@aspiremed - Try virtual shadowing and volunteering (hospital, health care). Virtual programs are being offered instead of in person programs
@basketballfan123 - Your profile looks good except for test scores. It’s still June so you have plenty of opportunity to improve your test scores. Register for couple of more tests and try for 1550.
Apply broadly since there is no guarantee with BSMD. Also apply to strong pre-med programs as well.
It’s difficult to see the full picture with out ECs, APs, awards etc posted. If you post full details then I guess experts can advise.
Thank You cheer2021 for the response.
ACT: 32
SAT: Not Taken
GPA: 4.2 Weighted, 3.9 Unweighted
AP: World Geography, World History, Biology, Chemistry, CALC-AB, US History, Spanish taken so far
ECs: member in FBLA, HOSA, Key club
Volunteering : No Hospital volunteering (Canceled due to covid virus)
Asian (ORM)
No awards? I would recommend you read last 3-4 years of BSMD results thread for any wins from candidates with near your scores. Due to highly competetive in nature, one may get rejection from BSMD admission even from lower tier colleges, besides having near perfect scores. You may see sample list of BSMD colleges from @Mom22DDs posting here:
Apply widely. Not sure if you are considering BS/DO programs. You can apply couple BS/DO programs, if there is interest. You may want to tap traditional path too, that’s where over 95% of medical students goes through. Good luck with BSMD exploration.
Thank You Cheer2021 for reply and suggestions. When you mentioned low tier BS/MD colleges above which colleges you are referring to .
Following tiers were posted by one of the user in BSMD thread for 20-21. Use at your own risk.
Tier 1: NU HPME (discontinued for now), CWRU, Rice/Baylor
Tier 2: Rochester, UPITT, BU, UAB, Brown
Tier 3: State programs (NJMS, UConn, OU, UIC, Stony Brook etc.), Penn State, Hofstra
Tier 4: AMC, VCU, Drexel ( As per Drexel website, there is an EAP program and explicitly states there is no guarantees in this program.)
Tier 5: Interview-only guaranteed programs (i.e. UCF, Temple, FAU etc.), UMKC, and BSDO programs.
Seniors can chime in with corrections, as this is not my list, I was only referring from a previous post.
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Thank You Cheer2021 .
Just wanted to clarify here that the Top ranking websites do not rank BSMD programs. Most BSMD programs are very competitive and require high stats, ECs etc (irrespective of tiers listed here). Ranking BSMD programs should include both quantitative and qualitative factors causing the process to be very subjective. Also, there are different ranking websites, adding to the confusion. As seen in the past, the value gained from the BSMD’s for each person is different causing huge debates on this forum. So I would use the Tiers with skepticism.
@HS_2022 - Based on my observation, public universities tend to depend a lot on stats (GPA, scores etc.) since they don’t have resources to be holistic
private universities tend to look holistically at ECs in addition to baseline stats. So, it is possible to get in with not so good stats but unique ECs
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How to get into BSMD checklist (previously, I shared this in 2020-21 forum)
I would recommend looking at stats/perspectives posted in the BS MD results cc forum for 2020/2019/2018. The later ones are better. Admission process in my opinion keeps getting more competitive year over year. Based on the stats /perspectives shared by many students/parents in BS MD results forum, I have summarized the findings into ten points -
- For BS/MD admissions, strategy is very important for coming up with a college list (BSMD programs vs. UG college ratio). Many people including @rk2017 has posted on these.
- Soft factors (essays, interviews) are also important and many people have quoted this to be the deciding factor
- Medical ECs are more important than regular ECs. These provide material for essays and interviews. Some questions to think on - “Why medicine? Why BSMD?”
- BSMD programs seem to care for clinical research and patient facing volunteering.
- Stats such as GPA, Test scores, APs are all important and used for screening students. Once interview invite is received, all students are at the same level.
- STEM awards at national, state level for competitions (USNCO, USABO, AMC/AIME), Intel research, science Olympiads etc. are considered best for BS MD. Some students also have mentioned publishing papers or holding patents on their inventions. On the other hand, having a holistic, balanced profile with music, sports etc. cannot go wrong either. BSMDs are looking for very well accomplished students beyond their near perfect stats.
- Non-medical ECs such as varsity sports, Robotics etc. take up a lot of time. Kids need to strategize, pick and choose their ECs carefully at the beginning of the high school.
- Earlier Admission guidance (via CC or any other) could be important for coming up with a strategy, college list. Many people have quoted benefit and wished they look at CC earlier.
- Competition for BS MD is cut-throat (there are way too many qualified candidates). Apply widely to BSMD programs and some strong UGs (reach, match, safety). On an average, students interested in BSMD have ended up applying to 18 colleges not including the secondary medical college application/essays.
- Start working on applications early during the summer of junior year. Start with a resume, some staple essays (Why medicine, Why BSMD program, Why particular college) etc.
Finally, there are two major ways of becoming a Doctor - 95% of the students apply to medical school via Undergrad route and only 5% via BSMD. So apply widely but keep an open mind about the various colleges.
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Also recommend that 2022 aspirants go to the 2020-2021 Thread to see @NoviceDad poster on “BS/MD vs Traditional route” in the Page #1 of the below -
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/t/thread-for-bsmd-2020-2021-applicants-part-1/2096007/22766477
@cheer2021 This list is in-accurate and misleading. This is my challenge.
There are no BSDO programs as you listed above. These are all BSMD programs.
My advise, apply widely and do not expect much since the whole BSMD process is a crapshoot. The whole BSMD fills only 5% of all medical school seats. Even you get into one BSMD, there is no guarantee in any one of these programs that one would matriculate to the medical school. All these programs have various degrees of pre-conditions for matriculating to the medical school. One has to even do all medical related ECs, volunteer work, research etc even in a BSMD program all over again. Whatever one does during high school can not be recycled.
One has to fill a AMCAS application towards the end to matriculate to medical school as all who apply to medical school do. There are sections to list 15 activities there.
One is restricting to ONE medical school by choosing BSMD. Some of these are not worth the cost which may be >=550k.
I am a rising senior applying to BS/MD programs this fall. I am a Texas Resident.
Here is my current BSMD list: texas tech, rice/baylor, brown, case, bu, rochester.
These are obviously the most competitive ones. Are there any ‘safety’ (I know none are actually safety, but relatively more easier to get into) BS/MDs? I was looking at temple, fau, ou, vcu, lecon, and hofstra, but I’m not sure how conducive they are to out of state applicants.
Hello @grtd2010,
There should have been a “;” instead of “,” in tier 5. My DC applied to FAU and we are fully aware of the fact that FAU is a BSMD program, and thanks for pointing BSDO in the beginning could confuse new bees.
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Done.
Yes, Temple and others as included above require a medical school interview during UG ( mainly during junior year). The reason may be that they want to make sure one does not slack during UG and meets the UG GPA and MCAT requirements before being considered for an interview by medical school.
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As per Drexel website, there is an EAP program and explicitly states there are no guarantees in this program.
I have a relative starting medicine this year at Temple as a continuing student. Pretty tough program and one is expected to do well in undergraduate. She had admissions in Ivies during undergrad.
There is no such thing as tier 5 for major university combined programs, it is only in some people’s heads that they have reached this tier. It takes same achievements and effort to get into most combined programs that are run by established universities and it a lot of cases it is pure luck that one gets into one vs other.