@PPofEngrDr As a result of gains in residencies by TUH( Temple’s Hospital), they are now stronger than DrexelSOM. It seems that Drexel no longer has a hospital with guaranteed residencies. D had admission to Drexel’s so called guaranteed BS/MD program. 550 is a large number of residencies to loose.
Isn’t that going to be filled by Tower health in future, as early as next year residents? or am I missing something here?
@grtd2010 Yeah, I was previously talking to GoldenRock actually, very helpful! She/he seems to not want to talk to me anymore :((
@upstream
Part of the reason that the 11% with high stats had to take gap year(s) may have been that they got carried away by their stats and either applied to only fancy name med schools or refused to go to any safety or state schools they might have gotten in. Otherwise the % age may have been even lower. I have heard of few students who did their undergrad at places like Cornell and JHU but swallowed their pride to go to not so hyped med schools (and doing quite well now), but a number of their fellow students may not have done the same.
@PPofEngrDr Does Drexel owns Tower Health Systems in anyway ? Earlier, there was a different situation with Hahneman Hospital.
@grtd2010 i am not 100% certain of intertwining relationship between them. As part of Hahnemann fall out media article somewhere it was eluded that newly established Tower Health relationship would help, only caveat is Tower doesn’t have all specialties like Hahnemann did, same lingering question for Tower bid as for current residents.
The 41.9% acceptance rate published by AMCAS is for applicants who already made it to the application cycle with “good enough” stats (GPA + MCAT + EC’s) as “enforced/recommended” by each undergrad pre-health committee (for colleges using committee letter) and it also include people who are already graduated (taking gap years) or career changers.
There are many many hurdles that average college freshman need to jump before they can get to the AMCAS application cycle (hence to be included in the 41.9% stats). If one take a look at the weeder classes (Gen Chem, Bio, Orgo, Biochem…) size change from one to the next, plus the MCAT hurdle (some people just can’t score well in MCAT) and EC’s, the final survival rate from start to finish could likely be in the single digit range.
Well, fortunately that is not the definition of acceptance rate, by that formula shouldn’t it be start from Kindergarten?
Unfortunately colleges, even the most reputed ones as mentioned earlier, try to confuse and manipulate with the semantics. I knew something fishy when the admissions counselor of a not to be named top most college addressing a large crowd of hopeful high school students and their parents on their campus was claiming a 96% acceptance of their students and alumni into med schools. It was well known how grade deflated and brutally rigorous the school is and the claim couldn’t have been true. Heard that Emory is one of the few schools which are straight forward in this regard and hence their numbers may appear lower than their peer institutions.
So these are 2 different rates, what % of UG students were able to matriculate to med school, aka skewed number and even different UG schools have different way of calculating it, I called it conversion rate for sake of understanding. Generally I rely on raw number of students and that gives you better perspective in light of UG population.
2nd, the acceptance rate of med school itself, this is different from UG conversion rate as med schools have applications from so many UG schools.
@Andorvw
Not true about “good” enough stats…since students who applied in that aggregate cycles from 2017-18 through 2018-19 included students with GPA less than 3.4 (35,061 out of 95,787 applicants). Even students with GPA lower than 3.0 (6,578 out of 95,787 applicants) were counted towards the total number of medical school applicants during those cycles.
To me, following are the reasons for high stats kids not getting admissions
- Weak or unbalanced ECs (i.e. too much research and lack of enough non-clinical and clinical volunteering)
- Poor essays and secondaries
- Top heavy school list
- Bad interview skills
and these become the stories most BSMD parents hear
Just to clear up some of the unclear things I’ve been reading above.
- Drexel lost all their residencies- there is an article in the Inquirer that shows how Temple and Jefferson Health bought all the Medicare funding for these spots. In other words, Drexel students now have no 'home' residency program, which makes it much harder for these students to match.
- There is a difference between 'guaranteed' and 'interview-only' programs. For true guaranteed programs, as long as you meet the GPA and MCAT requirement, the medical school must LEGALLY give you a spot in their incoming class. You sign a contract and that contract is binding.
However, for ‘interview-only’ programs, its up to the medical schools discretion whether or not to give you a spot in their incoming class, even if you do meet the GPA and MCAT requirement. They do this through implementing an interview, where you can be weeded out through arbitrary factors. See Temple PPHS, UCF program etc.
@Greenpoison Are you a lawyer or qualified to give a legal opinion ? Temple also has a contract signed. Please do not spread unsubstantiated claims and spread false info. These are your opinion only not facts. Be responsible or provide facts with proofs. Hearsay and rumors are not facts.
Parents of the students who join Temple PPHS are not fools or uninformed or unrational. You are a second year UG student who knows how medical schools choose students.
@upstream
Thanks for the clarification, good to know since one of child’s class mates went for that program couple of years ago. Did not know about it’s reputation at that time.
Why did you mention both MD and DO placement rates? Do they also have MD program? (like the new MD program started at Nova South Eastern alongside the traditional DO)
@rk2017 Hello rk2017, I would like to follow up with you on our discussion in the PMs from a couple of days ago to let you know of my interest in your help. When you have the time, I would greatly appreciate it if you could let me know of your opinion there!
@GreenPoison , I have previously typed up a list of “guaranteed” BS/MD programs. Could you let me know if I am missing any, or if any of them are actually “interview-only” or EAP?
Brown University
Northwestern University
Case Western University
Rice University
Baylor University
University of Pittsburgh
University of Rochester
George Washington University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Union College
Siena College
University of Missouri-Kansas City
St. Bonaventure University
The College of New Jersey
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Rutgers University - Newark
Drew University
Duquesne University
Boston University
Penn State University
California Northstate School of Medicine
Drexel University
Hofstra University
University of Cincinnati
University of Connecticut
Stevens Institute of Technology
Florida Atlantic University
Virginia Commonwealth University
University of South Florida
Stony Brook University
Florida State University
Howard University
Westchester University
University of Delaware
Oklahoma University
OK-Tulsa
Caldwell University
Montclair State University
Rosemont University
Augusta University
University of South Alabama
University of Alabama-Birmingham
@spectral I sent you a PM based on your profile you sent me earlier. BS/MD programs are very competitive and most applicants have near perfect GPA and standardized test scores. You could apply to all of the programs in your list and hope to get lucky.
@Spectral pretty much everyone is providing more or less same feedback.
A parent who has never personally gone through the BSMD process attempting to stifle the voice of a student currently in a BSMD program- how oddly ironic.
In response to one of the posts above
I have never claimed to be a lawyer nor deign to act like one- to imply that I do is completely disingenuous. I am only a current student in a fairly-well known program, who only posts information based on my firsthand experience in the application process and that of my fellow co-students in other programs.
The fact of the matter is that certain programs have different contracted requirements- for example, in my program, the only two requirements we have to meet are taking the MCAT and maintaining a 3.5 GPA. It’s all on our website, and hence written in our binding contract.
Dissemble all you like about Temple’s requirements but it’s right on the PPHS website: “Accepted health scholars must still maintain their academic profile, achieve the required score on the MCAT exam, and submit a special application to the medical school and complete an interview with the medical school during their Junior year of college.”
I don’t know why you’re so eager to conveniently ignore the “complete an interview”, but rest assured, it is used to kick students out of the program. Claiming that Temple PPHS doesn’t weed out students (even occasionally) is ridiculous- especially considering that you claim to be the parent of a student in the program. I didn’t even bother applying there, yet I know the names of former students who went to my high school, and eventually got kicked out of the program. Of course if you want “hard and fast proof” I can’t give that to you- I’m not going to embarrass people I’m friends with and their families. Instead, just go ask your child about the REAL attrition rate at Temple PPHS.
And rest assured- I don’t feel bad or ashamed about exposing bad actors, nor do I have a vendetta against particular programs. I will just as easily call out other disgusting practices (see my above post on how Drexel basically left their current medical students out to dry), such as CNU not offering federal loans and instead only predatory private loans to students. The whole point of this forum is to help students in the BSMD process- if exposing bad situations for potential applicants is what it takes, then so be it.