@grtd2010 , @GoldenRock , @NoviceDad , @srk2017
Thank you!!
@GoldenRock
Thank you!
I guess others may have chimed in already. So there can be some repetition.
First, guess you may not have gotten any price breaks from Duke, right? Heard they donât give much credit for APs either. So that translates to ~300k for 4 years. Will your family be comfortable spending another quarter million on a conservative estimate on med school subsequently or will let your C take loans? You need to ask yourself as a family.
What does your C want to study at Duke? Heard engineering is pretty tough and may be challenging to maintain good gpa while also involving in ECs. What does he/she has preference for, brand name undergrad or medicine as a profession?
On a positive note since he got into Duke in regular decision and not ED, he will have a leg up over most who got in there through ED, legacy etc. Try to find out what percentage does Duke take through ED and that can give a rough idea over what percentage he can out perform over there. You can perhaps find it through their common data sets.
On the other side of your equation, RPI is a rigorous undergrad school with a strong research focus. Will prepare one well for med school. AMC is a well established med school too (donât fall for that so overblown rankings c#@& here). What someone will turn out of med school depends to a large extent on how one makes the best use of opportunities there. As I was sharing recently here, was recently speaking to someone whose son is an RPI/AMC alumnus who is now in 6th year of residency (out of 7) in neurosurgery at a well known place and has already lined up for a follow-up fellowship in spine surgery at another well known institution.
My reference to NU HPME in the earlier post was about his not getting admission to NU UG. He is on the waiting list for NU UG after NU HPME rejection.
Thank you 
Thank you
@grtd2010 - Thank you for your comments in the Results blog.
You are right in pointing this. It bothered me a lot and I tried to console my S which ended up in his assertion that he is happy with what he has. He is pretty mature beyond his years and knows what he wants! He strongly wants to be a Doctor
I however thought about this quiet a bit to figure out what was different about his profile:-
-He applied to various merit scholarships, FAFSA/CSS (although he wonât qualify)
-Although he has strong medical experience, he has spent majority of his time at HS on non-medical-volunteering such as (homeless shelters, local town events, community events) and leading clubs such as Boy Scouts, math, robotics, programming, NHS etc. He was passionate about all of these and didnât want to give these up for more/extra medical experience!
My deductions:
-To Top UGâs he may come across has a person very interested in medicine (BS/MD programs)
-To some BS/MD programs, he may come across as a person who is interested/passionate about a lot of different things.
-More expensive schools might not bother giving him an opportunity when they could easily get a kid who is equal/better profile and doesnât mind paying in full.
I could be totally wrong with my logic!
I am quiet excited that he is on the right path to achieve his dreams 
@srk2017 â Thank you for comments in the Results blog.
His essays were very personal based on real life experiences â his feelings, challenges, lessons learnt from his various leadership experiences etc.
In other essays, he talked about how his medical shadowing and volunteering experiences influenced him to decide why medicine was important to him
His clinical volunteering was in a local hospital during grades, 9-11 and shadowing with family doctor/s.
He spent several weeks during summer in India, Europe shadowing/volunteering with physicians in clinic/hospital as well.
I would like to echo this great feedback. I personally know three doctors (two are siblings) from this program - (two from RPI/AMC and one from Sienna/AMC). One is an orthopedic doc (residency at Duke, Fellowship - Rush), second - dermatologist in Atlanta, third an ENT doc in NY. We have discussed the program with them in depth when my son was accepted to the program a few years back. We received very favorable feedback. One negative point - I heard recently that the Albany hospital does not have an EHR system in place, so students were not exposed to Epic/Cerner etc. Please do not take my word for it since this is a second hand information. Please confirm.
@Ohnjmom â Congratulations - your S has an excellent profile. Wish you, your S and family the very best!
@ohnjmom
IMO, UF should be seriously considered given full-ride. UF has an early admissions program to UF SOM. I am not sure it is open to non residents. It is a great public university located in the center of sunny florida. It may be a better choice than AMC/RPI.
University of Florida SOM 3.87 514 Ranked 40 (USN ranking)
Hello @bsmdasp I am kinda in the same boat. Do you mind sharing what you learnt from other members? I have looked into a couple of these programs but not sure if they are legit or notâŠ
Continuing on the RPI/AMC topic, should have also mentioned, there is nothing tying one up to necessarily going to AMC for med school, if one is concerned about the cost or want to shoot higher. One can perhaps graduate from RPI in 3 years (believe they allow one to transfer 32 credits for AP), take a gap year and either go for in state med school or some fancied name if cost not an issue. Either way RPI will prepare one well for any med school in the country.
But to do that one has to take MCAT by end of sophomore year and see if you get in the 520s range. Then you need to inform the program director of your intentions to withdraw from the program by early junior year. (Something my C went through as part of their program, scored high with minimal effort, but did not want to withdraw from the program).
D went to a Health Academy school at county level but did not have 600 hrs of research in high school or 250 hrs of shadowing(4 specialties). D did what normal highs school kids do as did your S. D was a NMF like your S. Your S should have been a much stronger candidate for BS/MD programs than the outcome suggests.
@impressivemediocrity hello I found your post a few years ago about APE; hopefully you are still around this forum⊠can you share if you ended up using their service or another firm? If so, how was your experience? Thanks a lot. Please PM me if more comfortable
Hello everyone, had a quick question. I was accepted to TAMU S2M with full-tuition undergrad and also to USC (spring admit) with half-tuition. Both schools are willing to transfer my credits, meaning my coursework will be much easier since I have already completed most of my med school pre-reqs (including Org. Chem 1&2) at a 4 year college. USC accepted me to their Keck School of Medicine majors with half tuition, meaning I will be taking undergrad classes at their med school, and the coursework has been said to be very easy. However, i lose assurance and have to pay around $100k total for undergrad compared to <$30k for A&M undergrad total. A&M closer to home, cheaper, and my high school friends are attending. However USC has considerably more prestige and connections, better UG experience, and easier to network with med school staff since I take classes there.
What are your thoughts? Which is the better offer? I am 100% set on becoming a doctor, but Iâd like to practice in west coast or northeast.
@grtd2010 good point, my S has UF under his consideration, which I thought he has tossed it out after he got the offer from Duke and RPI/AMC.
UF has an early admissions MHP to UF SOM. It is open to non residents as well as residents.
@rk2017 thank you very much for valuable suggestions and good point of views. I showed him your comment. He said heâs take those points for consideration. Thank you!