My two cents about importance of interview which has been corroborated by some admission officers. The college (including BS/MD) interview process is very similar to a job interview process. The purpose is to find a candidate who is both capable enough to be successful in the role but also has the right personality to be a good fit. Both application processes start with your CV. If your credentials are not competitive you will even not be called for an interview. Once called for an interview, the interview becomes the major factor for acceptance because on paper all candidates are deemed capable to do the job or be successful in the program. The CV will generally be only looked at again if two or more candidates performed equally well on the interview so to make a final decision another look at CV maybe warranted. Whether it is fair or not, if you mess up in the interview even if you were the best candidate on paper you will not be accepted. I know students like that (and so do several other parents on this thread) who are not good at interview skills or are just awkward and wonder why someone from the same school who had much lower credentials got accepted but they did not to the same program. A level 2 or 3 preference does not necessarily mean importance but a sequence of events. Every event has a time when it plays the major role. The credentials play most important role in the first step whereas the interview plays the most important role in the last and final step. Since each round is a knockout round, regardless of which step you get knocked out at results in no admission.
@bearchichi, I agree with you. My son is actually a great conversationalist and very warm. I donât think anyone would describe him as robotic at all. He just felt that interviewing was the weakest part of his application and that he could benefit from some practice. In my opinion itâs a skill and like any skill you get better with practice.
@rk2017, I think you make some very good points. I certainly see the value of interviewing but I think other components of the app are crucial as well. Anyway, I just meant to honestly share my sons experiences and what he perceived was an area of weakness for him. Heâs naturally fairly outgoing and conversational but in his early interviews he reported feeling nervous. However, he said his last few interviews went really well and those were the ones that resulted in 2 acceptances and a waitlist. Sometimes it comes down to how well you click with the interviewer too
In case of D it was the other way around :), she felt her first interviews in both traditional and BS/MD routes were the best (Yale with an alumnus and BU with a Prof of College of Arts and Science and a faculty of Med school). Subsequent ones in both the streams, she felt sliding down in her expectations, being repetitive, mechanical and even boring.
GPA: 4.0 (UW)
Class Rank: School doesnât rank
ACT: 36
SAT Subject Tests:
Biology: 800
Chem: 780
APâs (at time of application)
APUSH, AP Bio, AP Lang, AP Chem, AP World, AP Chinese, AP European History all 5âs
Senior Classes - 7 APs
Teacher Recs: prtty good
State: NJ
Gender: F
Ethnicity: Asian
Income: high
Hooks: none
Major ECs:
- Research
-USABO - A bunch of community service
- some medically related experience but no shadowing
Applied to the following BS/MD Programs:
- Pitt Gap - Rejected, No interview
- Case Western - Rejected, No interview
- Brown PLME-Rejected
- Northwestern HPME- Rejected, no interview
- Drexel/Drexel- Accepted
- BU SMED- Accepted
- TCNJ/NJMS- Rejected with both interviews
Accepted to the following undergraduate:
- UC Berkeley Regents
- Emory Full Scholarship
- USC Presidential
- Duke University
- Rice University
- Princeton University
DECISION: Princeton University
Comments: YOLO; Princeton has been my dream school since freshman year, decided that I couldnât give it up and they gave better financial aid than med programs. Applied to a ton of schools after getting deferred ea. GOOD LUCK!
Created new thread for 2018-19 applicants. Request all the experts to continue to share the input and guide the future doctors!!
I am posting for my daughter. Our sincere thanks to many of you for your very helpful advice and support.
GPA: 4.0 (UW), 4.62 (W)
Class Rank: School doesnât rank. Top 5%ile.
ACT: 33
SAT Subject Tests: Did not take.
Total 7 APs: AP Euro, AP English Lang, APUSH, Senior APs: AP Bio, AP U.S. Gov, AP Eng Lit, AP Calculus AB (School restricts APs to junior and senior years and doesnât allow science APs until student has passed Honors version of the same and no more than 1 science AP allowed per year.)
Teacher Recs: From Computer Science teacher & AP English Lang teacher. Assume they were great. Also had LORs from physician mentor, volunteer supervisor and research mentor. Assume they were all excellent as all three of them were in touch with her throughout the application process to see how things were going.
State: NY
Gender: F
Ethnicity: Indian-American
Income: >150K
Hooks: None. Did an internship in healthcare policy making, which is somewhat unique.
Major ECs:
- Peer leader at high school
- Published author of short stories & poems, won two national level prizes, has written her first novel (one interviewer took an interest and discussed the book)
- Editor of school literary magazine and another magazine
- Editor of school newspaper for 1 year
- Classical pianist-performed in concerts at famous venues
- Contemporary piano music composer-performed two of her own compositions in concerts at a famous venue (one interviewer who had similar interests talked a lot about this)
- Peer tutor at high school
- Captain of schoolâs Bollywood dance team
- Team member of a Bollywood dance group outside school
- Lead altar server at church
Community Service:
- Co-founder of non-profit aiding sick and underprivileged children (activities relating to this was the most talked about topic during interviews)
- Volunteer in pediatrics dept. of hospital
- Volunteer in nursing home
- Camp counselor at summer camp for homeless children
- Teacher of regional language at a school for young children
Awards:
-Nothing major.
-Won two national prizes in short story writing.
-Junior Volunteer Award at hospital.
-Excellence in Leadership Award at school in sophomore and junior years.
-National Honor Society
- National AP Scholar
-Several subject based awards at high school from three years.
-Coco-Cola Scholars Program Semifinalist
-Wesleyan Book Award
Medically related activities:
-Physician shadowing in Pediatrics, Emergency Room and Internal medicine
-Hospital-based clinical internship program: organized program for exceptional high schoolers selected via application and interview, shadowed physicians in 12 specialties for 3 months.
-Research Assistant at a neuroscience lab at a major medical school (no publications, only a learning experience where she assisted others with their research)
- Healthcare policy internship at a healthcare and technology consulting firm
Applied to the following BS/MD Programs:
- Union/AMC- interviewed & accepted with Presidential Scholarship
- Siena/AMC- interviewed & accepted with Humanities in Medicine scholarship
- Brooklyn/SUNY Downstate- interviewed & waitlisted. Accepted to UG with merit aid
- Sophie-Davis- interviewed, rejected
- RPI/AMC- rejected after a wait till early February. Accepted to RPI UG with Rensselaer Leadership Award
- UConn- rejected pre-interview. Accepted to UG with STEM honors scholarship
- Hofstra- rejected pre-interview. Accepted to UG with Presidential scholarship
- St. Bonaventure/GW- rejected pre-interview. Accepted to UG with Presidential scholarship
- Penn State- rejected pre-interview (applied on a last-minute whim, 2 days before deadline, test scores, LORs etc. got to college only way after the deadline)- Accepted to UG with Provostâs Award.
Applied to the following undergraduate:
- Macaulay Honors College â accepted with full merit scholarship and other benefits.
- Northeastern University- accepted EA to UG with Deanâs scholarship (applied just for fun as she received a fee waiver)
- Binghamton University- accepted into honors program, freshman research immersion seminar
- Fordham University- accepted with Deanâs scholarship
- Hunter College- Sage Honors Program
- Brooklyn College Scholars Program
- Manhattanville College- Accepted with The Chairpersonâs Award
DECISION: Leadership in Medicine Program at Union/Albany Med College- BS, MD, MBA in 8 years.
Scholarship/Aid: As above.
Reflection:
Strengths & Weaknesses:
DDâs strengths were great essays and extensive healthcare related experiences. It is really hard to briefly explain how the experiences helped her stand out. Suffice it to say that in-depth knowledge of whatever you did and the ability to convey that well in writing and in speech is crucial. She is a wonderful writer which showed in her main essays and supplemental essays. More importantly, as a parent, I think her application showed a clear story of why DD decided on medicine. She had a long history of helping children, so was able to convey how her past experiences led her to having sincere and powerful desire to become a doctor.
DDâs biggest weakness in her application was her test score. Junior year was hectic, and she decided she will increase her score in the beginning of senior year. But senior year started off with âA Series of Unfortunate Eventsâ which threw her plans into disarray. An acute illness, hospitalization, later an injury requiring surgery, lots and lots of missed school days. By the time first quarter of senior year ended, we just wanted her to be healthy and happy, regardless of where she went for college. She only applied to combined med programs less than 3 hours driving distance from home for family reasons. We werenât sure if she will be a competitive candidate due to her score but decided not to stress over it and give it a shot. She also decided not to apply to any competitive undergrads far from home as December was a bad month for her.
Interview process:
DD was lucky to get four interviews. But Brooklyn interview date was the date of her second surgery and hard to change, so the interview was done on an earlier date in a haphazard manner with only the director. Union and Siena both interviews went well. Her healthcare policy internship and leadership experiences helped her at the Union interview and her community service experience helped at Siena. DD is a nice, thoughtful kid who expresses herself well in writing and speech. Having been healthy all her life, her health-related adversities during senior year, though temporary, helped her gain a new level of maturity and knowledge. Her internship in healthcare policy taught her a lot about ACOs and value-based healthcare, which helped during her interviews.
(Continued below)
Now some recommendations based on our experiences and from my personal life, as Iâm also a physician. Most of these are probably already known to most of you, but Iâm being detailed here for the sake of newbies.
Disclaimer: All these are just my personal viewpoints only. Institutions in different areas/regions may have different rules. I am only talking about those known to me.
First one is obvious-
- Try to keep your GPA and test score as high as possible. Get your best test scores possible in junior year itself. Donât wait for senior year.
- Try to get your healthcare activities started as early in high school as possible. Whatever activity you do- extracurricular or community service, the longer and deeper you have been involved in it, the better.
-Research experience is great, but with publication itâs an even more valuable feather on your cap.
-Start volunteering in healthcare settings as soon as you reach the minimum age (usually 14 years). But do your research on area hospitals and nursing homes to see which one will give you any clinical exposure (even if it is just to observe) instead of places where they ask you to attend the phone or help at the gift shop. Find this info before you sign on. Nursing homes, hospices etc. are more likely to let high schoolers help in a clinical setting.
-While there are many prestigious summer medical internship programs for high schoolers they may not be in your area or maybe difficult for you to attend. Do an internet search to see if any local/area hospitals have internships or other clinical exposure programs specifically for high school students. Some hospitals advertise such programs and there may be newspaper articles about them or the info may be on the hospitalâs website.
-When it comes to shadowing, plan intelligently. Because of HIPAA (patientsâ privacy) regulations, hospital and clinics canât usually allow high schoolers to shadow at their facilities. But if you are already a volunteer there, you have probably done their HIPAA course and have an ID badge for the place as well. This will increase your chances of obtaining shadowing opportunities. If you already volunteer at a location, get to know the doctors there, try to interact with them and get to know them. Tell them how much you love medicine and eventually ask if you can come observe their work without intruding. Another resource in this regard are nurses. Good nurses have a lot of influence over the doctors they work with. If they ask the doctor whether they can help out this really great kid who is a nephew/neighbor/close family friend, some doctors may agree to do it. Again, already having an ID badge for the facility and having done the HIPAA course will make this all more legit. My daughter found her shadowing opportunities through church. She was an altar server there since elementary school and was well-liked. Two of the docs from church were happy to help her (they are not my colleagues). Also, donât forget the parents of your friends in this regard. Many doctors are willing to help a kid their own childâs age if they can do it legitimately, while following their institutionâs rules, even if it costs them time.
-Basically, networking is a productive way to find shadowing and research opportunities.
-You need to decide if you want to do BSMD at any cost. Would you accept any program no matter where you get in. Or would you go only if it is a highly ranked program. It is best to apply to 10-15 programs if youâre sure you want to go the BSMD route. But choose the programs wisely. There are kids with perfect scores who sadly end up disappointed some years. Study each program to see what is unique about them, what is their âspecialtyâ and apply to those with goals most closely aligned with your interests. That way youâve a higher likelihood of finding a good match. Donât waste your time by âwingingâ it when it comes to BSMD application. Applying to some zillion programs without checking the fit will be a waste of your time and take your energy away from the ones you should really focus on. Apply only if you actually want to go there if selected and youâre willingly do the research about the program and write excellent essays for the application. My DD applied to Penn State on whim, and scores and letters were naturally late, essays sub-par. Should not have wasted any time like that.
- Be prepared to not be accepted for BSMD. Have good undergrad plans as backup. Lots of bright, well-qualified and experienced candidates do not get into a single BS MD program year after year. This process is very unpredictable. You shouldnât take acceptance to BSMD as a testament to your intelligence and personal worth. It is a sort of gamble. Around 95% of medical school matriculants get there through traditional route.
-I agree with what @NoviceDad said about time spent on CC. Getting âhookedâ on CC can cost you lots of time you can spent more productively. I did most of the info gathering on CC for my DD.
-DD found a book by J.Marwaha, âMore than just BSâ very useful and a really funny read about how to prepare for the BSMD process.
Good luck to all of you in your future endeavors!
Congratulations to many successful candidate for BS/MD program this year. I have one question regarding applying for BS/MD program through Common App, especially as it relates to Essay for these programs. My son (who will be senior next year) just created a Common app account and I was feeling the format and how the application is laid out. It seems to me that there is possibility of submitting only one common essay to all colleges you are applying through common app. My son has written his essay and as he is also targeting regular admission at some of the competitive schools, his essay is more general in nature (not medical related). Question is: is this OK for BS/Md program. Does the essay need to be in medical in nature and needs to show his medical interest. I read Essay of many Ivy leagues schools, it seems they were all very general or philosophical in nature.
I would appreciate responses from students/parents who successfully applied to BS/MD program and also had regular undergraduate admission in mind. How did you manage your Essay, what was your approach ?
@VikasP Many BS/MD programs will ask one to write separate essays (different than common app essay).
@VikasP - most studentâs commonapp essay is non-medical in nature. As @grtd2010 mentioned, most schools will have supplemental essays in which your son can write about his medical experiences/interest.
Try to reach out to students who have been admitted to BA/MD programs in the past to see their essays if you can!
Thank you so much.
hi, do you mind sharing how her essays were?
Is there any particular reason you were against the Sophie Davis program?
on the amc website, it says that you cant apply to more than one bs md program from it(if that makes sense), and im reading about how many people still manage to get in. how can that be?
How were you able to apply to union and sienna both? This year they are allowing only one .
My understanding is that if medical school receives referrals from more than one school, both will be disqualified.
Hi, Thanks for the detailed information.It is really helpful. How do you get the class rank?
@diaash In last yearâs cycle, they allowed you to apply to AMC via UNION, Siena and RPI. But during interviews, they did say they frown upon people applying to more than one as they all have different focus.
@GODsS Class rank is reported by the school. For schools that donât report class rank, you can ask the guidance counselor what percentile you are in as many schools keep an 'unofficial" ranking list even if they donât report it.
Hi @TheElusiveGod,
I am new to collegeconfidential, in fact just made this account so I could ask you a question. Penn State/Jefferson is my dream program, and I was wondering what specifically about your statistics/profile made you a great fit for their program. Iâm just asking because I want to know if Penn State/Jefferson will also think I am a good fit. Plz PM me when you get the chance, I am just really scared about this whole process. I would PM you but I have no clue as to how to do so. Thank you so much,
Dreamingteen