Thank you @GoldenRock !
Hi I just got my subject test scores back and I did really poorly. Math 2-670 and chem-650. How negatively will that impact my application?
@strawberry123321012 You don’t have to submit SAT II scores unless a program has specific requirements related to SAT II.
Hope you got a better competitive score in ACT or SAT I.
@GoldenRock I got a 33 on the act but I’m retaking it next week. I’m hoping for a 35
Can somebody recommend less competitive BSMD schools? My daughter’s school is very competitive and her GPA the freshman year was around 3.3, Sophomore year is 3.7 and she is a junior now. Her cumulative gpa is probably not going to be that high. We are trying to compile a realistic list of BSMD schools. Any advice is appreciated.
Also, anyone has stats on early assurance programs? What are the best colleges for premed with high chances of early assurance?
@Westerngirl
Google for “early assurance program MD” and review various articles and compile your list. Note, not every list is up to date. So when time comes next year, confirm with the school before you apply. For example, the forbes article gives basic info and list of schools. But it did not list U of Miami which has EAP.
Every BS/MD program is competitive. May be the number of applications may be less, instead of thousands, some schools may get only in hundreds. But still those hundreds are equally qualified and talented and passionate and for reason or other opt to select one school versus other. Also note some schools have only 5-6 seats versus 30+ seats like NU or BU. So even if 5-6 seats school gets only in hundreds, if you multiply for comparison, they also will yield closer to thousands.
It is a marathon and not a sprint. No easy path. Heard a boy who got selected for EAP in UofMiami but when time came to apply, his MCAT score came below the limit (around 513 or so). Fortunately still has another year to try again. On the other hand heard a student in so called low tier BS/MD who has guaranteed seat but scored 523 or so and has so much passion and does extra ordinary volunteering in the local community and mostly may get admission to any medical school next year when applies.
@GoldenRock
Thank you so much! Which ones are considered less competitive BSMD? I did look through EAPs, but there is no statistics or clarity on acceptance rates into those
What is the best time and the latest month to take SAT/ACT for BSMD programs? Many of them have very early deadlines
@Westerngirl
Some thoughts
- Unfortunately most of these programs, including the so called low tiers, don’t know or seem to care the rigors or competitiveness and resulting grade deflation at a particular high school. We faced the same issue during the admissions cycle of D.
- If your D can manage to be in the top 5-10% of the class, have the admissions counselor highlight that and about the rigor of the school in their recommendation which may help in some cases.
- Some programs seem to look at the performance on standardized scores for the same reason, i.e. significant variations across the high schools both in grading and standards. Have your D excel in SAT/ACT and SAT subject tests and AP exams.
- If your D is attending a highly competitive school she should be very well prepared for college and can do quite well there. So not a bad option to pursue traditional route (as long as you don’t opt to go to some of the crazily competitive and grade deflated colleges).
Most of the students applying this route try to finish SAT/ACT by junior year, including multiple times test taking if required.
One thing that seemed to have helped in our case was the excellent credentials of the child in all the standardized tests and the reputation of the high school known to some of these programs. Thanks to the students from that high school who had gone earlier and impressed them bigly 
So you may want to check with the high school counselors and upper class men about any stats of where and all the programs students from the school had been to in the past few years.
@rk2017
Thank you for your input!
I have another general question regarding BS/MD interviews. How do one really prepares for these interviews? I was looking online and found https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/. How useful is this? Did anyone tried? @rk2017 and @GoldenRock , any input on how your kids prepared for these interviews? I see from your posts that they both are in BS/MD programs now.
Another B.S/B.A to MD program to consider is Wayne Med-Direct at Wayne State University. This is an eight year program that pays for tuition and rooming during your undergraduate years and then also covers the costs for medical school tuition. Here is the link to the program’s website for more information: https://provost.wayne.edu/wayne-med-direct
@mygrad2021 Both my D and myself never considered any paid coaching program for any purpose. She did not do any interview preparation for BS/MD or MD.
She can talk and present her points well. May be her involvement and leadership during HS Speech club helped her. May be her preparation to interview university scholars and professors to write essays on history in HS also would have helped her indirectly.
At times it is hard to predict interview outcome since it depends on who are your interviewees and the how it clicked on any given day. She got rejected in one of her MD because she felt she did not do the interview well.
@chillmanz34 quick observation about Wayne program.
It is limited to 10 students per year. Since program started in 2016, a quick glance through of current students suggests only 1-2 student OOS, rest are MI every year. So may be good for MI. Also it has high concentration of URM and other minority, so good for them as well, as long as MI resident.
Couldn’t find MCAT and GPA requirements for med school. It has higher emphasis on scholarships criteria, which is not bad at all, but prospective students should find out academics requirements by contacting the admission office.
They do have info sessions coming up in a week and couple more, however they are all in person, again not that convenient even for MI students.
@PPofEngrDr most of that information is on the website or within the program curriculum itself. Med-Direct has been expanding outside of Michigan these recent years and the new group of students that were admitted for 2019 have half of the cohort from MI and the other from out of state. This just isn’t reflected on the website yet. And yes, it is limited to 10 students a year but that is due to the scholarship covering the costs of undergrad and medical school combined.
@chillmanz34 if you happen to know the MCAT and GPA requirements for Wayne med school, please post the link or info.
Thank you @GoldenRock !I agree with you but not every kid is that talented so I am trying to find out the options to succeed. I know my daughter is not that talented when it comes to leadership skills.
Anyone has any other opinion or tried these programs?
@chillmanz34 . Do you know if finding a residency from a less known/established program can be an issue? Any other less competitive programs? It seems like you have to be almost a Nobel prize winner or minority or from a very disadvantaged background to get into those direct programs. My daughter is average, she is not going to bet a perfect GPA or SAT scores. So trying to find options and best route for her
@mygrad2021
I think you have a long way to go before you need to start worrying about interviews stage for D. Anyway since you asked, I remember myself, and I a pretty sure few others, putting in some suggestions for interviews in 2018 main thread, if you want to search through.
My suggestions were some 8-10 bullet points covering mostly the traditional one on one pattern. However there have been more patterns like MIME or whatever recently which I don’t know enough about.
Let me know if you have difficulty finding them and I can look for it. (I think I had some suggestions also in some thread for BU interview specifically).