<p>I will apply to the HPME so my need for his LOR is at hand.</p>
<p>Kosherz - Perhaps you should focus on getting into college before concerning yourself with med school. By the time you apply to med school, your co-authored papers will be four years old and med schools will be looking to see what else you have done as an undergraduate. You’re jumping ahead of yourself.</p>
<p>Edit: Just noticed that mmmcdowe basically had the same thoughts. If you want to use the reference to apply to combined programs, sure, go ahead. It certainly won’t hurt.</p>
<p>I can’t say how much LORs affect combined degree applications, as it is outside of my realm of experience and knowledge. I’d recommend in the future specifying what HPME is, because I don’t think anyone realized at first that you were going for combined degree, because the application process and experience is definitely not the same, nor are the same standards and measures used. While I’m sure that many rules of thumb can be correlated to both, I don’t want you to be misinformed.</p>
<p>Well as mmmcdowe pointed out, I will be applying to the HPME so this is where the LOR becomes important. Im trying to bypass the college then Med school scenario and get the certainty of a Medical Degree.</p>
<p>I dont think im jumping ahead of myself if im (in a way) applying to a medical school now via HPME.</p>
<p>The reason why people are saying that is becausethey don’t realize that you are applying MD/BS. The acronym HPME is not something most people have heard of. </p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that BS/MD programs are not 100% promises of getting into medical school. Most people don’t seem to make it because:</p>
<p>1) They don’t meet the reqs in the end.
2) They find out that they don’t want to be doctors.
3) They decide to apply normally in the end. The rule of thumb is that if you can get into BS/MD you can get into a medical school that is more competitive than the one that you are in the program with.</p>
<p>It is to my understanding that the Northwestern BS/MD has a relatively easy requirement when compared to say the 8 year one at Wustl <em>shiver.</em></p>