Schools stopped caring academic credits beyond certain limits. It’s all about service, service, service now.
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He worked very hard on the academic stuff and congratulations to him on all his successes. Princeton admission speaks to the academic excellence portrayed since they do take that side very seriously during admission process moreso than other Ivies. Our general consensus here seems to be that there is some level of diminishing returns when you overdo classes and sometimes they are labelled as overly academic during the admission process because in theory they could have put same effort in ECs that are more important to elite schools and things like volunteering that are more important to BS/MDs.
One thing I noticed (may be the documentation is not clear) is that most of the medical stuff is listed as shadowing. Shadowing is not given a lot of credit for BS/MD because it does not necessarily give someone hands on experience with patients. Most people do about 2-4 weeks shadowing and rest volunteering. I always advise kids to find opportunities where they can write about patients, interactions with them and the joys of service. I am a bit concerned that the essays sound like he was writing about difficulties he had to overcome and if I was reading that essay I would have ensured it is down to one sentence and everything else would be how many people he served in India.
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For those interested in medical school rankings below is the link ….
after lot of controversial back and forth with medical schools and data crunching US News has finally released 2023 / 2024 rankings
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/research-rankings
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My top three are UCSF, Hopkins and UPenn 
surprised to see Vandy at #5. Let’s hear from anti prestige folks 
List of T20 medical schools hardly changes.
Only there are minor shift except Vandy this year.
From BS MD perspective PItt is the only school which is T20 that does not mean Baylor, Case or Brown are bad still they are not in Top 20. Does this mean if you go to higher ranked med school you will perform better than others is a larger discussion topic. Any thoughts ???
To me, T5-T10 gives some advantage during residency provided they perform decently in medical school, otherwise doesn’t matter that much . To get into top residencies from other schools you have to perform very well in residency. Again it may come down to big fish in small pond vas small fish in big pond. Also most opt for residency in the region where they want to settle (except those who care about prestige).
It is like the Oprah show - you are number 5, you are number 5, and then you are number 10, and you are number 10. 
According to US ranking report Pitt -13, Baylor-22, Case-25, Rochester - 32, Brown -33 does that mean other BSMD programs are not worth ?
The value of BSMD is different for different people. If someone is in 400k+ bracket and a physician who believes their kids must also become physicians, they just want them to go to medical school knowing that which medical school does not decide their income, only the specialty they choose. They are not doing a cost analysis when this decision being made, only a decision - you got BSMD and you need to accept. PLME cost is nothing for them based on the smooth path being provided to become and MD. OTOH, if someone is in another field and in the 250k bracket with no FA at a place like Brown, where do they come up with 90-100k per year especially if someone like Case or Pitt gives them tuition scholarships as a choice? COA becomes an overriding factor in many of these decisions and people making a decision to spend 700-800k to do a BSMD should be considered as people in top 5% of income bracket in this country that they have the luxury to debate about it.
There is a lot of debate about giving up Ivies to go to BSMD or vice versa but I always advise people based on their own affordability because that is one of the foundations of CC as a usable site. There is no quality of life for a doctor with 500k student debt.
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I 100 percent agree everyone situation is different and very few have multiple choices to choose from these top BS MD programs.
Evaluate the end to end undergrad cost, location clinical, basic research, self selection volunteering and networking opportunities each program has to offer.
For some Case is a top program and for some Brown PLME is a top one but expensive for others.
None of the current bs md have a T10 med school only Pitt has potential of coming close but has never been there.
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Except some ORM parents mortgage their home to pay for these expensive programs since that’s the “right thing to do” or afraid kids change their mind and won’t become doctors.
I see no issue with parents taking the sufferings since they are all adults and know the risks they are taking.
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No need of feeling shocked of the rejections. Please convey to your friend’s son and family they should be proud of the achievement. Noticed the selection he got is better than most of the programs he applied to. So even had he gotten multiple acceptances chances are he may have chosen this program anyway.
With the kind of work ethic and ambitions he displayed so far, am sure he will do extremely well like most of the BS/MD pathway students have done in their programs and careers so far and are continuing to do as we speak. All the best in his future endeavors.
Whether BSMD or traditional path, results are based on the effort you put it in. It’s silly and disservice to say BSMD students are doing extremely well and then come up with failure stories for everyone else.
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Hi,
I was trying to locate the posts from @Orthopod.girl.05 and @privatems about their stats and perspective, but couldn’t find them. Could you please help me find them? Thank you so much!
Here is the link:
Hello, so after a lot of research and talking with other med students, I have decided to go to GW/GW. It was definitely a tough decision choosing between the two, but this forum made it much easier than it could have been.
Thank you to everyone here for sharing their experiences and helping with the entire BS/MD application process!
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Thank you so much for sharing the link. I was able to locate the posts there!
Absolutely. I chose USC with an amazing merit scholarship over 4 combined degree programs (3 BSMD/ 1 BSDO). I did not see myself happy at all at any of those programs and can really see myself happy and thriving at USC. Fight on!
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Good to hear that from a student Fight on!
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