Mount Sinai Icahn FlexMed Program?

<p>Hi all, </p>

<p>I've recently been seduced by the FlexMed program at Mount Sinai because it focuses on allowing humanities/social science majors to get into med school and allow them to continue to pursue their interests during college and before entering medical school. Does anyone know about admissions and acceptance rates? The website indicates it requires a high school and college transcript, as well as SAT/ACT scores. My transcripts are really good, but how much emphasis do they put on the standardized test aspect? Wouldn't performance in college be a better indicator than the SAT/ACT? </p>

<p>Thanks for clarifying! </p>

<p>It is a recently announced program. I am not certain there are any batches that have already been admitted (I am guessing this year is the first one).</p>

<p>What year are you in college?</p>

<p>I’m going to be a sophomore at Tufts, and I meet the requirements (humanities/social sciences major) and satisfy the prerequisites courses/GPA requirement. </p>

<p>FlexMed is a recent expansion of HuMed which has been around since 1987. Use the Search function here and on SDN for FlexMed and HuMed.</p>

<p>FWIW, Hum/SS majors can pursue their interests during college and still be competitive candidates to med school via the traditional route as well.</p>

<p>I haven’t really been able to find much regarding emphasis placed on high school grades/SAT and ACT vs weight of actual college grades and coursework, as well as whether or not adcoms superscore each section of the ACT etc. Was hoping you guys knew anything about that!</p>

<p>This is a small program at 1 med school, as such, there have been relatively few members here posting on applying. I’m not surprised that you have found little that discusses (with any authority) what they look for or how they weight different parts of the application, as programs will look at theses things on a case by case basis. If you want to ask a specific question like whether or not they superscore the ACT, that may be best done by calling the program itself.</p>

<p>If you check SDN you will have a good idea of the students that received interviews. The majority were HYP students. Many already had interesting ECs that were not related to medicine, but did involved public health, political advocacy related to healthcare, poverty, etc. I do not believe the adcoms were looking at superscores. </p>

<p>I interviewed a couple of years back when it was still HuMed, and can attest to the fact that all of the students were very highly qualified. Just at my session, there were a few people from Brown, one from Yale, one from Dartmouth, two from NYU, one from Princeton, one from Williams, and one from Juilliard. Because most people apply early in their sophomore years, there isn’t that much performance in college to look at because they’ve only completed a year of college.</p>

<p>But for the program, the most important factor is having a real convincing reason as to why the program is a good fit beyond simply wanting to have a guaranteed acceptance and avoid some classes and the MCAT. People who get in have specific ideas for research in a non-science field, or have some other passion they need the extra space to fulfill</p>

<p>Ah, got it, thanks guys. I’m just surprised, does coming from Tufts put me at a disadvantage when put against other kids from HYP? Tufts is ranked higher than NYU by US News…</p>

<p>^ your missing the point a tad bit. Ranked school or not, this program is competitive due to the large amount of talented students that apply. Regardless of undergrad, if you can pull off a great gpa first semester, and you have a competitive sat score, you’ll be fine. THEN, you need to show that you have a passion for medicine so bad that you will run 3 marathons to save someone’s life… </p>

<p>Ask some serious questions. Stay away from who’s rank is what. That will distract your whole mindset. It’s the last thing to worry about, I believe no one cares. </p>

<p>I’m interested in applying to this program. I currently have a 4.0 at a decently ranking state school (but by no means Ivy league); I’ve covered 2 semesters of Bio with Lab, 2 semesters of Chemistry with lab, 2 semesters of English, and 2 semesters of Calculus. In High School I didn’t do so well: Freshman, Sophomore, and Senior year were all A’s (maybe 2 or 3 A-'s here and there, but no more), however Junior year was 5 B’s and 2 C’s. Senior Year was a lot better. My SAT is 2120 (660 CR, 720 M, 740 W). Would my High School grades likely return to haunt me and likely slim my chances for this program?</p>

<p>@MrSimpleSimple‌ High school grades would be a great factor since you only have 1 year completed of college. If it didn’t matter, they wouldn’t have asked for it.</p>

<p>College GPA would definitely be something that weighted upon. That 4.0 shows that you handled your first year of college with discipline and you did amazing, while balancing some ECs. </p>

<p>You would be slightly above average applicant, but it will be competitive because many people will have the 4.0 in college as well as 4.0 in high school with more AP courses and a higher SAT score.</p>

<p>You’re still up against some tough applicants.</p>

<p>You need to have a X factor. Make it known in your essay. And I think you can get in. </p>

<p>@WannaBeDocc Thank you for the response. I’m going to focus my entire application “story” about my passion in entrepreneurship. I’m working on starting up a non-profit organization that I like to think is very unique in it’s function. I’ll delve into how assurance to Mt. Sinai would allow me to focus on that academically in my last year of college (taking courses in finance, tax law, etc.)</p>

<p>I was admitted to FlexMed a month ago as part of the first cohort. Happy to answer any questions.</p>

<p>What was your first year gpa and any high school stats you find relevant? @Anzer‌ </p>

<p>what is your major or intended major when applying? Any ECs have you done before applied?</p>

<p>Basically, the adcoms are going to be looking at your grades for the first year and a half of college + high school. After second semester sophomore year I had a 3.9+ at a mid-tier Ivy (not HYP) with all of my traditional med school science pre reqs done. They clearly weigh college grades a lot more heavily because several people I know got in with a bad grade or two in high school but with 3.85+ in college. I had a 3.9+ in HS and 2250+ SATs.</p>

<p>My declared majors were chem and English. I had 1 pub at the time of my interview with them. I had tons of shadowing, random volunteering, and leadership positions in HS/college although they only really care about the ones in college.</p>

<p>One thing that’s important to note is that they made up a class with students from all kinds of colleges this year, NOT just ivies. For HuMed, you had to be at a top uni or LAC but for FlexMed they’ve definitely expanded their reach to get really talented kids from all over. </p>

<p>Thanks for the quick reply. </p>

<p>what is HuMed? What’s the difference between HuMed and Flexmed? I thought they are from the same Medical School?</p>

<p>Do you think it needs to get all pre reqs done to get in? I will only have 2 chems and 1 bio if I apply in Fall. I had bio AP and Physics AP in HS. </p>

<p>I’m guessing Cornell or Dartmouth</p>

<p>HuMed (Humanities and Medicine) was the program that Sinai ran up until this year when it was expanded into FlexMed. For HuMed, you needed to be a humanities major to apply. They also ran a program called SciMed, where you had to be a math/engineering major to apply. FlexMed allows anyone from any major apply to gain early admission to the med school and you need to pick one of 3 “tracks” (humanities, biological science, or computational science). You definitely don’t need all of the pre-reqs to apply. I think you only have to have 1 year of bio OR chem. It just so happened that many of the students who were admitted were engineers and had lots of science classes done like advanced biosci, orgo, genetics, etc. </p>