Yes it is, and that should be good news for engineering/tech-oriented students.
Hello, I am new to this. Do the BS/DO programs that require MCAT have a particular score you must get? Also, is your seat in medical school guaranteed as long as you meet all the requirements?
thank you!
I think it all depends on the program.
@shakeel111
@moodybluepapaya posted a nice review of few BSDO programs with MCAT reqs for this fall application cycle. You can check the link below.
Check each program specific MCAT score requirements:
NSU BSDO: requires a total of 502 with a minimum of 125 on all subsections.
Michigan State/MSUCOM BSDO: If academic and program requirements are met, MSUCOM waives the MCAT and interview requirement.
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Do you need to be instate for Texas A&M BSMD program? Thanks
@ss2004
Texas A&M has Early Assurance Programs, but apart from the E2EnMed program the rest of EAPS are temporarily suspended for the 2022-2023 or until further notice - per their website. According to E2EnMed program info, preference will be given to Texas residents. Possibly single-digit seats are available to OOS. You can give it a shot.
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Just saw that Rice has scrapped its RMS program this year.
Hi @junebug20 - Long time no see! How is your kid doing in baylor/baylor?
They admit you OOS but want you to become a resident by the time of entry to medical school.
Hi Vicky2019,
How have you been? Iāve been really busy with work and family issues related to COVID byproducts. My son is doing well. Going into his 3rd year. Weāve been really happy with Baylor. They open even during COVID. Professors are really nice and good. The school has good protocols to keep everyone safe and healthy, even mental healthcare. As good as it is, we still are looking forward to his coming home for BCM though.
He was using his entire summer to prepare for the MCAT. Still has a semester of biochem to cover. Iāve heard that the MCAT is tough but watching him going through the prepping process, itās really eye-opening. I could appreciate the rigor of going into medical school. I could see that it takes a lot to increase one point. Having a friend who belongs to a 7-year BS-DO program having gone through the MCAT recently, heās having a bet with her that heāll match her 515 score. Sheās betting that heāll beat 520. 520 is a high aim, but itās doable. Heād be really glad to lose the bet to her:-)
Heās experimenting with various strategies to help with CARS. Itās going to be tough to keep up with the high degree of effort he did this summer when school starts. Heās planning to take a full-length practice test each month (Kaplan & Princeton Review). We subscribe to the AAMC MCAT pack and that comes with a sample and four full-length practice tests. Heās saving the AAMC full-lengths for the final month and a half. Probably one AAMC full-length per week leading to the test date and taking the MCAT during spring break. We really canāt wait until itās over. The application itself is now through TDMSAS and should not be a big deal. Heās already working on the personal statement and secondary essays. Letās just say that we feel when he gets to that point, he can relax a bit to enjoy his senior year before the grind starts again.
Itās nice that youāve been sticking around the past few years. The community thanks you! Iām planning to come back once everything settles down. Hope everything goes well with you and your family. Wishing your (pre)medical student(s) the best in their endeavors!
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I personally have seen at least two people quitting med school in the past year. Although COVID played a large role in the decision, there were other factors involved. Anatomy labs turned out to be more disgusting than some people were aware of. Professors telling āwar storiesā from their own times in med school made the journey seem so unfriendly to work-life balance. It took a year for them to find themselves (no job due to not having the technical skills desired by many employers during COVID). They ended up doing something with medical. Two people from two different med schools ended up at the same MBA program for Healthcare Admin. They both got great GMAT scores and wound up with 90-100% tuition covered by merit scholarships. Not all cases end that well though.
Itās best to have a backup plan in case you change your mind and not going through with med school.
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@texaspg Do you think this is why Baylor COM and Rice scrapped the Rice Medical Scholars Program? Baylor COM has scrapped a partnered BSMD program with a HS in South TX and UT Rio Grande and formed an EAP program with Xavier to promote URM and economically disadvantaged candidates.
@junebug - depends on the number of seats they are giving this program but I think that might be a threat to their Debakey to UH to Baylor number of seats. One thing that is happening starting this year at Baylor is that they bought(?) a campus in Temple, TX vacated by A&M and are planning to start a class of 40 students starting 2023 as an independent campus. They did not set up a process to select and are planning only assign campuses in April, when TMDSAS match has to be complete and I see lot of people in an uproar on the other site about the process they plan to follow for allocating students. It would make sense for example to send someone from rural area high school to UT Rio Grande to Temple but would it make sense for someone from Houston or Dallas to go there by default? Why would someone choose Baylor over UTSW and risk ending up in Temple? Lots of confusion with no clear direction from the school other than location will be assigned after they actually choose Baylor over others during the match.
If Baylor Temple is an independent campus, wouldnāt the applicants have to indicate that they are applying to the Temple campus, and there wonāt be a bait-and-switch auto allocation of applicants randomly to the main or Temple campus? If itās a random assignment, would there be a threat to the BCM BSMD students, who are already in the pipeline while there was only the main campus, that they could be assigned to the Temple campus? It would make sense for BCM to establish a strong presence in primary care in a rural location, but we havenāt heard much about the plan for Temple. I agree that if BCM plans to co-admit both campuses together, those who have been offered a seat at UTSW probably have to think about risking that for a BCM seat twice before accepting a seat at BCM.
I think and hope that BCM will operate like a system, similar to the UT system, where there are different campuses: UTSA, UTRGV, UTSW, UTMB, UTMcGovern, UTDell. Under the BCM system, there would be the Houston and Temple campuses, and people would apply to each campus individually. Fingers crossed!
However, starting last cycle, BCM switched over to use TMDSAS. TMDSAS uses a matching system. Iām still not really cognizant of how it works for the general population and for BCM BSMD. I know that BCM BSMD students apply to BCM one and done. If TMDSAS has both the main campus and the Temple campus listed, then they should only choose one campus. However, if BCM comingle their acceptances, then I could see the random allocations/assignments. Edited to update what I saw on the TMDSAS: BCM is still listed as one entity. Here is the policy on campus selection: āAfter acceptance into the Baylor College of Medicine M.D. program, all applicants must log into the Applicant Portal and rank their campus preference. Campus assignments are determined by a computerized selection system with results redistributed based on campus capacity and to achieve a balanced campus. Assignment notifications begin in April. Assignments are not assured until a confirmation email has been sent from the Baylor College of Medicine Office of Admissions.ā
Match submission deadline in TMDSAS is February 17th.
Here is what Baylor website states under Campus selection.
"After acceptance into the Baylor College of Medicine M.D. program, all applicants must log into the Applicant Portal and rank their campus preference. Campus assignments are determined by a computerized selection system with results redistributed based on campus capacity and to achieve a balanced campus. Assignment notifications begin in April. Assignments are not assured until a confirmation email has been sent from the Baylor College of Medicine Office of Admissions. "
The question people are asking is why would anyone risk selecting BCM if they have a choice between UTSW and BCM in their prematches if campus is not assigned prematch.
Iām not familiar with TX matches. Does that mean accepted students to various med schools would have to commit to just one on Feb 17th? I donāt see why anyone would risk that. After all, there is about 20% of getting assigned to Temple. Some people think that Baylor would not risk their reputation to leave the Temple campus at a lower rigor or have it with lower outcomes (STEP score, residency matching, etc). Others worry that Temple is not a great location to attract a great group of medical faculty, and therefore will ultimately have lower outcomes. This year applicants are guinea pigs. Mine will be the year after this. B2B is supposed to allow for apllying out. We definitely keep that option in our pocket. Perhaps this is the last straw that prompted Rice to withdraw from the long-term partnership. Such disappointment! Another reason for BSMD students to keep up the rigor and not relying on the contract with the med school. They always lean on the students to fulfill the contract, but thereās nothing to prevent them from altering from their end.
@junebug - Does your kid have the option of applying out? What are the requirements to move to BCM?
Rice graduates keep leaving the program to move upwards when they can. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, one of the 2019 graduates went to Penn and @srk2017 says he is friends with his son. I know one who went to Hopkins in 2016.
Baylor moved to TMDSAS in 2021-2022 which complicates their process. Texas has a process that says people who are admitted Texas schools early in the process (it can start October 15th and go all the until match selection deadline of Feb 17th) have to rank the schools they are admitted to and keep only one admission when match results are announced. So what they do is that if someone has 4 admissions, 3 get released and a school where they have additional openings admit new or same people. So if a person has 2 admissions and 3 waitlists, they can rank the waitlists 1-3, and admissions 4 and 5. So if someone from 1-3 admit the person during the match, they lose 4 and 5, and if it is 1, they lose all waitlists. If they happened to get 3, 1 and 2 can still be on their waitlist to be opened up in future. Anyone who is on waitlist on May 15th but has an admission, loses all waitlists and now only people without any admissions can continue to be on waitlist until they are dropped by the school.
So it is complicated. In the past people like my older daughter had kept UTSW and Baylor until May 1st because one was in TMDSAS and the other was in AMCAS. Now they wont be able to beyond Feb17th if they have an admission to both.
Thanks for the insight into the TMDSAS match process @texaspg . BCM programs have the option to apply out, but according to this matching process, if students apply out, they still have to choose on 2/17, not May 1. Itās more reasonable for BCM to assign campus at acceptance and let people decide, but apparently they force people to choose early. Not cool at all!
My son said he remembered they had a discussion about that with AdComs last summer during their summer camp and were told that people under previous contracts will be grandfathered in. I have him ask the cohort that just went to camp this summer to see if they had a similar discussion and have come to the same understanding. I also ask the most recent B2B cohort confirm that when theyāll go to camp next summer.
Has Pitt been MCAT free all of these years? Their website says MCAT is only required for test-optional Pitt GAP starting 2021. People who came in with SAT or ACT wonāt have to take the MCAT. This makes it easier to stomach the 3.75 GPA requirement.
Its good to know that your son is doing well in the Baylor/Baylor program. Wish him the best for his MCAT prep as well as for the TDMSAS application process. Thanks for your wishes to my family. I appreciate it.