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

That’s true but most of them end up getting into low tier residency programs or primary care only. However once they finish they make same money as any other residents. I do agree that education system is messed up with wrong prorities.

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AP/IB courses from most schools are no way comparable to good college courses. Those credits were meant for people who wants to save money but not to cut college education. As I said before my DS didn’t use AP/IB credits for science even though he went to a very good IB school and medaled nationally in science competitions.

Not sure if it makes sense to discuss on the stats now that the program is discontinued. But anyway these are the snapshots from a particular batch in the program, well of a decent sized subset actually, who were close enough to share their stats with each other. Though may not be appropriate to reveal, taking the liberty to do so since the kids are well past that stage now.

The requirements of the program few years back was a 3.2 gpa (think grading was harder back then with Cs being given generously in sciences) and 80% ile in MCAT. Guess the gpa has been raised to 3.5 since then while MCAT requirement remained the same. Guess the same must be true for their EAP/MMEDIC program now, but is meant to be just a guide line (like for example Penn State’s BS/MD having a 1400 SAT or something like requirement to apply)

For the above mentioned subset that I happened to know/learn about, the gpas ranged from 3.8 to 3.97 - the highest from within this group, but not necessarily the top of the batch. Suspect at least a couple of them in the batch would have had 4.0s. The MCAT for this set ranged from 95-100% ile with an average around 520 (with rounding). The percentage of those who got the medical school’s dean’s scholarship for incoming class from this batch (not subset) must be twice or more than that of the overall med class’s, given irrespective of which pathway the students were coming from (though the amount wasn’t significant since they don’t have an endowment from some billionaire). Few of them could have easily opted out of the program with these stats after sophomore year and finished the undergrad in 3 years while simultaneously pursuing med school applications else where. But no one did. I infact offered child to do the same pursuing our in state med school with excellent reputation (not by some rankings site though) and offered to give the cost savings. But it was turned down without a second thought. The entire batch found themselves matriculating into BUSM. There was a 10% attrition though, more because of gpa and/or health issues.

Some time in beginning of sophomore year, the batch was informed of both MD/PhD and defense program options entitling them to a free ride at med school and possibly with stipend. But only one student chose to apply for the MD/PhD and did get in. S/he is in the PhD portion right now.

Hope this helps if it even matters.

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@rk2017 Thank you! What a smart group. The caliber of BSMD students in general are incredible.

@texaspg Thank you!. I did and i also was able to get in touch with one of the parents. Thanks for all the support!

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Question on BU current students - what are the rules on applying out? I am wondering if the average of these students were in 3.8+ and 520, why are they staying back?

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Good Question. I sincerely doubt those stats :slight_smile:

You should see the caliber of students who get into T20 schools thru Traditional path. Lot of those don’t have opportunities in HS.

@jjung111 - By all means, you should look at every source/link but not depend on it 100%. Take it with a grain of salt. I expect the stats to change every year. These do not remain constant.

For your student to succeed, they need to have above average GPA and MCAT so they are in the top 30 of their class. With this approach , they can succeed at SLU or other MD/DO program

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Thats what happens routinely with Rice Baylor kids. They have extremely high GPAs at Rice because Rice gives out A+s and end up in t10 (Baylor is already t20).

BU is known for grade deflation and I know for sure to get 100th MCAT percentile you need to spend sometime and there is no incentive for BU kids to do it given low requirements. I can see one or two achieving but not majority as claimed.

I kept wondering why the percentiles seem to be different everytime I check for MCAT. Turns out they have been renumbering the equivalencies for each year since MCAT2015 started. 80%ile has been steadily going up - 508, 509, 510, 511 and wonder what the score needed will be in 3-4 years for the 80%ile that a lot of the schools seem to be asking for.

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Yes, just before DS took MCAT , 524 become 100th percentile and he was able to achieve that.

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523 was 100%ile until April 2018.

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@Vicky2019 Yes, thank you. The BSMD world is very new to me and it’s like a world of its own I’m finding out. I do have to take some info out in the World Wide Web with a grain of salt. A lot of it seems shrouded in mystery! Thankful for this forum!

And wow on the rise of average MCAT scores! Are students just getting smarter each year or what?

@rk2017
Just curious, is BU giving out BS degree by 3rd year? or they give in 4th year for students in the 7 year SMED BSMD program? I vaguely remember they do summer courses to finish up their BS course load, correct?

@texaspg
Do the AdComs encourage/like applicants with 3 year BS degree with no gap year, besides them having near perfect GPA and 520 ish MCAT scores? I am particularly talking about T10s…In addition, what benefit BU SMED students will get by applying out, them knowing that BU Medical School is already at 32nd rank? Plus folks do not care about prestige and or rankings or don’t want to go through a stressful apply-out application process, why do they have to apply out in the first place? Maybe the same reason why they decided to stay back at BU.

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My D is SMED and going to BUSM with Dean’s Scholarship, undergraduate GPA is >3.9 and MCT percentile is 99. Couple of her friends also in the same range.

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I can 100% believe few getting 100th percentile GPA and MCAT but not majority my friend claims.

What’s the financial package for Dean’s scholarship?

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@cheer2021 My personal theory on that based on people who applied out that I know personally - some of the people who attend the combined programs (many are brilliant) feel shortchanged in terms of their potential and believe they should have attended much higher caliber undergrad and therefore much higher med school to go with it. I liked the way PLME and HPME were designed with no need for MCAT and HPME allowed the people to take their own time (3, 4, 5 or whatever years before entering medicine but it is gone). However, many current programs require MCAT which means if someone does well and scores a 524, they should explore other options.

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