<p>DD was accepted to Duke's Biomedical Engineering program. She was also admitted to the University of Cincinnati's Dual Enrollment and the University of Kentucky's BS/MD program.</p>
<p>Thanks to merit scholarships, UC and UK would essentially be free for undergraduate studies. Duke on the other hand would require us to burn through most of her college savings as well as probably taking out some loans.</p>
<p>My initial thought has been that if she is committed to becoming a physician then UC or UK is the way to go. I say this for two compelling reasons: her ability to have a sizable nest egg for starting med school; and her greatly increased chances of med school acceptance from the direct admission programs. </p>
<p>However, I have heard that something like half of students who start as pre-meds change their minds as undergraduates. If this happens, I would prefer that she attend Duke.</p>
<p>I think the financial considerations are valid. Med school debt can be a major burden on young residents and even practicing physicians.</p>
<p>As for chances, by and large, the sorts of students who get into BS/MD programs in the first place are those who won’t have trouble getting into medical school in four years.</p>
<p>As for changing their minds, some proportion of that happens because students probably won’t be qualified and therefore won’t apply (unlikely to happen to your daughter). But some proportion of that happens because better options present themselves. Many freshmen have a sort of “village people” approach to careers: they know about doctors, lawyers, firefighters, and some generic entity known as “business.” As they learn more and more, they often find something else that appeals to them. And yes, this does happen quite a bit, particularly at schools recruited as heavily as Duke (and it happens even more at schools that are recruited even more heavily).</p>
<p>Congrats to your D.
My own D. was in DAP but at the different UG. In her times DAP had 5 UGs. She really liked it because it is not accelerated and because she could apply out and still retain her spot at UC Med. Col. She was the only one who applied and got accepted to good selection of Med. Schools and currently a 3rd year Med. Student at Med. School outside of DAP. BTW, D. was also on a ful tuition Merit in UG. Believe me, it makes a huge difference. In fact, because of that, we told her not to consider the cost of Med. School at all and she was able the choose the most expansive one since she simply liked it the best.
Good luck!</p>
<p>…you could be absolutely any major in DAP and you could be double/triple major or any combo of major(s)/minor(s). However, if you choose engineering, you cannot graduate earlier than 5 years from UG. Otherwise, it is 4. D. graduated with minor in Music and overall had great UG experience, sorority, job, Med. Research, volunteering, trip abroad to the destination of her dream (NZ), trip to her sorority National in Miami FL, she had absolutely everything and more that she has ever planned to have in college and graduated Summa Cum Laude with Honors. Memories will last forever, still in great contacts with her sorority sisters and taking care of a younger one at her Med. School.</p>