Ok So i applied to a bucketload of BS/MD programs...however I just got rejected from.

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>two of them, PSU and Sienna/Albany. I made it to the second round in Union/Albany so idk how that will go...I also applied to drexel, BU, UMDNJ, etc. I have a feeling that I'lll be rejected. So What I am going to do is retake the SAT's this january get an ultra high score (2300+) and get a full-ride at one of the schools i applied to (State school). I'll work my butt of there, while still enjoying my time of course, and I'll get a high MCAT score. </p>

<p>So my question is, can you guys explain how many credits of courses I would have to take to get my pre-med requirements done by the end of sophmore year so i can take my MCAT's that same year? Is this a good idea? Is it overkill? Help! I'll be going to PSU or something of the like</p>

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<p>The premed prereqs are relatively straightforward:</p>

<p>1 year bio + lab
1 year chemistry + lab
1 year organic chemistry + lab
1 year physics + lab
some require math, some require English, some require humanities</p>

<p>Can you cram all that in to freshman and sophomore years? Yes–and some regular poster here did just that. But what’s the point in smushing what takes normal good students 3 years to do into just 2 years? </p>

<p>It’s generally not advised to apply to med school after junior year for a variety of reasons that have been discussed on other threads.</p>

<p>Do you have a strong reason for wanting to put everything into a shorter timespan? The schedule of premed prereqs freshman, sophomore, and junior years with the MCAT at the end of junior year so that you can apply during the summer before and first semester of senior year works well for the majority of students. </p>

<p>Spreading out the prereqs over three years instead of cramming them into two gives you the chance to have the time to develop extracurriculars, other experiences, and relationships with professors–all of these are critical to your success as a premed.</p>

<p>Being in an undergrad is FUN. It is truly one of those things that lives up to the hype–and even exceeds it most of the time. I have a feeling that once you get there, you won’t want to rush through it, and will change your mind about getting it all done in three years. </p>

<p>Relax, have fun, and study smart. If you’re the type of student that’s cut out for medical school, you’ll likely be able to excel in all (/most?) of those areas while having the time and desire to develop meaningful experiences to supplement your application.</p>

<p>Good luck!
Kristin</p>

<p>PS: It is really easy to panic about rejections and think that they indicate a major flaw with your application or have somehow created a huge crisis. This is probably NOT the case for you–you are likely just upset and caught off-guard about this rejection, and you will probably bounce back and find a positive spin for this in a few days (a week?). After all, you can only go to one college/medical school/BS-MD program in the end–so all you need is one!</p>

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<p>Why are you wanting take the MCAT right after soph year?</p>

<p>*It’s generally not advised to apply to med school after junior year for a variety of reasons that have been discussed on other threads.</p>

<p>*</p>

<p>Kristin, did you mean to word this a bit differently? I think you may be missing an important word…or maybe I’m not reading it right.</p>

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<p>So that Ill have ample time to study my junior year if my sophmore year score goes bad.</p>

<p>Besides, If i space it out in three years, I may forget stuff too, which is why jamming everyhting willl help me remember the content better. The material will still be fresh in my head.</p>

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<p>Yep good catch mom2–I meant to say “it’s generally not advised to apply after SOPHOMORE year for a variety of reasons that have been discussed on other threads”</p>

<p>Applying after sophomore year would basically mean graduating from college after “junior year” (3 years) which is not advised. That’s why I was thinking junior. </p>

<p>bubba:</p>

<p>The MCAT is very challenging but it is not even primarily based on content. Most of the test is about “reading comprehension” (a term I hesitate to use because I don’t think it’s strong enough for what the MCAT really does) and very little is about cold memorization of facts (to the tune of only 13 out of 52 questions in 2 out of the 3 sections). There’s no reason to cram everything together so that you can more easily recall the content. That’s the entire point of preparing for the test, which most people do from about January until April or May, then take the test soon after. If you’ve completed all the prereqs and done well in them, preparing for the MCAT using the standard timeline will suit you just fine.</p>

<p>Further, planning to take it early so you can retake if necessary is not a good strategy. You should NEVER plan to retake the MCAT, and trust me after you’ve prepared for it and taken it you will NEVER want to do it again. It should be a “one and done” sort of thing, unless something catastrophic happens (and you have to cancel your scores) or you do considerably worse than you were expecting. If you’re not prepared to do great on the MCAT (which would likely be the case leading to the need to retake), then you shouldn’t be taking it. It would be a much better strategy to prepare adequately, take a serious look at whether you’re progressing as you should, and then adjust/postpone your test date as necessary.</p>

<p>If the model you’re proposing were in fact the best way to do it, don’t you think many more students would do it that way? Realizing that you’re going about this entire process in a way that’s contradictory to what the vast majority of students do should indicate that it might not be the best method out there. For most students, the best/most effective timeline is the one described in my post #2.</p>

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<p>I didn’t know about BS MD programs until I got to college. Personally, I think BS MD programs represent a “back door” into medicine for students who are well connected but unlikely to get good grades or test scores. I didn’t know my school had a BS MD program until one of my chem classmates told me about it</p>

<p>Maybe I’m biased, but I found it suspicious that my college never advertised this BS MD opportunity. It way really low-key. You don’t know to find the we page unless you know to search for it. I also am suspicious because my school doesn’t require taking the MCAT, only getting a GPA that is lower the average for successful med school applicants. Worst, they don’t offer a list of graduates of this program. There’s absolutely no transparency (they have a list of everyone who graduates from med school and college).</p>

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<p>Oh ok. Thank you for telling me this. What did you get on MCAT if i may ask?
Also, I have another Question. I know some med schools recommend taking one math. However, I have AP credit from Calculus BC and Statistics as a junior (Im a senior now). Can I just use that for med school> Is that not allowed? I don’t want to take pointless classes like calc again, classes that have almost nothing to do with medical school.</p>

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<p>^What is the program you are speaking of?</p>

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<p>No problem, happy to help–I’ve learned a lot here and enjoy passing it on to new members. I ended up with a 30 (9 physics, 11 verbal, 10 bio, S on writing). 30 seems to be the score that’s “good enough” for most schools–since I have a boatload of extracurriculars and great rec letters and a pretty good GPA (3.8), applying has gone quite well. I would have liked to do better on the MCAT, but it’s hard to complain about the application experience I’ve had (including an acceptance in December).</p>

<p>AP Calc BC and AP Stats would likely be good enough for the math requirements for most med schools because very few med schools require math anyway. The ones that are really picky about it are the super elites like Johns Hopkins and Harvard (and a few others)–schools that you may not even apply to anyway. My high school offered dual enrollment options for us for AP Calc BC (that is, we took the AP Calc BC class while receiving credit for Calc II from a nearby university (not community college)), and thanks to that dual enrollment credit, I’ve had nothing to worry about in terms of medical school math requirements.</p>

<p>I can totally understand not wanting to take more math classes! I haven’t taken one since high school and it’s been GLORIOUS.</p>

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<p>Kristin…
What do the alpha scores for writing mean?</p>

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<p>So wait I can use the AP CREDIT? Or do i retake the courses when i get to college? Oh and what college do you attend?</p>

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<p>You write 2 thirty minute essays for the MCAT responding to a prompt about one a few possible topics (I wanna say…there are like 6ish basic areas they can draw prompts from, and you have to respond to the prompt they give you). The essays are then read by 2 graders who assign each essay a score from 1-6. The average of the scores is the score that essay gets. The sum of the scores, which ranges from 2-12, correspond to a letter score of J(worst)-T(best). So my S was a very good score.</p>

<p>Here’s an example.</p>

<p>Essay 1: Grader A gives it a 5, grader B gives it a 4, so the average ends up at 5 (I believe they round in your favor–go figure).
Essay 2: Grader A gives it a 6, grader B gives it a 6, so the average ends up at 6.
This brings your total score to 11, which corresponds to S.</p>

<p>According to Kaplan, the scores the graders give rarely differ by more than 1 point.</p>

<p>Kaplan’s system for writing essays worked really well for me–I’m a good writer and I have my own strategies, but I decided to “give in” and use the Kaplan method for the MCAT writing…with great results.</p>

<p>I’ve heard that the writing sample is the part of the MCAT that can “sway” adcoms. So if they’re wavering about giving you an interview, a great writing score might push it in your favor. Or that guy’s mood that day could push it in your favor, who knows. In the same vein, it seems like the verbal section is often given the most “weight” by adcoms because it typically requires the highest level of thought since it’s asking you to do so many things with prediction and synthesizing material–I’ve heard this from reliable sources at each of the schools where I interviewed (but maybe it varies by school?).</p>

<p>Considering the VR section was my best, and my writing score was high, there’s a chance that the combination helped me win interviews at elite schools. But it’s hard to tell (since there’s so much more that goes into it!).</p>

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<p>I would use the AP credit, especially if you don’t like math and don’t intend to retake it. Retaking a class just to fulfill calculus credits for a few elite medical schools that you may not even apply to in the end seems like a major waste of time, money, and the opportunity to take more interesting classes, in my opinion. But that’s just my opinion, and if you want to be safe/don’t care about retaking a boring class, then taking calculus might not be a bad way to go.</p>

<p>Either way, it’s not something you’d have to take right away, and I’d definitely wait a little while to take it to make sure you really need it. And it seems like if you’re going to take any prereqs at a community college over the summer, the only ones that won’t really hurt your app are English and math. Under no circumstances should you take a core science class at a community college if you can avoid it!</p>

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<p>I like math. It’s just that it’s irrelevant to my career goals.</p>

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<p>Some would argue that it’s not irrelevant. I agree with you in that I don’t see a compelling case for its relevance…and I don’t really like it…so I stopped after high school.</p>

<p>Might be worthwhile to head to your local library or college library and take a look at the most recent Medical School Admissions Requirements Guide (MSAR) put out by the AAMC. It has a 2 page spread for each school–the left side talks about the school, the right gives a breakdown of its stats (which I think are skewed) and its requirements (including math). That way you can have a better feel for which schools require math, if you think you’ll apply to them (assuming you make it that far!), and whether AP will work (you can call them and ask–super friendly most of the time!).</p>

<p>I wouldn’t bother buying an MSAR right now because it’ll probably be a little out of date by the time you actually use it to determine which schools to apply to in the future. But using one at a library would be a good idea.</p>

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<p>getting rejected from bs/md schools is a learning experience. use it to see what you did wrong during interviews and the application. i interviewed at all the programs i applied to and got rejected at all of them.</p>

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<p>It is better to take MCAT at the end of junior year. Do not worry too much about being rejected from bs/md. My D. just got to all Medical schools that rejected her from their bs/md programs and in addition she got into one that she did not apply to combined program because it is so competitive that it seemed to be waste of time applying 4 years ago. She ended up at bs/md at state school, got awesome GPA, very decent MCAT at the end of junior year and applied only to 8 Med. Schools (one in her program), got accepted to 4. So your plan sounds right, except that I would recommend taking MCAT in spring of junior year. The best of luck and do not forget to enjoy your UG years, be happy, pursue interests outside of your academics, travel, try something new. Relax, do not worry too much ahead of the time.</p>

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<p>

DS gave it a not-so-serious attempt 4 years ago (only applying to one BS/BD program) with a very high GPA/SAT, and was not successful also. The same medical school admitted him 4 years later. The potential lesson here is that oftentimes a high schooler is not given a chance to stand out among the applicants, and he or she needs to go to a “better battleground” to demonstrate his/her qualification.</p>

<p>As compared to the regular route to the medical school, I think that high school GPA, and SATs carry much less weight for BS/MD admission due to the fact that the kids with high stats are just not rare enough. (In other words, as a high schooler, you do not have access to a higher ceiling test like MCAT to help you out.) Even 4.0/2400 kids will not get in if the kids have not had an opportunity to show their “clinical” side of their life/ECs. Medical ECs appear to be even much more important there, as the stats are a much small part of the application.</p>

<p>However, a few less prestigious (usually public) BS/MD programs in some state (e.g., TX)may recruit some kids with a special background, even to the extent that they will help pay for their college tuition.</p>

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<p>My kid applied (late and naively) to one. She made the cut for the final interview and …thank God, they rejected her. 4 years later, she didn’t even apply to that med school as its mission statement and her career goals were not a good match. In fact, I think her honest statement to them at the time of her career goals (which haven’t changed that much), may have been what kept her out. The mission statement of the school appeared to her to stress primary care and service to a particular region. She had little interest in either, then or now.</p>

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<p>Damn are you guys ALL parents? </p>

<p>I wish you people can convince my parents to stop putting so much pressure on me to go to a direct med program. I know several ppl that weren’t smart enough to make the cut for the program and they dropped out. My parents neglect those rare cases and tell me to be strong and still apply. I think it’s a waste of time but whatever. What happens, happens. Im just happy to know that not getting into a program is DEFINITELY not the end all be all.</p>