<p>@remsaspirant, the parents learned (from different current students and counselors) during our visit a couple weeks ago that a few years back they accepted 16 or 17 and ALL ended up enrolling.
And 15 is the number I’ve heard for recent years.
Like I’ve mentioned earlier, the current REMS Freshman class has 10 students, and so is the current Junior class.
Haven’t heard about the “alternate” option.
Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>@DrillMom, Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>@WayOutWestMom, I looked at the student profile of class of 2017 and 2014 in medical school.The number of students joined the medical school from REMS is 5 in both the years.If REMS enrolled 10 evry year , can we say, the other five either decided to move to another medical school or did not make into medical school? any comments --probably from others also…?
May be you D can help me in finding out how many truly international students(foreign applicants-neither US citizens nor US permanent residents) got admitted in REMS in year 2008,2009,2010,2011,2012 & 2013?</p>
<p>REMS students drop out of the program for many reasons. The most common reasons are that either their interests change to something other than medicine or they fail to meet the academic or other requirements for remaining in the program. Most REMS student do not apply to other med schools because as REMS students they are guaranteed admission and are not required to take the MCAT. </p>
<p>Another possible cause for the apparent discrepancy between number of REMS students and number of REMS matriculants at URSOM would be students who defer med school admission for a year (which is an increasingly popular option) or those decide to go into the MD/PhD program (also quite common–typically 1-3 students/year).</p>
<p>Internationals are only rarely accepted into REMS. IIRC (from hearsay rather than any hard data since UR does not publish information on who is accepted into REMS) only one has been accepted into REMS in the past 7 years. </p>
<p>Good afternoon @wayoutwestmom. Since you seem rather knowledgable about the admissions process, I was wondering if you have any knowledge about financial aid for internationals? I know internationals are considered for merit scholarships, but let’s say, an international student wins a 15K a year scholarship, but would realistically need a lot more help to be able to attend, would it be likely that they could be funded the remainder of their need in other ways (i.e loans, grants, work-study) or is it extremely unlikely? Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>International students are not eligible for work-study because that is a federally funded program. Likewise, international students are not eligible for federal or state funded student loan or grant programs.</p>
<p>You will not be able to work off campus since the terms of your student visa prohibit that. </p>
<p>You will not be eligible for for any private student loans in the US unless you have a credit-worthy US citizen/permanent residency co-signer. </p>
<p>If you need loans to pay for your education, you need to obtain them in your home country.</p>
<p>Realistically, the only funding source for an international student is the university itself. If the university does not offer you enough aid to make attendance possible, you will not be able to attend.</p>
<p>Thanks WayOutWestMom for your time in sharing what you know. It is very surprising info that only 1 international student has been admitted in REMS in the past 7 years.Officially they confirm that they do consider internationals for REMS.Could it be that they did not get “right” candidates or due to other reasons such as their inability to prove availability of funds etc.as internationals are not eligible for any fin aid except some merit scholarship.?</p>
<p>I have no insight into how the decisions are made for admission to REMS. </p>
<p>I imagine that it’s largely a matter of numbers. The REMS program will receive a few thousand applications each year for a very limited number of positions (10). Since the vast majority of those applicants are domestic applicants, simple statistics says that the vast majority of the accepted applicants will be domestic students.</p>
<p>You need to understand that even for domestic applicants, admission to any BA/MD program is mind-boggling competitive, comparable to being accepted into Harvard, Stanford, Yale or Princeton. There will be very, very many fully qualified applicants who will be denied for no reason other than there’s not enough open seats.</p>
<p>@WayOutWestMom, Thanks again.Understand the competition level…IMHO, there must be some method to ensure that only the truly interested /committed students must be admitted and those who admitted must remain with the program.By dropping out or changing to some other course, the slots go unused, which could have been used by others who were really "die-hard "to become doctors. A suitable mechanism can be introduced… Or the the seats can be increased to 15 or more so that atleast 10 will remain and enter SOM .Also matriculants of REMS can be given a stipulated time ( one or two or three semesters, for example) to drop out or make the final committment to stay with REMS.Because on one’s indecisiveness, others’ should not be deprived of the available opportunities… just sharing my thoughts…</p>
<p>But the “slots” don’t go unused. URSOM simply will fill its available seats in the regular admission process or thru one of the other two alternative admission procedures it uses to admit students (Early Assurance and Guaranteed Admission Post-Bacc linkage). </p>
<p>URSOM can fill its seats 4 or 5 times over with fully qualified candidates. Filling the seats is never an issue.</p>
<p>(Also, I believe that REMS program already does replace students who drop out during freshman and early sophomore year, but very few students drop out in the early stages of the program. I’m not sure how the selection of replacements is done.)</p>
<p>What REMS allows is for a select handful of students to “skip the line” for med school. And perhaps that’s not a good thing. There’s published evidence that students in BS/MD programs are less successful in medical school and on the USMLEs than their traditional peers. (Lower grades, lower standardized scores, lower scores on patient satisfaction questionnaires )</p>
<p>Albanese M, Vaneyck S, Huggett K, Barnet JH. Academic performances of early-admission students to a BA/MD program compared with regular-admission students in relation to applicant pool fluctuations. Acad Med. 1997 Oct;72(10 Suppl 1):S66-8.</p>
<p>The trend among top medical schools in the US has been to discontinue BS/MD programs rather than expand them.</p>
<p>As for students who have “always known” they want to be doctors–they can still be doctors. They just need to go thru the traditional med school application process. </p>
<p>I will also say that aside from the academic issue listed above, BS/MD programs raise other troubling issues–including issues of fair access and applicant maturity at the time of matriculation–and here, perhaps, is not the place to discuss them.</p>
<p>Thanks for digging out reports/publications to quote.BS/MD or traditional path to med.school- which suits better could be another thread for discussion…as you seem to be having knowledge about admission process in breadth and depth…
anybody reading this thread and got REMS offer could post their stats?</p>
<p>I just found out today, March 18, that I am an alternate. For clarification, this means that I am in line to take the place of those students who decline REMS. The REMS students I talked to generally said that people only declined REMS for Harvard, Stanford etc.</p>
<p>Any guess how many are given alternate? If everyone who got offer gets enrolled,why they should have alternate?</p>
<p>10 finalists are offered admission to REMS, 5 are offered alternates positions. (Those 5 alternates are ranked.)</p>
<p>Should any finalist decline their REMS admission (Harvard/Stanford/Princeton admission, lack of affordability, or whatever), then the vacancy is offered to to the top ranked alternate. The offer travels down the ranked alternate list until someone accepts.</p>
<p>I believe the list of alternates is maintained during freshman & sophomore years so that should any REMS student decides to drop out of the program, then admission is offered to the next UR student on the ranked alternate list. </p>
<p>@WayOutWestMom , without knowing the rank in alternate, is it not risky to join expecting that some one during the freshman or sophomore years would drop out ?wouldn’t it be nice if alternate is informed with his/her ranking?</p>
<p>
No, it wouldn’t. The alternate needs to let go of the alternate status on the date he or she decides to go to Rochester anyway. That’s the only way that the alternate can take advantage of everything that Rochester has to offer, and get the best education he or she can so that he or she can then apply to medical school in the traditional way.</p>
<p>It’s also depressing to realize that you are the #1 alternate. There was a study that looked at the medalled athlete most disappointed at the Olympics. The result: It was the silver medalist. The bronze medalist was happy to have made it to the podium at all, the gold medalist - well, that’s obvious. But the silver medalist tended to kick him or herself that with a little more effort, he or she could have won. Or think of the kid who came in second for valedictorian.</p>
<p>Would you really want to carry that around with you?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No, I think it would be depressing. See Chevda’s comment above. Why would knowing one is #1 vs #5 on the ranked list help in any way? The odds say neither will be tapped during their freshman/sophomore year to enter REMS. </p>
<p>Why? Because BS/MD students are selected to be both extremely academically able and to have demonstrated a very high motivation for medicine as a career. BS/MD students seldom fail to complete the first 2 years of the program. (True for REMS and for all other BS/MD programs.) If any drop out of the program, it’s during the last 2 years of the program. </p>
<p>(I can only imagine what knowing that one is #1 on the alternate list could do to someone. Would it make them root for a peer to fail a class? Would it lead them to sabotage a fellow student’s grade or research project? Deliberately interfere with their clinical volunteer activities? Shudder! UR is known for being a place of cooperative learning and fellowship. I think the knowledge could be corrosive and damaging to that spirit.)</p>
<p>No, Chevda is right. During the college decision process, the alternate needs to let go of the idea of REMS and make the decision that is best for them. UR is a great school and there are plenty of good reasons to choose it.
Being on the alternate list isn’t one of them. </p>
<p>Very well thought of and explained ! I can fully agree with Chevda and WayOutWestMom.Thanks to both. I would tend to suggest that if the past stats indicate a certian number of drop outs from REMS in the last 2 years, that number can be added to the freshman admit in REMS .That helps 1,2 or 3 whatever it may be,to make their REMS dream come true ! Probably,it is being done by the UR…</p>
<p>howmany sure of enrolling in REMS so far? </p>
<p>@mennomafia, do you other BS/MD offers in hand? may I ask you about your alternate plan?</p>