Most 8 year programs are clear upfront that they are not accelerated. That is, you can’t reduce the duration of undergrad, that’s why some students opt not even to apply for them. (However most of these programs also give price breaks for undergrad). If a student finishes the course work early for undergrad because of AP/IB/DE credits, he or she will be encouraged to “enrich” themselves by additional course work, research, dual major or perhaps even a gap year, but can’t matriculate early into med school.
One exception I have heard of recently, seems Upstate will give the option to graduate early from undergrad. But again not sure if it is feeder school dependent or not. For example different feeders for the same med school AMC have different policies.
You may want to contact the programs directly if that is going to be an important factor in where to apply.
There is a catch with taking BCMP AP credits for premed. One may have to take a higher level course in same department e.g, if one takes AP Calculus BC credit, they may have to take a higher level Math ( Calculus III is required for Biochemistry majors in some schools ) or a Statistics class for certain medical schools. Some schools do allow only one of the Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Math AP credit towards pre-med/BSMD requirements. Most 7 year BS/MD program may require one to take MCAT by the end of Sophomore or start of Junior year. One has to plan their course sequence carefully to finish all pre-requisites before taking MCAT. It is advised not to plan on the assumption that one can finish 4 years program in 3 years with AP/IB/ DE (dual credits). If you want to finish in 3 years, explicitly apply only to 7 year bs/md programs.
Though I have also seen on some websites that they may be able to finish all the work by year 4 and therefore use year 4 for things like internships and extra concentrations. So you still have to be enrolled for 4 but year 4 can be flexed a bit in content area.
@bsmdcoolz - Congratulations on your multiple BS MD acceptances. RPI/AMC is an excellent program. Wish you the best for your future.
Thanks for sharing your perspective on the BS MD program college list. It looks like in addition to applying to 23 BS MD programs you also choose various BS/MD programs that do not require interview. Your example was really interesting and does show how to get into at least one or more programs if you choose the right list of colleges. I am sure future applicants will find stats/results useful.
I see you were also accepted to Upstate through SUNY Poly, which would have saved a decent amount since you are NY resident. Mind sharing your preference for RPI/AMC? Is it because Upstate is not accelerated through that feeder, or you like the physician scientist program @RPI better or something else … ? ( I don’t see MCAT being a factor in any way)
Hello! HS junior here - with Step 1 being pass/fail do you guys think it will be harder for BS/MD students to match into competitive specialties? If I intend on going into a competitive specialty, should I just opt for the traditional route instead of applying to BS/MD programs?
@rmsm99 Not necessarily. There are few good BS/MD programs with good medical colleges. Also assuming into competitive specialties is because of the college alone.
Still it all depends on what the students does either in UG, MD or in life. Colleges are means and not ends for what any one what to accomplish. GL.
Congratulations! and thanks for posting your stats and reflections on the results thread. Are you NJ resident? Surprised to see turned down by RPI/AMC inspire of a research publication.
So far 19 students or parents have graciously posted their stats, reflections, experiences and advices for future batches. How nice would it be if even there will be an additional post to make the count 20 for 2020 ?!
To all the students/parents of students, who tried to secure BS/MD this cycle, please post your results and experiences/insights on the bs-md-results-class-of-2020 page. It will be really helpful for students who will be applying during upcoming/next cycle.
My kid is about to complete jr year. What are our chances of BSMD with below and which programs would be within his reach. I think another attempt at SAT might help as corona messed up everything. Please advise!
Weighted GPA: 4.60
Unweighted GPA: 3.97
Cancer Research at one of big university in Chicago - 500 hours
Vex Robotics World Championship 2 times
200+ hours of community volunteering
300+ hours of Volunteering experience at Senior Citizen center
Mini Med School as a Student and as a Teacher’s Assistant
What are his chances for bs/md and which programs might be more suitable for him.
@myhouse1
GPA and ECs of your child are great. You did not post his SAT/ACT/AP Courses/SAT Subjects. From what I see from details you posted, he is a great candidate for BS/MD. May be you can go to results page of BS/MD students of this cycle and see the stats of students who got selected in various BS/MD program. What state are you from? And are you ORM?
@rk1235rk thanks for the response and makes me feel a little better.
Minor update to GPA:
Weighted GPA: 4.55
Unweighted GPA: 3.95
regarding APs, he has done total of 5 APs till now, AP Bio, AP Physics, AP Macro, AP US History and AP Computer Science. He is planning to take 5 more in the senior year. so total of 10 APs.
regarding SATs, he could only give once before corona rescheduled everything. But he is planning to take in aug/sept/oct and aiming for 1500+.
Considering Corona and rescheduling everything, does SAT subject tests matter or it should be taken? Whats the general consensus about it.
I would say your Child has covered the bases well as far as GPA and extra curriculars are concerned. Also believe he will get strong letters of recommendation from his mentors from the ECs. However it is difficult to opine without complete picture. Such as what are the SAT/ACT scores, subject tests (couple of programs require specifically Math2 and Chem), if his school offers AP/IB and if so the scores in the tests and finally how well he can convince impressively in the essays why he is keen on medicine and why he thinks is a good fit for each of the programs he will be applying to. Physician shadowing would have been a nice thing to have, but try not to squeeze in something new in the last phase, better to continue with the current trajectory.
For someone with research exposure, RPI/AMC physician scientist program comes to mind first, but as stated in an earlier post, nothing can be predicted (even for those with research publication). Suggest you to go through the 2020 results thread and may be for few more years in the past, to get a feel of what each of these programs may be looking for and to which of the students’ profiles your son’s comes close to. The link for the latest cycle results can be found a few posts prior to this. Also you may want to eliminate some of the programs out right with so few slots or impossible to get in for ORMs or those with strong instate or regional preferences or with not so good reputation. Examples of each of these categories of programs, Brown PLME, both the Baylor programs, WashU, Cincinnati and California North State. UMKC and Drexel seem borderline too.
We are trying to shortlist which BS/MD to apply for DD next cycle. I see there are 7 feeders for NJMS. If I had to pick 2-3, how should I go about it. TCNJ, NJIT, Rutgers and others seems very varied based on school size, student body demographics etc. Reading some of the posts on this forum, it seems NJIT and TCNJ are top choices. Would that mean that applying via NJIT or TCNJ reduce your chances of being shortlisted by feeder school as they will be getting most of the competitive students (as compared to Drew or Montcliar)? Any information would be really helpful.
It depends on your DD’s stats SAT scores and unweighted GPA. Both TCNJ and NJIT seem heavy oriented towards top stats candidates. They also seem to get a lot of OOS applicants.