***Official Thread for 2017 BSMD applicants***

And you are right about those matches. They seem to have had matches for Interventional Radiology at Beth Israel in Boston, Derm at Harvard, Ortho at Baylor, multiple Anasthesiology matches including Mass. General, Emory, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai.

Why do you guys think Drexel and other med schools are cutting away their BS/MD programs?

As medical schools become more competitive, med schools don’t fine a need to have these programs to attract top high school students and also feel they have additional over head managing the program.

Does anyone know what is the advantage of getting into Wash U BA/MD or Rice/Baylor BA/MD when they all require MCAT and Interview? So why go through that pain? Is there something I am missing to see. Also does anyone have any statistics on these programs? for example how many of the admitted Wash U BA/MD or R/B go to medical school and how many drop out etc. Unless it is guaranteed BA/MD seem to just lure you into the college.

There are only a few BA/BS MD combined program which do not care about MCAT. There is a minimum GPA and/or MCAT score requirement almost everywhere. No free lunch once you get in.

Has UPitt GAP been announced? Thanks

@beeman - People hear about students not getting med school admissions with 3.7+ GPA and 36+ (old MCAT) from top schools, so they opt for the 2 programs you mentioned. Med schools also need strong medical related ECs (research, volunteering, service) in addition to GPA and MCAT.

Thanks @srk2017. My son got into Wash U and PLME. He loves Wash U especially he will doing Biomedical Engineering UG. But I am worried that BA/MD does not give him advantage and was asking him to look at PLME. He is also an Alternate in GWU. Everything happening too fast and it is like playing poker

@srk2017 – I also think Ivys have each others back. I cannot believe so many have residency in and around Harvard, Brown, and Yale. I am just get very concerned and anxious as May 1 is approaching fast.

@BeeMan - Please have your son read CC threads on WashU before he decides to forego Brown. WashU is a pathway program, and some of the students in the program will get into medical school but not all. Brown PLME means he’ll be a doctor in 7 years.

Any advice for the interview? Also, if you made it to the interview, then are you actually guaranteed a spot at least on the waitlist? Thanks!!

@mom2dds - PLME is 8 years.

Thank you for that correction @srk2017 !!

I am under the impression Rice/Baylor has threshold level requirements for GPA and MCAT. If one can not meet them, they should not be attending a medical school at Baylor in my opinion because it will be much more rigorous.

Not sure what the current requirements are for MCAT but it used to be 3.8/36 at WashU which is not a sure thing, at least for GPA. So it might be a stressful environment and not recommended, if the alternative is PLME.

@BeeMan - Of course I am bias towards PLME (current participant) however is for good reason. As @Mom22DDs and @texaspg stated the risks of not achieving your long term goal at WU are much higher than at Brown and specially if he also wants to do engineering for UG. If your primary goal is to become a DR there is no lower risks than PLME. You also gain open curriculum as well as good residency matchs with no mcat, interview etc great UG experience as well. I strongly recommend PLME. Many other secondary benefits but I will let you dig deeper into them. He definitely will not be held back at PLME. Btw lower risks do not mean lower effort just means lower stress. BSMD participants, yes PLMEs as well, are for the most part overachievers thus their/our commitment and work ethics does not change after enrolling in BSMD program

Im just a little curious-- are a majority of the bs/MD applicants Asian? I am chinese but I remember looking at my sister’s old Facebook group (and now) and basically all are/were indian

@ifnousWHO, I agree. With open curriculum and lower GPA requirement, it looks like PLME is the best.
However, we get zero $ aid from Brown which make things a little difficult.

I am wondering if you received any financial aid from Brown? Thx

I’m asking because typically when Asians apply to colleges ethnicity is a factor but if everyone else is Asian then it’s not as big as an issue

@tenniscrazy
Yes, Brown as all Ivy’s and like many top tier schools are under the “Need-Base” philosophy. I’m my case my parents are also footing most of the bill, >$50k. It was the same with my acceptances to other Ivy’s (non BSMD) etc

@IfnousWHO - Please correct me if I am wrong- I thought that Brown changed its policy last year 2016 admission cycle to include MCAT in their requirement which didn’t exist before that. I remember my D showing it to me on their website.