When do you submit ur application to these colleges? By the end of junior year? If yes, then can your senior year scores count?
Are the supplemental essays on CommonApp right now for the 2016-2017 year or have they not been updated yet? I made a CommonApp account but I heard that it could be reset. Also, does UMKC have a good BS/MD program? How good is their residency placement? I have heard mixed reviews about this program.
I applied to numerous programs, was accepted to a few and chose to attend Northwestern HPME. You can see my stats on the 2016 results thread.
So I learned BS/MDs existed near the end of junior year and scrambled to get research/shadowing, so my app definitely wasnāt as strong as some of yours will be. Also my school is pretty average (on a national scale, not a New Jersey/Silicon Valley scale), so we donāt have clubs like NHS, DECA, FBLA and whatnot.
That being said, itās still more than possible to be a competitive BS/MD applicant. I didnāt have someoneās example to follow for research or other opportunities, so make the most of your time and email professors or find programs even during the school year if you have to. Network with people for volunteering. CA is strict with HIPAA, so I had to go out of state to extensively shadow, which I did!
Also, learning how to speak to people helps A LOT. You can have all these crazy awards and club titles and all, but itās meaningless if you canāt talk about it. I know my application was very lackluster for this context, and thatās why it was hard for me to get past the initial stage of apps, and even the ones I did get were essentially purely based off my writing merit. However, I was always able to actually talk about what Iād done and what Iād learned from what Iād done, which is incredibly vital to a good application.
If youāre on this page, chances are you probably already know how important solid academics, ECs, research, etc. are; the most important thing for you now is to be confident in your writing and speaking abilities. Make sure your essays are sincere and well-written and demonstrate your genuine passion for medicine. Donāt give anyone a reason to think you arenāt committed to becoming a doctor when youāre applying into a program intended only to create doctors.
Do your homework about the programs youāre applying to; donāt be generic in your writing but also donāt give off the ācurrently on the university website reading the about sections of various research centersā vibe either. Develop an actual, solid argument why you want to go into that university/program.
Lastly, keep your head high. Youāll almost inevitably see/hear about people more qualified than you are, but thatās okay. I have really mediocre stats compared to some who apply to these programs, and while all that stuff is really important, BS/MDs are more effective at getting to the core of the applicant and seeing whether you would truly be a good doctor or not, past all the ridiculous awards and 17 publications and 12 non-profits youāve started. Itās your obligation to show/tell them why youād make the greatest physician ever. And to be fair, a lot of colleges didnāt want to take the chance with me because I had such little to offer on paper, and that will probably happen to you as well, but it only takes one acceptance to turn everything around. App/Interview season is grueling and you may lose a lot of sleep for various reasons, but it will be worth it. Trust me, youāre up for the challenge 
PS: PM me for any advice/further info, and best of luck to all you future doctors!!
thanks for sharing your experience @ruralerror and congrats!
Hi, Iām entering junior year and I am very interested in these BS/MD courses. I have one more summer left in my high school career before applying for college and I am unsure of how to spend it. I already have some volunteer experience, and I plan on adding more volunteer hours during the school year, but I have no research/internship/shadowing experience. I would like to shadow a doctor, but I live in CA and itās extremely difficult to shadow doctors here. Instead, I have the option to stay with my grandparents in India next summer and shadow multiple doctors there, as I know many doctors there and could really help the poor town they live in. However, Iām unsure if there will be any drawbacks to shadowing a doctor in a different country? Is it looked down upon in any way? Or would it be more beneficial to my application to get a research internship? If I take an internship next summer, I could also go to India to shadow for the two weeks during winter break, which is not much, but at least itās something. So what option do you all think would look best on my apps: shadowing extensively in another country, or internship with little shadowing experience?
Thanks for the help!
How can we find you in the 2016 results thread? It shows up that you only have one post, so we canāt look you up by name.
@hebegebe itās on the 2016 BSMD results page now
@ruralerror Thanks for posting your stats in the 2016 results thread. You have done all the right thing with the given time since you decided to pursue BS/MD. It shows your perseverance to go out of state and get the shadowing and also done the 6 weeks in BU and your passion to help undeserved kids on science lab etc., Similar to you, my D (also from Bay area), decided only at the end of junior year. When she contacted few local docs, as you rightly said, no one agreed to allow her for any shadowing. She also applied to various formal internship program for last summer and did not get anything.
When you get time, please cut and paste your reflection to the results thread. Or I can do that if it is ok with you. In that way if any future folks see only that thread, they wonāt miss your reflections which are very useful to plan.
How are you all picking out which BSMD schools to apply to?
I was wondering if you apply to a schoolās bs/md program but are then rejected from the program, could you still be accepted into the regular undergrad admission. Like letās you apply to Boston and their 7 year medical program, could you be rejected from the medical program and still be accepted into Boston as a regular admission student. Does applying to the bs/md program lower your chances of being accepted into the school as a regular admission student?
It is a good but tricky question to get a straight answer. In general it does not matter and many schools UG admission is different from BS/MD program selection. But very few schools after they reject BS/MD, they will ask you if you are still interested in UG (CWRU and/or UofRochester, my memory is already fading). But BU you apply only to the BS/MD program. So you need to call them (phone only) explicitly and inform them to reconsider your app for UG (make a note and reminder). Higher ranked schools, because of the yield game and they think twice to give UG offer if they believe that you are not good for BS/MD for their school but there is a high possibility to get BS/MD in some other place, then they will reject your UG app (for example Northwestern and Wash U).
So if you are very keen on a specific university for UG and if you feel you are not top notch for their BS/MD program, think twice how you want to approach. In our experience we did not feel it lowered your chances except for NU and WashU.
Northwestern does send you a letter (I think it is part of the letter when they reject interview) asking you to respond to them by a specific date whether you want to continue your undergrad app. Rejection is not as automatic as we think since D didnt respond and was waitlisted.
Rice/Baylor - one needs to be admitted to Rice and then they are told separately whether they have an interview or not. Many very competitive applicants get admitted to Rice while being rejected for an interview (I think at one time they mentioned 300+ admitted while only 40 or less interviewed).
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS GUYS I APPRECIATE IT.
All, Any advice on how to prepare for the interviews? Any classes, interview prep? What has worked for you and what would you suggest?
For Case PPSP, the deadline is Dec. 1, but which admission plan (EA, ED, or Regular) should we choose?
I will be applying to some BS/MD programs in the future, and was wondering how much weight certain ECs carry. I havenāt seen a lot of people with Intel ISEF Finalist on any combined med program forums. Does the fact that it is rare to see this EC highlight its exclusiveness and its elite reputation, or does it prove that it does not carry much weight in college applications.
Hello all! Iām a rising senior and I am very interested is BS/MD programs. My scores are GPA are decent and Iām a competitive figure skater which I hope seems at least a little unique (??) however, I feel my weakest area is in medical related ECs. Iāve been interning in a lab researching GVHD and helping a PH.D. student with her research, but it isnāt exactly patient related. My PI is a PH.D./MD so maybe I could talk about that? Iām not really sureā¦,
Iāve tried to volunteer at my local hospital (UCSD) but the only place they really let High school students volunteer is at conciergeā¦ Any advice? Is all hope for some of the top BSMD programs lost?
Thanks
@kendizzle All hope is not lost as long as you remain optimistic and put in enough time on your application and have a good enough GPA and have competitive test scores. You also have to be willing to look in ālesserā programs, some of which can actually be very beneficial. I know that personally I applied to 3 top programs and two āmid-tierā programs. I got into Case PPSP but chose Unionās Leadership in Medicine as having an MBA seemed like it would be advantageous down the road. So just remember that getting into any one of these programs is a great accomplishment. Good Luck!
Hey guys! Im also a rising senior and Ive been using my summer to get started on my college apps for the BS/MDs,
Ive been trying to figure out my common app essay these days, but I have no clue! i know its encouraged to refrain from talking about my passion for medicine/science, why i want to be a doctor, etc. So would it be unwise if i talked about an event completely irrelevant to medicine but important to me?
@zenitwin, so usually (if Iām not mistaken) the Common App is a completely separate application from your application to the Bachelor/MD track that the school offers. Are there any essays that correlate with medicine at all on the Common App?
Oh and good job on using the summer to sort of organize things in applying to Bachelor/MD programs. I would put together deadlines, essay prompts, etc. Some Bachelor/MD programs may even be willing to tell you the prompt coming out in the fall if you take the time to call them, and explain youāre sort of working on things in the summer while you have time before school starts up again in the fall.