Thread for BS/MD BS/DO 2021-2022

And your student should remember to always carry a pepper spray! LOL

I would have expected you to say Columbia (for non-med) or BU SMED (med) Or maybe I should say that I would have preferred that LOL

BU SMED is a great BSMD program.

However, I am curious to know when Duke over Rice over BU SMED? Is it location, cost or just because you like Duke the best and then Rice the next?

Do you want to be a pre-med at Duke or Rice?

No merit from either school. His grandparents live in Houston, but area around Rice is not that great. DS also got accepted to Univ of Southern CA with NMF half tuition scholarship, UCLA and other UCs, UPitt honors with $20k per year scholarship. Got waitlisted by Duke and Pomona college. Cost is not a concern for us. DS wants to be a doctor. So we think, out of the current list, Rice and Brown are the top two we are considering. I know Rice is closed to Anderson medical center, and should be easy to find research opportunities. GPA wise, I didnā€™t hear any horror stories, so I guess itā€™s ok? For Brown, we know some people who were there for non medical track, and they loved the open curriculum. But we donā€™t know if itā€™s good for premed.

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I knew another one who got Rice BS MD and Harvard but ended up going to Rice BS MD and again after finishing BS didnā€™t like it so went to JHU and ended up in Stanford

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I typed a message and it got wiped out so retyping again.

I dont know much about GWU undergrad but GWU med school has had great outcomes for people I have come across recently. I know of 3 siblings, twins +1 all joined 7 year program same year, went into tough specialties at top programs (ortho, uro, optho) and probably had some influence for the programs since one parent is a top med school faculty but could not have influenced their specialties. One of graduates is married to a relative who started out in anesthesia at a top program but switched career into another medical field after 2 years. I know another person who did SBU/GWU and is a radiology resident at an Ivy program.

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we both know the same person - I didnt put all details! I went to their reception recently.

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Wow! A typical example that ā€œLife is not a straight lineā€

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Just my personal experience. Did not mean to scare anyoneā€¦ but definitely so many students study there and so please make your own decisions by visiting and asking locals for inputā€¦

I want to become an Orthopedic surgeon so will be doing Pre Med.

Cost is not an issue (will be paying full sticker price for all options other than NJIT/NJMS full ride). I live in NJ and part of Columbia SHP program General Information for last 3 years so want some change plus Duke and Rice are better options for Pre Med.

I was put off by the BU SMED Pre interview session and overall bad reviews of campus. So have to see the same before deciding.

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Thank you for good info. My S had instate UG with full ride, so deciding between UMD vs GWU ba md program

At onetime PLME allowed people to apply out. They changed the policy many years ago and made it such that people who take MCAT have to reapply.

There was someone on CC about 8 years ago who was attending UMD on a full ride and she was really good. She went to MD/PhD from UMD at an Ivy I think and she was posting a lot on MD threads about MCAT preparation etc. If you read old MD threads (2014-2015 timeframe, you will see her posts).

Thanks for the kind words. Does anyone know the COA for TCNJ and Stevens for OOS? Do they match scholarship offers from other schools?

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Thank you for the good info. I am hoping my S choose GWU BA MD program

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I am not sure who is saying Rice neighborhood is not good - it has all million dollar homes even if they are not great homes (property value is sky high there) and pretty much the biggest medical center in the world. All Rice faculty are affiliated with medical schools in someway or the other.

I have seen some Rice graduates have 4.2 GPA but others have struggled with 3.5-3.6 which makes it hard to make it to Texas med schools which need 3.7-3.9. So focusing on GPA is important if attending Rice for a Texas resident. A lot of Rice graduates go to baylor since they do research there or work with people who also work at Baylor. It used to be a very small school back in 2000 with only 500 students per year but now they have crossed a 1000(?).

Their economics graduates get into top notch venture capital firms like goldman sachs and they are getting summer internships after year 1.

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We are oos, so does that make a difference? Also, how do you get a 4.2 GPA in college? I thought the max is 4.0.

to those who applied to rowansom through feeders, did you hear back yet?

Is attending Columbia as high school student same as actually attending college?

One thing with attending all these top schools and planning to go into medicine - you still must pay extreme attention to your GPA. It is a myth that medical schools give browny points to top 10 or 20 schools for lower GPAs and it never happens. So an ORM going to Harvard graduating with 3.25 will still be forced to consider DO options. Someone with 3.5 and 525 may have some leeway but someone with 3.5 and 510 attending harvard will still not have a lot of MD options. Someone told me at onetime 3.8 and 38 (521?) from stanford will get you an interview at most places which still holds true for most elite colleges but start dropping that GPA and nothing is guaranteed.

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FYI -
Duke is a grade-deflated school. Also, culturally it effectively encourages gap year(s).

Rice probably will give you more resources and research opportunities than Duke. It probably has better dorms.

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TOTALLY agree.
GPA > 3.85 and MCAT > 515 are becoming the baseline for ORM students to even have a shot at MD schools.

I know of a few students in this yearā€™s cycle with a GPA of 3.8 to 3.95 and MCAT between 509 and 513 drawing a blank.

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