From your words, it looks like you like Rice as a college but feel WashU has better Major - ābioinformaticsā.
If you like Rice as the college, and donāt want to study biochemistry, you could major in Biology and minor in computer science. Rice has a pretty strong computer science department - so this might work?
By Texas law, TX public medical schools have to take >= 90% in-state students.
The 46% rate for Math and Humanities can not be compared to 40% for Biological Sciences because of the āSelectivity Biasā in the data set. This refers to the fact that the applicant pool which apply from Math and Humanities category are already the cream of the crop. Biochemistry is harder than biology as pointed out earlier. Biochemistry major may require at least Calculus III and some physical chemistry classes. There is usually 65% overlap between biology and biochemistry.
Both Rice and WashU are good top schools. So there are always going to be smart and hard working kids. So you also need to put in your efforts and can do well and maintain decent GPA.
Choose a major you like. In both places after you complete 1 or 2 semesters, you will get a feel and can change / finalize if needed.
Even if you can not become IS for TX, (but you should explore and try), still Rice is a good choice. Since Health district is close up you can take care of EC / Volunteer right from the early stage after a semester.
Anyone have insight on the USF 7 year med program? I know it is not a true BSMD since you declare your intent in the Spring of freshman year and donāt get formal invitation to med school interview til after your sophomore year and get a 514 on the MCAT. How is the experience there? They are giving a really good scholarship but donāt know much about past success from other students.
thanks @junebug20
@GoldenRock thank you
I donāt know if this is allowed but I recently spent over 50 hours creating a video for students interested in attending BS/MD programs. When I was still in the process, there was a lot of pride to give up when choosing to turn down other good schools. I made this video, which references over 5 peer reviewed journal articles on how BS/MD students perform and if BS/MD programs help you reach your full potential. In the end, I have no regrets attending a BS/MD program now. Iāve had many people tell me they wished a similar video existed when they were still in high school.
Folks
Please share your stats + perspectives on the results thread:
Good video but your main rationale for BSMD seems to be the average matriculation age of 24. As discussed here, for lot of students taking gap years is a choice not due to deficiencies and also lot of people decide to go into medicine late for variety of reasons. Also, kids that are capable of getting into BSMD programs most likely will get into medical school without gap years.
Can you post the links to the articles you reviewed. Last I heard there are no recent studies.
I believe posting video is OK if itās done for information purposes only i.e. not for consulting business purposes.
I do agree that most kids who get into bs/md programs would likely get into medical schools having to take gap years. I do however think that there is a much larger time and effort toll and at what cost? I know kids who turned down accelerated programs to go to good schools, spend an extra year of money, and get into med schools ranked 5 spots higher and for some it may be worth it and to others it might not be. My rationale is that itās not so much a fear of not getting into medical schools but knowing that you can have a less stressful path to become an MD while also, for the most part, not sacrificing your future quality of practice. And for those who want to go into academic medicine, itās been found that those in accelerated programs stay in academic settings > than the traditional route. If I can find the other articles, I will try to link.
In my video, I had most of the articles linked in the description. However, I also consulted this article, which at the time of creation was not published yet.
https://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Abstract/publishahead/Preparing_for_the_MD__How_Long,_at_What_Cost,_and.97242.aspx
In this regard I also would like to point out that the idea being floated around that those taking traditional route are bound to get to top medical schools and everything else that follows it. Wish it was true but far from reality. As cited above with respect to JHU or any of the private med schools, they tend to have preference and allot some of the slots for their top performing undergrads and alumni with gap years. Then they have an acceptance limit of one or two at most per each outside institution. To top it off, so many other considerations (earlier in this thread I have listed some 8 of them) driving the decisions on who to admit.
You are making an assumption that going traditional path has heavy effort toll and cost which is totally wrong. Again taking gap years to gain real life experiences are encouraged now. We need to wait for few years and do the comparison. As per cost, most BSMD programs are much more expensive than going to instate for UG/MD and more and more medical schools are offering merit scholarships. Going thru UG and doing ECs may be stressful for some and thatās reason for to go BSMD route but for majority of the kids itās not. Some likes to be challenged continuously and show results which some parents here call as prestige obsession!
Major flaw in the article you referenced is the timeline you used (1968 onwards?). Gap years is new phenomena and also lot of top programs cancelled their BSMD programs. Barring couple of schools, BSMD programs are at low to mid tier schools which are basically have them to improve their UG admissions data.
@joshchen33 - Nice video! Our family liked it.
Our son was accepted to BSMD program during the current cycle. Just like you, we too experienced a lot of pride with his achievement and S was happy to turn down Top UGās in lieu of the BSMD program. Infact he was very sure of the BSMD path even before the start of the application cycle only applied to Top UGās as a backup.
As per the article referenced by @Joshchen33, students have been applying to the BSMD programs since 1968. Other websites on the internet have cited that only 5% of the students opt for BS MD resulting in only a small number. Neverthless, it can be deducted that over the years bright students are consistently considering BSMD programs .
This is a BSMD forum specifically for students/parents/interested parties who considered or applied to BSMD programs during the current, past or future cycles. So, I was expecting to find more like-minded individuals advocating for BSMD programs here.
Agree, an instate flagship university UG followed by regular MD is very cost effective option compared to a highly priced BS/MD combination. In long run, there may not be any advantage of 7 yrs BS/MD over 8 yrs instate-UG/MD route. A 8 yrs MD route may be less stressful compared to a 7 yrs BS/MD route. The ultimate goal is to become a licensed medical doctor not the pursuit of bs/md as a holy grail at any cost. The choice also reflects risk-appetite of individuals - bs/md being a bird in-hand option.
@Vicky2019 - I have no issue with those who wants to join BSMD programs (for whatever reasons) and my son did apply 4 years back and he ultimately thought itās not worth it for himself (I explained his reasons multiple times).
My only issue is with the people who advocate it as the best solution for everyone (either to justify their own decisions or vested interest or they genuinely believe) and cite incomplete or anecdotal data against traditional path.
Hi all!
Does anyone know if UMD SOM prefers UMD undergraduate students?
Also, if a Maryland resident goes to UG in a different state and then applies to UMD SOM, does anyone know if they are still considered in-state or do they now become out of state?
Any help/past experiences are appreciated, thank you!
(does anyone know someone that has gone out of maryland for UG and applied to UMD SOM?)
Check FAQ on UMD SOM, it says they prefer maryland residents (75%). Will your son/daughter file any state tax returns ? You should ask this question to appropriate state of Maryland authorities to get the authoritative answer.
In NJ, as long as parents live in NJ and S/D is a claimed as a dependent on the state tax form, S/D is considered a NJ resident regardless where S/D goes to school(UG). This is not a tax advice.
@joshchen33 You factually pointed out that purpose of BS/MD programs was to fill the shortage during war time era, not to save money on few years, nor to start that journey with water polo sports in high school just to stand out. But as usual, right granted for one reason become twisted and used for another reason after few decades passed (yes I am talking about 2nd amendment).
Have to consider the influx of medical professional immigrants in 90s to US. IIRC, back in 1960/70/80s BS/MD programs were 5 years, become 6, then 7 and now 8. Ofc I donāt have exact timeline but it is a fact that happened over a course of period. Is that happened because later generation become less intelligent? Ofc not.
As per AAMC published report from last year, https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/press-releases/new-findings-confirm-predictions-physician-shortage, there is 120K+ MD shortage expected by 2032, merely 12 years from now, which seems we are running out of options to bridge that shortage considering how long it takes to produce a MD. Contrary, more and more BS/MD programs are either winding down, or extending duration. This trend is certainly visible to AAMC and all administrators.
That brings the discussion of economics, supply and demand. A highly demand product, service with less supply increases in value over time, whether it is a tangible or not. In context here, that product is total number of medical seats. Because their value (service vs financial oriented) is increased over a period of time, competition to achieve that value become furious among traditional route, aka gap years, aka their profile, may I say holistic, is marginally uplifted from their BS/MD peers in last 10 years Unfortunately, some of that influx of 90s offspring are exploiting just like what happened to 2nd amendment.
Unfortunately MDs are sellers market, not buyers.
Has anyone ever noticed that physicians who have been through the process (who have gone the regular UG route in the US) steer their children away from the BS/MD route? Thereās a reason. BS/MD should be the backup plan for most. The only people who should use this route are marginal applicants. Otherwise, you are selling yourself short.