Not trying to imply anything about your relatives, but med school has become a lot more competitive over the past few years.
OP daughter should improve GPA and apply DO.
I saw actual stats a few days ago and meant to post a link here. About 30-40% of med-school students go directly from undergrad into med school.
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@WayOutWestMom is this accurateā¦
Fewer than half, and some of those come from BS/MD programs, so it sounds fairly accurate to me. Itās no longer whatās typically done, but can still be done by some.
Nope.
According the 2022 Matriculating Student Questionairre, only 28.9% of entering US MD students matriculated into med school directly after undergrad.
This is asked in question 8 on the survey.
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Any idea how many of those 28.9% came from BS/MD or similar? It has to be a significant portion I would think.
The MSQ does not separately break out BA/MD applicants from traditional path students in its responses.
Iāve heard that the number of BA/MD students represent anywhere from 1.5-5% of entering med students. But donāt quote me on that. Pure hearsay.
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28.9% is essentially 30%. It is also based on a Questionnaire. The stats I saw showed the rate was 30-40% going back several years, and others reported it appears to be getting harder each year.
For example, your same survey form 2015 shows less than 60% reported taking a gap year:
In any case, 28.9% going directly last year does not align with the statements you canāt go in directly and you must do a gap year, even if it is norm and what the majority of students do.
Not all BS/MD programs divulge matriculant numbers, but there are about 50 or so of these programs. That would like mean a high end max of 800 or so BS/MD slots, and not all students go on to the MD piece. So overall not a large proportion of the total 22.7K 2022 matriculants. I donāt know how many slots there are in bs/do programs.
These resources (links below) share some data about number of slots in BS/MD programs, but they arenāt necessarily up-to-date, as one still is including Northwesternās program, for example, which was shuttered a few years ago because these programs favor the affluent, so itās yet another equity and access issue in college admissions.
Did someone say that you have to take a gap year? I didnāt see that response. Itās becoming more common for this to be the case. Largely done to beef up the other things in the application like shadowing, volunteer work, direct patient contact work of some kindā¦oreoaring for and taking the MCAT.
@WayOutWestMom if a student applies during their junior year of collegeā¦does this mean most prerequisite courses must be taken by a certain dateā¦if soā¦what is that?
If your 800 number is close to accurate, that means of the 28.9% of 22.7K matriculants (6560), roughly one in eight come from the guaranteed slots.
U Rochester had these in their Class of 2025:
Nine are part of our eight-year Rochester Early Medical Scholars Baccalaureate/MD Program, ten are part of our Early Assurance Programs,
And 2026:
9 are part of our eight-year Rochester Early Medical Scholars Program; 9 entered through our Early Assurance Programs;
I know there are BS/DO slots too because kids from our school often seek these from LECOM. Like you, Iām not sure how many there are and they wonāt factor into the 28.9% at MD schools.
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800 divided by ~50 BS/MD programs is 16 per class on average, and many programs have far fewer than 16. Regardless, I agree that if the 800 is accurate thatās about 12% of those who enter med school immediately out of undergrad. IMO, more of these programs are likely to discontinued because of equity and access issues.
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True! My mistake - which I shall go edit. Thanks for pointing it out!
Reading through this post really made me happy that my D19 abandoned pre-med first semester junior year. It did affect her, but she has something lined up after graduation.
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No joke! It has me strongly encouraging my D to do more research into PA, NP or other health-related fields. The stats are intimidating to say the least!
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My D decided she didnāt want to go the pre-med route after freshman year of collegeā¦she is now an extremely happy speech pathologist. Many great career options out there.
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You have the whole process of getting into med-school. Then you have to get through med-school. Then you have to pay back all loans from med-school.
That just seems like a lot.
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But for those like my current 2nd year resident, it was all worth it and heās still happy with his choice. Heās been wanting to be a doctor since he was 8. Iām glad he made it.
Each person needs to find the right path for them. There isnāt one correct answer. Our world needs many different niches filled.
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The issue is that speech pathologists are not afforded the same authority and respect as a doctor.
Respect: When you apply to med school and say, āmy mom/dad is a doctorā they immediately give you respect and attention. many times the interviewee will just give you a good review. First-hand experience here.
Privilege: If you are a doctor, you get better medical care. When they have a patient whos a doctor, everyone knows about it and goes the extra mile. Lots of first-hand experience here.
In the hospital, you can just tell who is who by their face/body language alone. So you can just tell who is a surgeon/specialist. They walk differently, talk differently, etc.
So while such allied health types may get āgood moneyā and lifestyle, they donāt command the same privilege as, say, a cardiac surgeon.
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Iām a career speech language pathologist. In terms of respect and authority regarding communication disorders, I was well respectedā¦and had the authority to do something about these as I was licensed and certifiedā¦and trained to do so.
If a doctor (or anyone else for that matter) tries to practice this profession without proper training, certification and licensure, they can be slapped with an ethics complaint for practicing without a license.
Frankly, I find your comment misinformed.
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