Thread for BS/MD BS/DO 2021-2022

Drexel BS/MD program gives offers to 50-60 students and about 30-35 accept.
I do not know what % get undergrad scholarships.
From what I know, Drexel does not offer scholarships for medical school portion of BS/MD.

Also, looking at the list you shared, I think the numbers for Northwestern may be understated or it may be attracting rich parents. Medical school there costs ~$95K/year and having an average debt of just 2 years of cost of studies seems low.
I know they offer need based scholarships but medical school is not as liberal as the undergrad school when it comes to financial aid.

USC used to have combined program for which they gave large scholarships for undergrad and nothing for medicine. I know people who gave up their med seat to take cheaper options in Texas instead of taking on debt (60k vs 20k per year). Hpme has admitted a lot of people who dont qualify for FA for undergrad (NW claims to only offer FA) which means they probably didnā€™t either for md but NW usually forces FA to be borrowed if I am not mistaken for md. I knew at least one person who got FA for undergrad but needed to borrow for md. most others I know who attended have quite well off parents, primarily at least one doctor parent. As I understood it, they may have scrapped the program because they dont have diversity in the program per one of the parents.

Schools do play with their aid and who they admit to balance their aid plays largely with their rankings. The question that anyone who is applying should ask themselves is what is their expected cost of attendance for 8 years, how much do the parents pay, how much aid can they expect over the same period and how much do they need to borrow, what are the payments by the time they start residency etc.

Drexel lists 73k + additional expenses which means students have to pay 43k+ with a 30k scholarship. That is still close to 180k for undergrad and another 340-360k for medicine.

I may have used Drexel as an example for ā€œexpensiveā€ but I dont have anything specific against Drexel vs any other school that may end up costing a lot for a student. I believe most private school programs are geared for people who can afford it as opposed to helping good students who are seriously interested in medicine but may have to borrow a lot to get through some of these bs/md programs.

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My kiddo was given $25k a year for the Presidential Scholarship at Drexel and $6k for some other merit scholarship. He was also accepted to the Stars program which gives them a stipend and paid summer housing for research.

It isnā€™t cheap even with that but there are opportunities for help.

I tell my students (and my own children) hustling for scholarships should be pursued just as vigorously and methodically as applying for college. Itā€™s just a critical and sadly not as many students give it that attention.

I saw there was one BS/DO in Texas and figured I might apply so I get the in-state bias. I guess if Iā€™m going to apply to medical school this early though, I might as well shoot for MD.

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Thank You NoviceDad for the suggestion. Kid says Not sure. I too suggested retake .

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Hi everyone! My name is Annika and I am a current student at the University of Pittsburgh GAP program and would love to offer advice or help to any upcoming applicants!

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Hello everyone, I am need in some advice. My test score and GPA is quite low for bs/md - 1430 SAT and 3.8 UW GPA. Do you guys think it is worth putting effort to reach 1550+ in August/October before applying? I would have done this but I am trying really hard to make my ECs and essays really good in order to have a small chance. Donā€™t know if Iā€™ll be able to handle 3+ studying while preparing this summer - research, shadowing, hospital volunteering, lifeguarding, and essays. I am not expecting any chances, but just wanted to hear from you all. Thanks.

Yes, get your SAT score up.
Even with stellar ECs, it will be extremely difficult to get any interviews with a score of 1430.

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You may want to consider applying BS/DO programs with the scores you have in place.

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Hi! Is there still a chance for me to get an acceptance at a BSMD program with a 1530 SAT, but good extracurriculars and a 4.0 GPA?

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Take a shot and apply broadly.
All the best.

IMO, unless your SAT score is >= 1550, do not even think about applying BSMD. You would likely be screened out (with SAT 1430 and UW 3.8 GPA) by every BSMD program. Best option is to go via regular route MD. Do well in UG and MCAT. Prefer a regular route MD before trying a BS/DO option.

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IMO, with a SAT 1530 you should apply broadly/widely. Do not expect much. Good luck to you.

Do you know how competitive bs/do programs are? I read they are slightly less competitive, but wasnā€™t exactly sure.

Thatā€™s what the perception is. DC didnā€™t apply BS/DO programs, so we didnā€™t do much research about BS/DO. One of friendā€™s child joined in BS/DO program with LECOM. You may want to look at past 4-5 years BSMD results threads to check for the BS/DO experiences. I remember seeing some have applied to a couple of BS/DO programs and posted experiences in there. Good luck.

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They are competitive but no as much as the BS/MD programs.

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our school does not give Ranking so is that a problem applying for BS/MD?

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NO. It is not a problem. Many schools do not rank.

would a 3.7UW(uptrend) and a 34-36 ACT be auto reject? very strong ecs? for bs/md? bs/do?

@futurebs_md12323 - Your stats are on the lower end. Last year one kid got into BSMD after wait list into a BSMD program in the Texas or Oklahoma, with these stats. Very strong ECs are great but no one knows which of the schools will like them. BSMD programs tend to like medical ECs more than (or in addition to) sports/music etcā€¦

I recommend applying to 12-15 BSMD BSMD and 3-4 BSDO programs.