Just out of curiosity (not trying to bring across the wrong vibe here), how do you guys think Northwestern HPME compares to an undergraduate insitution like Stanford for pre-med? Which one would you guys choose?
@kmn213
Simple, if your are sure as you can be of your MD goal then HPME. If you are unsure about MD then Stanford.
What is GPA requirement for PLME ?
@kmn213 my dd has the same dilemma⊠what is your thinking on thisâŠ
@BS_MD2017 I agree with post #3541. At least from what Iâve heard, a guarantee at a medical school like Feinberg is an amazing offer. Also, when I visited NU for Wildcat Day, the same question was asked to current HPME students who were deciding between HPME and HYPSM and they all said that the flexibility of the undergrad plus the guarantee makes it an easy choice. HPME is one of the most prestigious programs out there and maintaining a 3.6 GPA with the major of your choice is going to be a lot nicer than having to take the MCAT and apply to medical school again.
Also, correct me if Iâm wrong, but donât students at HYPSM also apply to Feinberg via the traditional route? Itâs a great medical school.
@kmn213 - it would come down to personal preference of school, prestige, location, weather etc. I am from CA. I know indirectly of kids that are keen on medicine that took the Stanford admission over a good BSMD admission as they wanted to explore the opportunities Stanford provides, and still continued on path to medicine. Some that went to Stanford as pre-meds changed their mind about going into medicine, but without regrets. Some turned down Stanford in a heartbeat for a lower ranked UG with BSMD. It is really a personal choice, no obvious right choice there.
@Mimic17 Taken from Brownâs website:
âIn keeping with Brown University policies, we have not imposed a cumulative GPA requirement
for PLME students. However, the biology courses required to fulfill the biology competency must
be taken for a grade, and a grade of A or B must be achieved. For students who choose to take
more than three biology courses, the first three (two if the student places out of BIOL 0200) taken
from the approved list must be taken for a grade. In the event that a student needs one additional
biology course to complete the PLME biology competencies, and in the same semester decides to take
two biology competency courses, the following holds: if the student receives an A or B in one biology
competency course but a C or NC in the other biology competency course, the student will not have
fulfilled the criteria to remain in good academic standing.â
Yes, as @mom22dds stated still lot of students opt to go to Ivies over HPME and PLME for various reasons. One reason is some of them want to target top 10 med schools (only Northwestern and U Pitt are in 20 out of all BSMDs and none in top 10) and cost could be one factor. One kid I know applied for couple of BSMD programs 5 years back and didnât get any (due to lack of medical ECs) and he went to Stanford and got admitted to Columbia med school last year. Both UCSF and UCLA are top medical schools and for CA residents going to BSMD means giving up on those 2 schools. My thinking is those who are able to get into good BSMD program now should be able repeat same after 4 years if they stay focused and traditional route offers more choices.
I am fairly new to this thread and forum, so pardon me for any inconsistencies in format of my postings.
Want to make a couple of points. First, going to Stanford, Ivy leagues and the likes donât necessarily lead to the medical schools there or similar ones elsewhere. I have heard of kids going to Cornell, JHU, Princeton etc, ending up in not so heard of medical schools later or completely dropping out of the program, because of not being able to maintain high gpa etc. in those extremely competitive environments. This can be let down from their initial expectations and perceptions.
Secondly, while the med school rankings can be subjective, I like the global rankings of times higher better than those of us news. They seem to be much more methodical and have been doing this for a while globally. You can filter the list just to look at U.S. schools and also can filter and sort by various performance indicators.
Noticed something peculiar though in times higher rankings though. There is no mention of UCSF at the top or any where else for that matter where as there is UCBâs. Could it be because they treated them both together as one entity for the rankings due to the geographical proximity? Not sure. But generally speaking, there seems to be not too much of deviation between their rankings and usnews global rankings for medicine, they seem to match mostly.
@rk2017 - Cornell, JHU, Princeton (and U Chicago) are known for their grade deflation and not good schools for premed. JHU encourages kids to take one gap year i.e. they know itâs tough to keep with the course work and then engage in research and medicine related ECs.
@srk2017 (pardon similar name, did not notice while registering)
Possible. However, choosing a particular path with too much emphasis of getting into a target top X rated med school later, sounds not so realistic IMO no matter how confident a kid may be (on somewhat similar lines of what we have come across or heard of many HS kids in the latest round of admissions itself)
@rk2017 - I hope people wonât cross tag our ids 
I am not saying that they all end up in top 10. They can aim high and if doesnât work out they can still end up at decent medical school. There are only around 25 BS/MD programs and out of that 10 are well known schools, so choices are very limited.
I am planning to start a thread to keep track of BS/MD vs traditional path. Who all interesting to keep updating thru this journey?
@srk2017 a long-running thread to keep track of where people who turn down BS/MD end up for med school sounds like a great idea. letâs make it happen!
@xXLegoMan1999Xx - I will start it shortly, but my main concern is once in UG, kids tend to move on to studentdoctor from CC.
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There are only around 25 BS/MD programs and out of that 10 are well known schools, so choices are very limited.
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@srk2017, quite true. And some of these have single digit number of seats, wonder what their rationale is in keeping such small programs. This year it looks Miami more or less eliminated their reasonable sized BS/MD program making the competition even more intense overall.
There is actually about 48 BSMDâs, but some of the below have multiple feeder schools like Albany, UT and NJMSâŠso the undergrad options are a bit more. However some only accept instate applicants so it narrows it down a little. This may be helpful for future applicants
School # Years of Program(s)
Albany Medical College 7 or 8
Baylor College of Medicine 8
Boston University School of Medicine 7 or 8
Brown University Warren Alpert School of Medicine 8
California Northstate University School of Medicine 6 or 7
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine 8
City College of New York (Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education) 7
Drexel University College of Medicine 7 or 8
Florida Atlantic University Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine* 7 or 8
Florida State University College of Medicine 7 or 8
George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences 7 or 8
Hofstra North Shore - LIJ School of Medicine 8
Howard University College of Medicine 6
Indiana State University* 8
Medical College of Georgia* 8
Meharry Medical College 7 or 8
Northeast Ohio Medical University* 6 or 7
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 7 or 8
Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine 8
Rosalind Franklin University Chicago Medical School 8
Rowan University - Cooper School of Medicine 8
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School 7 or 8
Sidney Kimmel Medical College 6, 7, or 8
State University of New York Downstate Medical Center 8
Stony Brook University School of Medicine 8
St. Louis University School of Medicine 8
Temple University School of Medicine 8
Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine* 8
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine* 8
The Commonwealth Medical College 8
University of Alabama School of Medicine 8
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine 8
University of Colorado College of Medicine* 8
University of Connecticut School of Medicine* 8
University of Illinois at Chicago School of Medicine* 8
University of Hawaii School of Medicine* 8
University of Missouri- Kansas City School of Medicine 6
University of Nevada School of Medicine* 7
University of New Mexico School of Medicine* 8
University of Oklahoma School of Medicine 7 or 8
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine 8
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry 8
University of South Alabama College of Medicine* 8
University of South Florida College of Medicine 7
University of Texas Medical School* 6, 7, or 8
University of Toledo School of Medicine 7, 8, or 9
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine 8
Wayne State University School of Medicine 8
*State residents only or state residents preferred
Think Kimmel/Penn State eliminated 6 year option a while ago, Drexel will eliminate 7 year option next year. If my memory serves me correctly, Cincinnati may be heavily in state favorable having selected 7 instate out of total intake of 8 a year or two ago.
Just a starting point. Every one should do their research for a given year and confirm few things. In this list some of the programs are not really guaranteed like St. Louis, Toledo, Temple and all Florida schools questionable. Every year few gets eliminated like UCSD, UM, Drexel. Still useful starting point list.
@GoldenRock I agree, actually before I posted this list I deleted the ones that I knew no longer have programs. There maybe one or two more that I was not aware of that may have completed eliminated their program so people applying next fall please confirm.