (35M 35E 34S 32 R)
Math II: 780
Chem: 700 (retaking both)
GPA 3.93 (3.7 freshman and sophomore years, 4.4 junior year- school doesn’t unweight GPAs)
Taking AP Bio and AP AB Calc senior year. 11 honors courses throughout high school.
Top in state, competitive public school

EC: Cofounder of my country’s lacrosse association and captain of men’s and u19 national team, Varsity Lacrosse captain, Varsity football, spent summers before junior year and senior volunteering in biomedical engineering labs at two large hospitals in my city.

Awards- I probably can’t get any more.

3rd place in research competition junior year in DNA barcoding
3rd place in anatomy and physiology Science Olympiad division B
3-year excellent award at yearly piano evaluation festival, received rare a rating of “excellent plus” junior year

Volunteer hours- still changing because still volunteering

100+ shadowing hours in peds cardiology
~50 hours volunteer at youth lacrosse clinics
145 hours volunteer in research last summer, 48 hours into current research.

So yeah guys. Medicine’s what I want to do, I want to know if it’s possible to get a jumpstart.

2

BS/MD programs are very tough, although I think most are 7 years not 6.

Why not at least try? If you aren’t targeting the very top schools, you should have a decent chance.

Can you get recommendations from your shadowing and research?

3

Yeah I’ll be able to get a few letters of rec from them. Thanks! Didn’t think about that to be honest.

4

@uafootball27,

I think you have a really good chance especially at the mid-tier and low-tier BS/MD programs (GW, Drexel, SUNY downstate, Stonybrook). Miami might be a little of a reach, but that would be the case for many, just because of the increased competition there for several reasons. I agree with @rhandco, and why not at least try? I think you’re selling yourself short with Stony Brook and SUNY Downstate, as there are other good ones you should apply to and see what you get – i.e. maybe VCU’s program.

As always, apply to solid normal 4 year undergrads you would want to apply to regardless of whether you’re going for med school or not.

5

@Roentgen Thanks for the advice!

Seriously? SUNY downstate, GW, Stonybrook and Drexel are actually a possibility? That’s awesome! I had been under the impression that all of these schools were nearly impossible to get into.

What are other “lower tier” schools?

6

@uafootball27

Here are the facts for the above mentioned programs: total number of applicants/tot. interviewed/new entrants

SUNY-Downstate- 287/101/15
GW- 1015/27/10
Stony- 3083/19/4
Drexel- 1596/134/38

For Drexel/Drexel program: 3.96/1527 (M + CR)/ 34 ACT

Most successful applicants applied widely and showed demonstrated interests in each program.
Good luck!

7

@upstream
Jesus christ.
These programs seem impossible.
I think I’m just wasting my time. And this is AFTER the prerequisite ACT/SAT scores.

8

@Roentgen you mentioned that Miami program is showing increase in competitiveness over the last couple of years - do you mind elaborating on what the reasons for this growth is? also @upstream would you mind sharing the stats for Miami HPME? thank you both in advance.

9

@uafootball, you can see the huge list here: http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/BA_MD_programs.html. But if you use the the USWNR report med school rankings, you can divide into top-tier, middle-tier, and bottom tier. Top-tier can usually further divided into Top 5, Top 10, Top 20/25, etc. It’s not an exact cutoff by any means between the tiers, it’s more ranges, if that makes sense.

Don’t go based off of reported statistics – are those matriculant statistics or those who got an acceptance but ended up going somewhere else? Even then, you meet that. You’re fine. Don’t retake Math II – it won’t give you an extra edge – 780 is perfectly fine. Medical schools do holistic review. It isn’t SOLELY based on academic stats alone at any BS/MD program.

@infinity233, I don’t know about the last couple of years specifically, but I’m talking about in general. Miami is a fun place to live and they have a great undergrad reptuation, their med school has all the specialties available especially in areas like Ophthalmology - with Bascom being #1 in terms of that particular specialty, or in Dermatology, where it’s Top 10, which can help in the residency match. Essentially, going to Miami’s HPME won’t hold back your residency application in anyway, in terms of the reputation of their medical school.

Many more people know about BS/MD programs these days, and are applying, so the competitiveness naturally goes up since your applicant pool is bigger. 10 years from now college and BS/MDs will be even more competitive. That’s irrelevant in terms of whether you should apply or not. Miami has always been a relatively good caliber med school, especially in Florida, although definitely not a top-tier medical school, it’s at #45, so definitely a very solid-middle tier.

BS/MDs are an ALTERNATIVE source of admission for medical school, it’s nowhere close to being THE pipeline for admission and in many ways, it’s an early compromise for students, depending on the particular medical school. So keep that in mind, when it comes to deciding which ones to accept. As far as application, choose the ones you’d like to go to if offered an acceptance, including the reaches. Application fees are a pittance, but if you do apply, fill out the application and write the essays well, don’t just do it, just to do it.

10

@infinity233 Competition increased not just for BS/MD program, but in general college admission. Variety of factors, demographic change, awareness, need for college education to make a good earning and living. Here is the simple stat UCB Admission director showed during Cal day in April this year. in 2004 the number of applicants for UC system is 38000 and in 2014 the number is 74000 but the number of seats same. So the admit rate is almost half in the last 10 years. For BS/MD programs, it is getting more intense, as people are aware of it but the number of seats remain same (example stony brook just 4, U of Rochester just 8). Good luck.

11

@infinity233

I would be careful about applying to U of Miami (HMP) since only 60% of the program students eventually end up in U of Miami medical school. This information is straight out from their website. Perhaps, many students did not achieve the minimum requirements of 3.7GPA and 33 MCAT.

If you are still interested in this program:

in state- 84/27/9
oos- 143/59/5

Good luck.