Hi, My S has a SAT scor of 1510 and 3.8 GPA, He has about 250 volunteering hours at the hospital, He did research work for two years in NJMC and has written a paper which might get published this year or early next year. he has won multiple regional level competetions in Piano. Due to covid he was not able to give any subject SAT (all our registrations were cancelled), He wants to apply to Ruters, UConn, Hofstra, Drexel and Baylor for the BA\MD programs, along with other colleges for premed, With the acceptance rate so low into these programs does he has any chances of getting selected. Any information will be helpful.
Any chance? To any BS/MD program? Of course he has some chance. But it’s a very small chance. I’ve known kids accepted to a Harvard who didn’t get into the dozen such programs to which they applied. But then there are those who get in.
What AP courses did he take, particularly math and sciences , and what did he score on those tests taken? What is his class rank, and what sort of school is he attending? Is that 3.8 out of 4.0 and unweighted? What kind of Letters Of Recommendation is he getting From teachers and most importantly, his GC?
I suggest he apply to the programs as long as he has some strong safety schools that he wants to attend. I’ve known kids who were stuck with the UG school to which the program was attached as the safety and it was not what they wanted at all without the Med school attached.
Thanks for the reply, 3.8 GPA is unweighted and is out of 4
He did the follwoing AP’s Physics (5) , Chemistry, Biology (4), US History (4), Environmental Science and Calc. He is taking the AP Chemstry, Environmental Science and Cals this year so no score as of now
Take a look at the fine print on those BA/BS->MD programs, such as the college GPA and MCAT requirements in order to maintain the entry to the MD program.
I’d recommend posting in the BS/MD Class of 2021 thread on CC, as the people there are extremely familiar with BS/MD admissions.
BS/MD '21 Thread: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/multiple-degree-programs/2188053-official-thread-for-bsmd-2020-2021-applicants.html
BS/MD is a mixed bag of worms. It’s nice that there’s guaranteed acceptance into medical school, but the downside, is that almost none of the HS graduates with doctor ambitions end up actually going to medical school. I usually recommend applying the usual way. It gives the student more time to consider if medicine is really for them.
@coolguy40 , why do you say - almost none of the HS graduates with doctor ambitions end up actually going to medical school? Are you suggesting that most of the BSMD students drop out of the program or somehow cannot make it because of program requirements? It is in total contrast to what I have read - that most of BSMD students in program such as TCNJ/NJIT/NJMS, BU, REMS etc do matriculate to respective medical schools.
Can you please support that “most of BSMD students in program such as TCNJ/NJIT/NJMS, BU, REMS do matriculate to respective medical schools.” with an official published statistics ? Please share here if you have any official data with the source specified.
For ORMs, the competition is very tough in BSMD and most folks have stellar stats.
One of the “official” stats, that puts the matriculation rate of 95 or greater:
https://www.bumc.bu.edu/busm/admissions/introduction-to-busm/class-profile
This one is for Rochester where it says - 10 of you as part of our Early
Assurance - which are their BSMD students (as far as I know, REMS takes 10 students per year).
https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/medialibraries/urmcmedia/education/md/documents/2019-profile.pdf
OP- what kind of volunteering did your son do at the hospital?
There are a couple of reasons why kids who think they want to go to med school don’t go. Some of them can’t handle organic chemistry (or whatever class it is that kicks their %^&) and realize that they don’t want to grind away at the academic side of medicine for so many years Some of them fall in love with something else in college- often health related (biostatistics, epidemiology) or not (urban planning, sustainability). And some of them learn that their HS vision of what it means to be a doctor does not jive with the reality of medical education, training, and patient care.
Unless your son has been elbow deep in body fluids (watching of course, nobody lets a HS kid do procedures) or has tried to help a homeless person construct an accurate medical history when he or she has been sleeping in a public park for weeks and cannot remember when a particular symptom began, or has watched exhausted residents figure out which patients to discharge and which ones to admit-- given that the entire ER waiting room looks like death’s doorstep-- it is very hard to gauge how much of his interest in medicine is going to last from training through boards through practice.
And that’s what the adcom’s at these combined programs have to do. Figure out which applicants talk the talk and walk the walk- know what they are getting in to- and figuring out which ones are likely to flake (for good reasons- nobody wants a doctor in grandma’s OR who doesn’t want to be there). So academic record of course- strong student. Achievement outside the classroom- ability to focus, excel. But the exposure to real medicine is important-- not just for admissions, but to make sure that your son actually wants this path.
He could be at 100’s of other colleges and still go to med school- but without the upfront commitment. And if he hasn’t seen real patients in real pain-- he needs to be able to convince an adcom that his interest is true and genuine.
So go ahead and apply but agree with the advice to spend some time on the non-medical options for now.
“Among our special matriculation programs, 7 of you entered under our Rochester Early Medical Scholars
Baccalaureate-MD program,”
No, REMS != Early assurance. 7 and not 10. The former is for BS/MD (expected to be about 10 in size, but fluctuates in latest batch of 2020 it was 8). The latter (10) is from the university undergrads selected internally after sophomore year.
Almost all universities with affiliated med school has the second option, whether or not they have BS/MD programs.
We are treating his BSMD applications like the 2% acceptance chance they are. Will he be sad if he doesn’t make it? Of course. Will he wither away with regrets? No. He likes steak to much to wither.
It’s a lot of work to apply for what is a very tiny minute chance of acceptance. But you only need one to make it!
If he is willing to put in the energy to applying, the only downside would be app fees and loss of free time. Make sure he has backups with the traditional route he is happy with.
My kiddo added 3 traditional schools for the sophomore year GAP chance. Never know!
Most of the key boxes are already ticked. I would have him throw in the applications. Nothing to lose. Its difficult to get admitted in any of these, as pointed out by others.
Sons/daughters of physicians often have an edge. Not because of legacy reasons, but because they know what its like to live the life of a physician. Being on call 24 hrs, dragged into the hospital on weekends and nights, phone calls from the answering service, etc. These kids have a good understanding of what its like to live as a doctor. Shadowing helps, but is no substitute for living with a physician.
FYI, Here is some data on BSMDs (in some cases Early Assurance Program data is there) in the matriculating class of some medical schools. There is no guarantee of the veracity of this data. Please do your own due diligence. Please use it on your own risk.
School Class size BSMD EAP % BSMD
SMKC(Thomas Jefferson) 268 16 13 5.97%
Rutgers-NJMS 178 22 - 12.36%
Rutgers-RWJ 179 8 - 4.47%
Stoney Brook 136 4 - 2.94%
Temple-LKSOM 200 3 1 1.50%
Drexel 256 32 (no longer guaranteed) 28 12.50%
Brown-Alpert 143 59 4 41.26%
Boston Univ 160 16 22 10.00%
George Washington Univ 180 20 33 11.11%
Hofstra 99 3 - 3.03%
University of Illinois 310 10 ( in-state only) - 3.23%
VCU (Virginia Commonwealth Univ) 184 7 - 3.80%
University of Rochester 103 4 10 3.88%
Northwestern Univ 160 19(discontinued) 5 11.88%