As I said numerous times we mostly hear failure stories here (without knowing why someone underperformed in UG) and zero risk tolerance leads to subpar outcomes in life.
What’s the rush to finish in 6 years when you have long career and life ahead?
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Agee 
for a change 
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Thanks @Novice dad. Both of your perspective are true. 6 year BSMD can be breathtaking. I know that cos I currently have two of my kids in them and they are doing just fine with laser focus and hard work. If the young student in question has more options, then we can help him factor them in but if all he has is Duke and UMKC BSMD. I’ll advice UMKC anyday because traditional path through Duke doesn’t guarantee anything. I have a brilliant niece who went to a grade deflating Ivy college and didn’t get into med school until after 5 years. I know what it took us to help regain her believe in herself to forge ahead
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While visiting Duke on accepted student days, met some premeds. Premeds there were extremely stressed about the gpa MCAT and other ECs. Most of them were planning for min one gap year. D cannot imagine any other career than being a doctor, given the competitiveness for an ORM, UMKC seems like a safer, less stressful and guaranteed option for her career goal. By making pros/cons list, the main pro for Duke is prestigious and research opportunities at Duke which might give admission to better ranked medical school, which a lot of people told us rank of medical school is not that significant factor in getting better residency. Life experiences and exploring other areas is something we feel unnecessary when one is focused on medicine already through health experiences done in last 4 years of high school.
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If you have kids in the program, that is first-hand info.
I would trust that.
I know firsthand many situations like your niece. It takes time to help a smart kid regain confidence.
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She has acceptance from RPI/AMC 7 yrs physician-scientist program. UMKC actually gives upto 30 credits from AP credits. We talked to some students on campus and they mentioned it to be manageable. We feel advantage of 6 yrs MD is possibility to complete research, postgraduate course or any other ECs during one gap year and still will be ahead of traditional route.
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That is somewhat my main concern. D puts her whole self into her studies expecting best outcome (which is something we told her since child!) which might lead to frustrations in ultra competitive scenarios. Pre meds are bettering themselves through 1000s of hrs of ECs on their profile and it becomes endless clueless game not knowing where one would end up. If she needs to take gap years after premed (which seems very common) to get into medical school AGAIN, it would be coming back to square one, for prestigious undergrad and better life experiences and possibility of better ranked med school.
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Completely agree on that… In my observations, my D has 4 T20 college acceptances (she applied 17) and 2 BSMD out of 15+ programs she applied to. T20 looks more towards academic rigor, grades, ECs, leadership and BSMD more towards health experiences, personal statements, research publications.
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So you have taken RPI/AMC out of consideration or still there? I don’t know enough about UKMC, but like @NoviceDad not a fan of 6 year programs (think that is the only oone). But again, not sure how it pans out if you extend it to 7 years.
Couple of years ago, one of the students was in similar situation Duke vs RPI/AMC and s/he was leaning towards RPI/AMC when was picked from waitlist at REMS. So not sure where s/he finally landed but you can probably search for key words like Duke and RPI in the past 2 years general/main threads and Private message to get their latest take on it, if still thinking about it and have time. Last year think one of the students picked RPI/AMC over UPenn. Some 3 years ago same, another student picked RPI/AMC over UPenn. If you want you can search the results threads and reach out to both of them and hopefully they may respond in time.
How much time you have left for decision making? Can you ask for extension if possible? Are you instate for UMKC? Have you visited all the campuses under consideration?
Not sure about the financial aspects, but RPI is generally generous with scholarships, usually around 30k/year for undergrad. Their undergrad curriculum is thorough and prepares one for medical school (not merely AMC, but any where in case the student wants to opt out of program later and apply to other med schools). I believe they give AP credits for 28-32, don’t remember exactly. The physician scientist pathway gives the students in the cohort ready access to various ECs and opportunities from get go.
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Does anyone have information on how the FAU BS/MD experience is?
@lmao2 , this is the response I got from a parent (@JBourne5 - not sure if still active in the group) who’s son is in the program last year when we talked to him.
Jupiter
Positives:
The Jupiter campus is all honor college and class sizes are small.
More one on one focus
Two top research institutes right on edge of campus- Scripps and Max plank (undergraduate students get an opportunity to conduct research). My child started at Scripps but had to stop because of Covid.
Negatives:
Not much campus activity compared to main campus (if kid wants to undergraduate experience)
Only one Dinning hall ( food ?)
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@MarchMom99
In addition to @deejay19 children in the program, @Abdul_Javid indicated his child in the UMKC BSMD program, you may want to touch base if you have any program-specific questions. IMO, UMKC matriculation reqs like GPA 2.8 and no MCAT releases stress on the students and focus more on the program experience. A local physician’s child went to UMKC a while ago, according to this physician UMKC 6 Yr BSMD program has been time tested, meaning the local physician said he/she met 2-3 generations of doctors from the same family at UMKC spanning from Grandfather - father-child, being grandfather and father had completed UKMC BSMD program a while ago and became physicians and child was in the same program at the time of interaction. The local physician said this to me when I asked what made you send your child all the way 1700 miles away from the hometown. Most importantly the local physician said the child liked the program, completed it successfully, and now secured a spot in residency at a T5 MD School.
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Except for an extra year at RPI/AMC, were there aspects you did not like there? Example: more cost; cold weather; etc.
RPI has a research focus program. I believe @OldSchoolMD had shared in the previous year’s thread about his family’s experience with RPI and the reputation of the RPI/AMC program.
Feedback from your Duke’s visit aligns with what we have seen and heard.
I wish colleges tracked the attrition rate among pre-med who decide not to do medicine because they messed up on 1 - 2 subjects and their GPA tanked.
Agree that the competitiveness of applicants through the traditional route (and BS/MD as well) will only increase. According to AAMC, “Applicants to medical school soared by a record-setting 17.8% for the 2021-22 school year…” There were over 62,000 applicants for about 21,000 seats.
3-4 years ago, there were about 50K applicants for the same number of seats.
The likelihood of getting into a medical school thus declined from about 40% to 34% in that period.
If you have a BS/MD program acceptance, I seriously suggest considering it.
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Agree with @mygrad2021 's comments.
Choose the campus you feel will keep you happy.
The main campus at Boca Raton has a large university feel with about 20K students.
Jupiter has a small liberal arts college feel.
More activities at Boca Raton as compared to Jupiter.
Boca Raton also has a University Honors program which is designed to provide a similar experience as the Honors College at Jupiter.
Not to mention the cost of 320-350K for undergrad alone at such schools, for most of the students (AP/IB credits rarely accepted)
Another factor is, there may be students who may escape unscathed by not getting anything less than a B even in tough courses, but still may not be able to breach the about 3.65 or so overall gpa to be competitive enough (more likely in places like Duke which attracts top talent from across the globe that one needs to compete against). Have known students going to local state schools falling in this category. These were very good students at high school who were given significant price breaks on top of the already lower in state tuition. They did not even bother sitting for MCAT in senior year and chose to directly go for the master’s programs to increase their credentials before choosing to apply for med schools with gap year(s) after the master’s.
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Requesting all applicants and parents to share your Stats and perspectives in the RESULTS thread
just to avoid any confusion, I should have used the words (AP/IB credits rarely accepted in a true sense) in the earlier post.
Though many of these schools have claims on portals on AP credits (usually only with 5s) and what not, they always have gotcha tricks for you.
Places like Caltech and some Ivies give their own tests for those having 5s on those APs to place you out of them. Need less to say most won’t make it. Some say department permissions needed, which is rarely given or one is discouraged explicitly.
Then in other places they say you can place out of an introductory course but still need to take a higher level course, so effectively getting no true credit. So students are caught in predicaments, whether to go for a more advanced course and risk a possible gpa hit or repeat the course. They don’t want to miss out on the revenue of teaching you something you already learned, just adding a little more color on top.
Specifically from a few years back (5-6), know of a student who went to Duke from local high school for business major, perfect APs, subject tests, 2400 SAT, gpa all that. Was given credit only for Microeconomics and english (or something like that). Most likely same policies even now, unless they changed it from the past 5-6 years ago, but highly doubtful.
I’m a bit confused. Provided you have broad AP credit, you should be able to take organic chemistry and multivariable calc first semester of freshman year, and maybe physics during sophomore year. And, start research during freshman year and continue each year and during summers. Take MCATs during summer after sophomore year. Done, no need for gap year. What am I missing?
Yes, provided you don’t go to these fancy colleges which won’t let you do that easily. As explained, they won’t let you rob them of their lucrative revenues.
Yes you can finish undergrad in 3 years, take MCAT after sophomore year, all that good stuff in state colleges or at least not so hyped up places. Have known students doing that, but still took gap year to apply out to medical schools, travelling to attend interviews, while still continuing on strengthening their profiles in that extra year (so total 4 years). Wouldn’t advise going for Orgo in freshman year. Have known students who thought they were pretty strong in chemistry and did that and got burnt.
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