***Thread for BS/MD/DO 2022-2023***

@akpman - Send Letter of Continued interest after being notified as waitlisted. See the post above from @NoviceDad

Received email from AMC that not selected for interview. Feeder Union. Doors closed at AMC.

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Anyone got acceptance from SLU? If yes, could you DM me? We are planning to attend Accepted Students Day Lunch on 4/1.

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EMSAP (UAB) Acceptances came out few minutes ago. Via Email.

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Wow, they use email now. They used to let people know to wait for Dr Penceā€™s phone call around a certain date and time lol. Imagine to have to stay off the phone for an undetermined period of time for that phone call! The suspense was too much!

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Just want to let people know who applied to TCNJ/NJMS that my C got a rejection letter todayā€“it was by email. Kind of surprised actually because her TCNJ interview went really well. For the people still waiting, look in your ā€œPromotionsā€ tabā€“there should be an email there.

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Sorry to hear. TCNJ rejection or NJMS rejection?

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NJMS rejection. But the email came from TCNJ.

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For all the students who are getting rejection letters from BSMD programs - stay strong. Most students apply to 10-15 BSMD programs - interview invites from 2-5 - get accepted to only 1-2 programs. you only need admission to one program. So, you are not alone getting rejections.

As you might know, BSMD is a route taken only by 5% of students. 95% of students take the regular route to MD. With BSMD, you already have some experience. So, you will be better prepared next time.

Finally, there are many professions in the world where you can be successful and happy - not everyone in this world needs to be a doctor!

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Think BSMD process as a trial run for traditional path and figure out the deficiencies and work on those. Good luck to all who werenā€™t lucky enough this round.

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Becoming a doc is a journey as costly/inexpensive as you make it to be. Even if getting a ton of BSMD offers, but they each costs you close to 400-500k that you will have to borrow at a relatively high interest rates, it might take you a good while to pay off the debt. Be proud of what you have achieved and be assured that you will be in a relatively good position for the traditional route. Keep up the good activities you have been doing to put you in even a better position for the traditional route.
As @srk2017 said, the MCAT isnā€™t as bad as people make it to be. If you donā€™t have what it takes to do well on the MCAT, the first half of med school will be painful due to its heavy science content. STEP1 will be just as painful even though itā€™s P/F. What you learn in the first half of med school will be the basis for clinical and STEP2 and the rest of your career.
The experience your older relatives had as international medical applicant when they applied to med school or residency might not be what you will encounter due to your being a product of the USA. Youā€™ve been trained to converse, even debate since you were young. There are a lot of resources, even free ones, to help you write, practice for interviews, etc.
As @Vicky2019 said, only 5% or fewer of med students come from the BSMD pool. Just because you didnā€™t get any acceptance this cycle, understand that the competition for these slots are more than the traditional route. Be proud that youā€™ve tried. It took a lot to juggle among school work, sports, clubs, let alone taking on in medically related activities to even apply this cycle. Be proud that youā€™ve done much more than most high schoolers. If you continue on your path to achieve, thereā€™s no telling where you would be 4 years from now. Med school acceptances via the traditional route would not be out of the question.
Good luck to all, whichever path youā€™ll be down next fall!

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Agree with all the above posts. In addition, specialty discussion at this stage is far fetched. For the majority (there are always outliers) wait until finish course work at MD and do rotations. Then only you may know what you like or donā€™t like, even if you like you may decide not to pursue certain things because of other family-career balance etc., After doing dissectionā€™s you may or may not like surgery related or after doing some course you or may not like pathology or after doing some rotation you may or may not like psychiatry or xyz.

Unlike other profession you can not pursue a career in medicine unless you are genuinely interested in the field of study and type of work (guaranteed to see only sick people :smiley:). GL

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I beg to disagree with my esteemed parent suite of @srk2017 and junebug20 whose kids do well on standardized tests but not everyone will do as well even if they work very hard practicing them. The whole point of standardized tests is to segregate people based on percentiles and based on minimal variance in actual score, there is a large variance in percentiles. So few score 524 and above that it falls close to 100th percentile. There are only 2800 people in this range (I am actually shocked at the number of people/multiples by same people) for one year between May 2021 to April 2022 for a total of 281,000.

https://students-residents.aamc.org/media/8356/download

Many schools ask for 508-511 range for BS/MD which is over 75%ile. 509 being 75%ile, we have almost 70,000 people who scored at or above this number while the number of seats available are 20k+ for MD. There are a lot more people who can qualify for the minimum but the 1% that scored 524 or above can take up 15% of all available seats.

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Iā€™m basing what I said on my own kids who I think are not any better test takers than people apply to BSMD programs and have the credentials from high school to even get passed on to med schools for consideration. I have two children, one STEM oriented and one not. The STEM-oriented one started reviewing for the MCAT since the summer. In addition, he taught himself physics, which I was totally against, but at the end, he made it work. Toward the end of the summer, he started taking the free full-length practice tests to a total of (maybe) 10 from various test prep companies. He was pretty discouraged because the scores from these tests were highly deflated. Even though he already knew that, it was still rather discouraging. Still, he was chugging along taking one full-length every other week. He went over the deficient areas (questions he missed) after each test. Starting this spring semester, he started working on the AAMC-sanctioned materials. It costed us less than $300 for the full pack. Again, one AAMC full-length every other week. He finished the whole AAMC MCAT prep suite by the time he was two weeks away from test day. He went over areas where he felt needed attention the week before the test. Since he covered most of the ground and scored in the top 99+ for all of his AAMC full-lengths, he felt comfortable going into the test. I attributed his achievement through effort, which I donā€™t think people in this forum lack. All should already have the test taking skills to get where they are. So, as long as their school list is appropriate, covering the full spectrum, not just T5-T20 med schools, Iā€™m sure they would be accepted at a med school going the traditional route.
Now, the non-STEM child did well in school. She thought she wanted to be a doc even though neither of her parents or any relative is in the profession. Due to the nature of her BSMD seat, she didnā€™t feel the need to pursue harder science courses. For the MCAT, while others prepare for it studiously, she barely showed up for the test pretty much cold. She recalled bits and pieces of Buzzfeed videos to help her pass the psych section. Her MCAT was based on her recollection of what she came across previously. No labor or sweat was involved in prepping for the test. She knew that she only had to pass the low bar her program has set. Instead, she tried to strategically do everything possible to line up a career in OB-GYN. However, STEM became much more painful to her in med school. Despite having a BSMD seat at a T-25 (or slighly higher) med school, she decided to leave to pursue another career.
The moral of the long story is: everyone who got here, to even qualify for BSMD consideration, has the potential to be successful at the MCAT and applying through the traditional route, provided that their school list covers the full spectrum of schools. They might even realize that medicine isnā€™t their thing. One disclosure: our kids are not influenced by a physician parent. Itā€™s a double-edged sword. They had to establish their own connections and find ways to locate resources creatively. In return, they donā€™t feel obligated to a family career tradition.

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I never said MCAT or other standardized tests are easy for everyone. I actually say opposite ie some kids struggle in these tests and thatā€™s a big handicap. My two nieces struggled with standardized tests and caused lot of stress. On the other hand, most who got BSMD admissions have near perfect scores and my comment was that those will do fine MCAT and traditional path since they have been thru the process already. They are like reapplicants :relaxed:

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Anyone received acceptance from CUNY? They had interviews 2 weeks back.

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@texaspg Agree with most things said and thanks for the statistics. I will add a few things here ā€¦

So it is not true that all or most kids who get admission to BSMD with very high SAT/ACT will do good on the MCAT. I have seen literally mannny who have not been able to do well in spite of getting a very high SAT/ACT score. ( I dont consider 508-511 as good for those kids). They would have struggled (maybe gotten into a med school or maybe not who knows) through the traditional path but in no way would it have been a cakewalk.

SAT and MCAT are two very different types of testsā€¦ The level of critical reasoning, quick thinking, maturity, time management and stamina reqd for the MCAT is very high in comparison to the SAT/ACT or even other grad schools standardized tests.

The most important factor that texaspg did not cover is the fact of uncertainty. The uncertainty and gap years and stress through the traditional route is a bit too much for many applicants.

Traditional path is always an option and many of the bsmd kids may be able to get inā€¦ but even for very bright kids (especially for ORMs) it is still a bit uncertain and stressful even with very high SAT scores and that is why most kids choose bsmd paths if they get an opportunity. Some kids in traditional route may get in without gap years also however as @novicedad had given stats some time back, the %age of kids these days getting in without gap years is not very high. (I dont remember the exact number but it was like only 1/3rd or so get in without gao yearsā€¦ pls dont quote me on that lol). Some kids may want ivy or tier 1 experiences or may be confident of the MCAT/GPA but still the certainty (or let us say almost certainty) makes BSMD very alluring to many kids.

Also many people here say that the BSMD route is very expensive as compared to the traditional route. That is also not true in all cases. The traditional route is cheaper ONLY if both the undergrad and med school is INSTATE or if u get a substantial scholarship for either one or both. None of these possibilities is easy.

Most kids here who get BSMD prefer to take it although there are some exceptions every year for their own personal reasons.
Again traditional route is very much a possibility but when people get in a good BSMD (again that is also subjective lol) it is very difficult not to give it ample thought for the reasons mentioned above.

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Can you please DM me, looking for some advice

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Life is full of uncertainties. You need to know your strengths/weaknesses/risk tolerance/ability to handle stress before deciding which path to take. Stats frequently mentioned by BSMD advocates means nothing if you canā€™t assess yourself or your kid accurately.

Kids like my son didnā€™t not give up BSMD for for personal reasons, they felt they can do better and proved themselves.

Life is always full of uncertainties. But if there is some path which is a bit more certain why not? Why not if you can remove some uncertainties? Your son did what he wanted to. Good for him!! Thinking he can do better and wanting to prove himself is also a personal reason btw lol

Most kids on this forum who get into BSMD have chosen BSMD (most, not all)ā€¦ Obviously there is a reason. People want to remove as many uncertainties as they can!

The people who try to get into BSMDs try to remove that uncertainty as much as possible. Nothing wrong with that!! I think thatā€¦ like most people hereā€¦ the advantages that BSMDs provide are very hard to resist!! Ofcourse ultimately it is each personā€™s own personal decision!!

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