I’m deciding between the Penn State BSMD and UTD McDermott programs. I know 100% I want to be a doctor. Below are the pros and cons for each.
UTD McDermott:
- full ride + money for study abroad, will save money to pay for in-state TX med school
- special opportunities (research, community service) given to Mcdermott scholars
- no med school guarantee but have potential to make better med school than Jefferson
- less social life aspects than penn state (ie. No football team)
- have to do 4 years undergrad
Penn State bsmd:
- finish undergrad 3 years, have ability to finish classes in 2 so no pay tuition 3rd year
- basically guaranteed med school acceptance to Jefferson Med School
- about $300K in loan for med school (biggest concern)
- want to do orthopedics, Jefferson residency rank 3 in nation for that
- good social life aspects
Any insight into what would be a better decision would be much appreciated!
How much is instate for medical? This is the Issue guaranteed admission or wait for an unknown after four years…
If you want as near a guarantee as you will get, it’s PSU. Guaranteed ms and guaranteed huge debt.
Rushing through ug will be no fun either.
But utd is not known for its campus life compared to a psu.
If you think you can make the grades and the mcat scores - it’s will also give you the chance to do some meaningful research and other ecs that are important as part of the ms mosaic. And you will have a chance to mature a bit and interact with other students. That’s an important skill for an md too.
If you have high confidence especially in chem bio physics and orgo. And time to prepare for mcat. I would select Utd. You can apply to schools more broadly.
You still have a minimum GPA and MCAT. So, you are going to spend 3 years of OOS tuition(150k) to maybe get a reduction in GMAT/GPA? Then pay OOS medical school tuition?
FYI, residency matching shouldn’t even be considered.
I’d go with McDermott. You’ll be one along twenty handpicked scholars with basically anything you want at your disposal. You’ll have more time to explore what interests you and be well-rounded, which is huge for a doctor (in particular, try to become fluent in a foreign language and study abroad, in addition to the mandated time with various categories of the population - rural, elderly, disadvantaged, etc. ) Being in McDermott means keeping your grades at med school level anyway.
Since you’re instate for Texas you would have an excellent, affordable med school.
In short, I don’t think I’ve got much to gain and much to lose if you take on Penn State’s offer.
I’d choose McDermott as well.
With the Jefferson program, there is a huge guaranteed cost and if you meet what they require for you to get in, you’d probably be able to get in to other med schools too.
I agree with all of the posters above.
But big disclaimer. I would be careful to think about other med schools as an option as you make this choice. You have to like the psu path.
Brown plme for sure and others have implemented policies to remove your guarantee if you apply anywhere else.
You can apply but you are regular pool and actually get a negative bump.
I know of two recent students shut out of where they thought they “move up to” and ended up very unhappy with their choices.
McDermott is a lot of work but in your case it will open many doors. The UTD campus has changed considerably over the last few years but as a McDermott you’ll have a built in social life so I wouldn’t worry about that anyway… There have been several McDermotts that have gone on to med school. If I were you I’d ask them how many and which med schools did they get into? McDermotts have a tight alumni network so I’m sure they’d have this information.
Sorry op. I meant be careful if you choose psu and also think that you can apply to other med schools too.
You can but you may lose your guaranteed spot. I would double check on that.
If you are sure about wanting to be a doctor then do BS-MD. McDermott gives free undergrad and many extras but it’s still at UTD, gives no guarantee for medical school admission, no money for medical school. No medical school or teaching hospital on campus for pre-med opportunities.
If you aren’t sure about medicine and cost is a big issue then taking advantage of Mcdermott makes sense.
If you end up having a high GPA, MCAT and good resume then you can use option to finish regular undergrad at Penn State and apply at Texas medical schools. If not then continue BS-MD at Penn State as planned.
@bjpdood as I’m sure you’re noticed, the College Confidential community is very diverse and we all approach college questions based on our own backgrounds and prejudices. First I would encourage you to do your own research, a simple Google search will yield some very informative links like https://www.utdallas.edu/pre-health/results these are specific to McDermott students but should give you some general information
Second, I would urge you to look at the biases and direct knowledge of those responding to your questions. I currently have one son at UTD, he was a McDermott finalist and is a NMF. My youngest son also plans to attend UTD but both are/will be CS majors. My knowledge about premed at UTD is peripheral but I have personally met McDermott students that have gone on to med school and were very happy with their choice to accept UTD’s McDermott scholarship. You might check out this thread, http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/2096968-ut-dallas-attracts-170-nmf-scholars-for-class-of-2022-adding-to-160-in-class-of-2021-p1.html paying attention to who is posting what to help you understand other poster’s biases.
For what it’s worth, McDermott and the BSMD program are roughly the same in terms of med school “guarantee”, since they both have strings attached - you will need to do the same thing at both to get into med school. The difference is that McDermott is free and TX med school is a fraction of an OOS med school’s costs.
Maintaining required 3.5 GPA at Penn State and scoring required 504 on MCAT isn’t that difficult and takes away stress/risk of applying to med schools and prepping to score higher on MCAT. It sure is more of a guarantee than McDermott or any other undergrad program. It also shaves one year off of the process as it’s a 7 year program. It’s up to you and your family to decide if expense is worth the advantage.
Agree with last poster. Penn State chem, Calc, and other stem courses are designed to weed kids out. Maintaining the GPA to stay in the program could be a challenge. If you have high enough stats to get accepted to PSU BSMD program, you should do well enough wherever you go and should be able to get accepted into other med schools. I’d go wherever you think you can get the highest GPA at the lowest cost and still gain clinical exposure. Don’t rush through UG. I’d pick Texas.
So basically, PSU means easier route to medical school, but the result is much more debt when you start medical practice, while UTD means a harder route to medical school, but potentially much lower debt if you get into a Texas public medical school.
https://store.aamc.org/downloadable/download/sample/sample_id/240/ gives some information about medical school debt and repayment.
https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/2018-compensation-overview-6009667#4 shows pay level by medical specialty. Orthopedics is highly paid, but you should assume that it is highly competitive, and pre-meds and medical students should assume for financial planning purposes that they will go into one of the lower paid specialties.
So you may want to figure out how the numbers on the debt versus pay will work in each scenario in order to make a more informed decision.