@path2md No admin work. Nice perk !!
Perhaps @srk2017 was not an active poster during that time frame
How exactly does this work though? I feel that based off what other people mentioned (especially on SDN), the main thing that matters besides your clinical grades, letters of recommendation, and Step 1 score is research.
Would a healthcare administration project, without a publication, take precedence over a publication in the field you hope to pursue (i.e. ophthalmology for example)?
@PPofEngrDr
Thank you very much.
My daughter plans to be there on April 16 - another admitted student day.
This information will help her and hopefully some of her questions will get answered.
@srk2017 I understand what you are trying to say, at the same time I donât believe pre-med advisor will provide incorrect info while acknowledging grade deflation Ofc low tier UG school wonât have as many/much as clinical lab and research opportunity as higher tier UG and so those kids have to be differentiated besides GPA and MCAT scores (just like current cycle, GPA/Rank and ACT/SAT). At that point sure that admission process is holistic and look at factors in selecting med school students.To counter any deflation effect, UG student must do better on clinical lab, research, independence study part. Isnât that definition of well round candidate that medical schools are looking for?
@PPofEngrDr Many universities have dedicated programs/offices for undergraduate research and actively recruit capable students to work on research projects. At Temple, many UG students work with Medical School faculties on their research projects starting the sophomore year. These students are even paid for the work. So a 4.0 GPA from so-called lower-tier UG schools is very competitive. Be a top dog in your college/school as @upstream said.
Based on what you mentioned, the avg science gpa at NW being 3.55, I donât see any reason why some one who can be expected to be at least in the top half of every class there will fall below 3.7.
NW may provide him access to cutting edge facilities and research, not the run of the mill stuff, and he may even be lucky enough to have world renowned faculty and experts write his recommendations. And the icing on the cake, they gave him a generous financial package. Not sure how anyone in that situation can have any other thoughts.
@PPofEngrDr - I wonât accuse of pre-health adviser of giving false info, but with thousands of applications they donât have time to go thru and compare GPAs between schools, that the reality. I have seen so many cases. Same goes with UG admissions also. Holistic only after you meet certain minimums.
Check this thread
@rk2017 thanks for confidence in my son and he is anxious to commit. I had opened up email chain with premed advisor group and they are very responsive and forthcoming (sometimes an offline communication demonstrates what to expect when you indeed enrolled and really need some help) and it boosts my confidence more and more that my son is on right path.
Also the rigor of NW education will allow him to shine at med school and beyond. And in the unlikely and yet possible event of he changing his mind on going to medicine in a year or two, NW has so many great programs to choose from. He is at an amazing vantage point now. GL.
One thing I have observed is, kids who went to competitive high schools and came out with close to 4.0 GPA tend to do fine wherever they go unless they get distracted.
Please note that one can transfer out of BS/MD college if it is not a right fit for him/her. I know one case at RPI/Albany program, where one student transferred to Yale after completing one year at RPI.
@srk2017 I also didnât mean to suggest that you are saying wrong about premed advisor. I can imagine that an advisor may have miss spoke during marketing session those took place b4 application process, but for admitted students generally you will see top 2 people are giving information and that helps a lot and you have to believe them (Why someone would give you money and admission if they have to misrepresent themselves?). What one answer stumped was for a question from their predefined FAQ that they know being asked a lot and myth buster. It was, does NU UG gets preferential treatment for NU SOM? answer was yes. I was in disbelief too, but I took that answer as a positive for school. That is why they have NUPSP program only NU UG students can admitted if you indeed turns out to be top breed. So at this point, my son is indeed shooting for NUPSP, if things doesnât work out, go for other medical schools, even if that fails he may ended up BME route or healthcare administration side.
I believe in fallback plan or plan B and especially BS/MD route it is a must to have.
I read the other thread too and those stats are really scary for any parents from non-medical background that you donât want your kids to follow wrong path and spoiled their lives, especially immigrant parents who came here for better life for kids and left everything else behind. Tbh, that moment of reckoning is what I feel and candidly discussing it on this forum.
@srk2017,
D wasnât close to 4.0 in her competitive school. Rather low-mid 3.8s by end of Junior year, due to various reasons, intense competition, some teachers deliberately pulling down the grades in the last few exams with a view to give As to a small percentage of even the advanced classes, stupidity of some teachers who didnât care much to teach but would expect a lot, D going for challenging AP level courses a little early etc. As mentioned earlier this may have costed her getting interviews at some run of the mill places but she was overjoyed when getting in where she wanted to go the most.
@PPofEngrDr
Rightly said - need to have plan B.
Thatâs where the undergrad major becomes important.
I know of students who take âeasyâ majors that have limited potential if they do not make it to Med school.
@PPofEngrDr
Which other thread?
What scary stats were you referring?
@NoviceDad the thread that @srk2017 posted few posts back.
@PPofEngrDr
Thank you
[QUOTE=""]
NW may provide him access to cutting edge facilities and research, not the run of the mill stuff, and he may even be lucky enough
[/QUOTE]
Something you may find interesting about NW in this regard. This is from the renowned times higher ratings this year in clinical medicine (but you can extrapolate that to other closely allied fields as well, like life and physical sciences).
The number on the left is the overall ranking which is a weighted average of different factors. NW is a clear leader in 3 of the categories: Research, Citations (impact of research) and Industry Income (which leads to availability of cutting edge resources). Of course as I mentioned earlier, I am not a big fan of rankings, but it helps to know who are the leaders in the field and what their strengths are.
A good one for High School kids. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1484178-if-you-are-in-high-school-please-read-this-before-posting-p1.html