<p>I already posted this on the Brown University forum, but I guess it doesn't hurt to post here as well...</p>
<p>PLME at Brown is a very prestigious program (being an Ivy League and all), but the Rice/Baylor Medical Program is very good as well (from what I've heard). Furthermore, R/B gives you automatic admission to the Baylor College of Medicine, which is very highly ranked. So, I wanted to know which program would be a better choice if someone were to get into both. Any ideas?</p>
<p>If you got into both, you'd be considered God. Seriously. They're both great programs, and one or two CC members had the tough but awesome decision to choose between BA/MD programs of equal caliber i.e. HPME, Rice Baylor, PLME, etc. Rice/Baylor is awesome I think because Baylor College of Medicine is highly ranked and has more research opportunities than Brown Med. I don't know a whole lot about PLME, but I'm sure its a great program as well. Choose where you want to go, in the end. Good luck...you have to get into the programs first. Haha. That's a feat in itself. Good luck again.</p>
<p>Does cost factor into it at all? If you are paying full fare, Rice might end up being less expensive.</p>
<p>^ Especially for Texas residents. Baylor College of Medicine is ridiculously inexpensive for Texans...and it is a top drawer medical school. AND I believe Rice has a 90+% acceptance rate at BCM. So you get prestige, world class research opportunities at both Rice and BCM.... and you can afford to buy a home when you graduate. Can't beat that with a stick.</p>
<p>So here are some differences between the programs that you should take into consideration:</p>
<ul>
<li>PLME is WAY, WAY more expensive than Rice/Baylor will be, especially if you become a Texas resident. I cannot stress this enough. You, if you are like most people, we be HUGELY in debt graduating from PLME, compared to only very indebt graduating from Rice/Baylor - check the prices carefully.</li>
</ul>
<p>-One thing I could never figure out about PLME (despite phone calls) is what happens if for some reason you leave the program after 4 years (ie. you don't want to become a doctor anymore, you don't want to go to Brown's med school, you can't afford to pay tuition anymore because of death or illness in the family, etc). They talk so much about the continuum aspect of it, that I worry that if you leave after four years, you don't get a bachelor's degree (think: 4 years of tuition and nothing to show for it!). Rice/Baylor would give you the Bachelor's if for some reason you have to leave.</p>
<p>-PLME binds you to Brown's med school, which is lower ranked than Baylor. Rice/Baylor is not binding, and you can apply out to other medical schools without jeopardizing your Baylor acceptance, effectively making Baylor your safety school (an enviable position to be in for sure). However, Baylor is such a good school, and you don't need to take the MCAT to go there if you are in the program, and it's so cheap, that few students apply out.</p>
<p>-The academic requirements between the 2 programs are different:</p>
<p>-PLME has a math requirement, which Rice/Baylor does not.</p>
<p>-However, PLME's chemistry requirement is only 3 semesters, compared to Rice/Baylor's 4 (although AP credit at both schools brings it down to 2). </p>
<p>-You can AP out of the PLME physics requirement, but not out of the Rice/Baylor one. </p>
<p>-PLME also has requirements in behavioral and social sciences and the humanities, which Rice/Baylor doesn't have (although Rice has some distribution requirements, so maybe it comes out similarly). </p>
<p>-At PLME you can take some of the pre-clinical classes as an undergrad, if you choose, but this won't accelerate you. This isn't really offered at Rice, since they want you to focus on other things besides medicine as an undergrad. </p>
<p>-PLME's GPA requirement is 3.0, while Rice/Baylor's is 3.2 and 3.0 in the pre-med classes (3.2 is not hard to get, especially for people in Rice/Baylor).</p>
<p>-Other differences:</p>
<p>-Rice seemed much more laid back than Brown when I visited, less competitive, more fun, etc. Take that for whatever it's worth.</p>
<p>-Houston has better weather during the school year, in my opinion. Brown is too cold! Think 72 degrees and sunny in January.</p>
<p>-Baylor has only 1.5 years of preclinical curriculum. I don't know what Brown has, but at most places it's 2 full years before clinical stuff.</p>
<p>Here are the main points: Brown is more expensive, more limiting, more competitive, and less highly ranked than Rice/Baylor. Both are great programs and you will certainly come out a good doctor at either of them - what a nice dilemma to have!</p>
<p>yeah, it would be a nice dilemma to have... I'm just hoping I get accepted either of them, but I was just curious as to which one was better, since I've heard such great things about both!</p>
<p>My opinion, Jenskate has it down right. Rice Baylor is the best opportunity for any student interested in medicine. I would have loved to be a Medical Scholar there, but I was deferred unfortunately. I'm still hoping to hear good news from Rice though as it is still one of my top choices for undergrad. That's really impressive btw, ldmom06, about Rice's pre-med acceptance rate to BCM. Is it really 90+%? I read that Rice has an acceptance rate of around 90 percent to med school in general, didn't know if BCM took so many Rice students.</p>