Oh, thanks for sharing. Did they only have a BSDO program previously and recently add a BSMD program?
They recently started an MD SOM. They do not have a BSMD program, just a BSDO program.
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my 2 cents-
For BSMDās or selective admission UGās, recommend you to take all STEM APs - 2 sciences and BC Calculus. In addition, take as many APs as you can for English, humanities, foreign language.
Many BSMD colleges (& pre-med) allow students to get a waiver for math, statistics, humanities, foreign language APs. You may or may not get waiver for Science APs but even if you end up getting, you would need to take a lot of advanced classes in science at your UG college
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@Park1212 - thanks for the info
This is good advice to follow by. I have seen many friends get in with this mindset.
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Thanks everyone for replying to my query.
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This is definitely the first I heard of Nova MD SOM. I definitely remember the BSDO program that allows you to apply out.
NOVAās MD college is probably 1-2 years old. No batch has graduated yet, and one is waiting how their residency matches pan out.
They are authorized for 50 seats.
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This is a good strategy to follow but it may not work for students from some private high schools that do not offer APs.
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They are a flaky school at the moment giving students false hopes! They mass sent an email to every applicant in late February stating they are āeligible for interviewā when most other schools were shutting down their interviewing process. Most students didnāt know how to interpret the congratulations!
"Congratulations, you have been selected by the Admissions Committee as eligible for an interview with Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine (NSU MD)! We chose you out of over 3,300 applications! As such, we are contacting you to see if you are still interested in remaining a candidate.
We schedule interviews on Fridays from 10:30am - 4:00pm EST all the way to May 2022. If you are interested in remaining a candidate for an interview, please submit the survey below. If you are committed to another school and you would like to withdraw your application, please indicate your intent on the survey. Please know that expressing your interest does not guarantee a seat for an interview; however, it keeps you competitive for an interview.
We are excited about your eligibility! We truly wish you all the best and we hope to welcome you as an NSU MD medical student this Fall 2022!
Would you like to remain a candidate for an interview? - YES NO"
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Good to know.
This is a tactic to scoop up a large pool of applicants who didnāt receive any offer or only offers from DO programs (and the applicants want an MD program.) Then, they can choose the cream of that crop. Iām sure they didnāt have any problem filling the remaining of their 50 seats this way. Thatās still a long shot for any applicant to get selected for an interview and be offered a seat.
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It is one of the few for-profit medical coleges. So am not surprised at the tactics lol
According to the AAMC Academic Medicine journal, NSU MD program is private but not-for-profit. https://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2020/09001/Nova_Southeastern_University_Dr__Kiran_C__Patel.29.aspx
According to Collegeevaluator, āthe acceptance rate at Dr Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine is 0.82% - the average acceptance rate of U.S. medical school is 6.30%.ā
I wonder if their acceptance rate was computed after they sent that email out to all applicants on the AMCAS. If everyone who didnāt receive any offer or just DO offers, but want an MD offer, replies to the email, the acceptance rate to their remaining seats in February should be really low.
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PMM changes this year - NO LORs required.
Very interesting.
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That is really interesting. As per my understanding that public universities depend a lot more on the hard factors - GPA, SAT, toughness of courses, etc. and private universities depended on the LORs, Extra curricular activities.
In any case, was LORs very important in the past? Did they remove this requirement because they weighted this factor very low in any case.
What do you think?
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My view on LORs is that they offer a perspective from someone a student knows but is not the student themself. The entire application, except LORs, is what the student has done and is the information (including essays) that the student has provided. LORs are an important subjective factor.
So, I guess that Penn State has concluded they were not getting any additional insight on the student from the LORs. Probably the LORs just reaffirmed that the students were outstanding and high achieving. This means as you have hinted, that the factor was probably weighted low on their criteria. Or it could be this is a new process based on what the new program director wants to focus on.
So, with PennState being test optional and now with no LORs, I will be very curious how they select their 80-100 students for the interview.
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I have seen lot of teachers give students to write their own recs which kind of shows up in the letters. 
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I too would be curious - the BSMD admission process seems to be changing on a continuous basis 
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