Wow! Plagiarism !?!
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Response to your question on the RESULTS thread:
For applications greater than 20, one can use the Coalition app or apply directly through each college’s portal. Ensure the counselor and teachers are aware that they have to send LORs through both Common App and Coalition App.
The number of APs one can take depends on the high school policy.
Some schools do not allow any APs in 9th grade while other schools are fine allowing students to take as many APs as they want.
Colleges will see your rigor relative to what the school offers and the distribution of the students taking rigorous courses.
@bsmd2023 - In addition to what @NoviceDad mentioned, I would like to add/clarify -
There might be certain restrictions regarding the AP courses -
Our school only offers Honors courses in World History, psychology, and economics (without AP). However, students take AP exams for World Hist, Psych, Micro & Macro on their own. There is about a 25% gap which the students learn on their own. This is not too hard!
Our school also requires students to take Honors courses before being allowed AP courses. Students usually are asked to take Bio H then Chem H then Physics HOnors.
Chem AP requires both bio and chem honors as a prereq. Physics Honors requires chem honors as a prereq. Students double up on sciences in order to be able to take multiple science APs. Students are allowed to take APs in science only if they scored B+ or higher in Honors.
All students in 7th/8th grade are given a chance to take tests and tests out of basic algebra and/or geometry with 90% or above marks - enabling them to take higher-level math in high school.
Students wishing to take Calculus-based AP Physics need to take BC Calc in tandem or as a prereq.
So a bit of planning and hard work is needed if the students wish to take more APs.
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Try to maximize the number of AP tests in BCPM category if possible and try to get 5s in them. It would be preferable to have 3 or more in this category by the time you apply and at least one or more in senior year (including research seminar if offered) to show continued interest. The other APs can be chosen based on your interest, not just to show the numbers taken. That way you are likely to do well both in the class and on the exams.
Child for example was not at all interested in going for APUSH and went only with honors. Also depends on the school, some schools are pretty rigid, like for example Calc BC has to be done only after AB. If such is the case, see if can do on your own, I know someone who did Calc BC himself and got a 5. On the other hand some schools are pretty flexible, 2 students in child’s program finished Calc BC by freshman year in their respective (different states) high schools ! And they both got both A in the class and 5 on the exam (one of the 2 later got into Caltech but chose the BS/MD).
Also not all APs are equal. Environment science for example is never considered on par with any of the BCPMs. Foreign language AP is looked at favorably at some programs and also regular route. Both the Calc APs have more weightage than Stats AP. Biology AP is considered the toughest since only some 5% or so students tend to get a 5 on it. So one may have edge if they can achieve that and show it on their application (i.e. if you can finish by junior year).
Of course all these come into play only in programs that are holistic, not the ones that blindly eliminate applicants based solely on gpa and test scores filters in the initial screening.
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How many seats per BSMD program are out there? Is this data available number of seats vs program?
My D wants to apply to Cornell as pre med. We were advising her against ivy’s to save time and money, but she wants to try her luck at Cornell.
Anyone knows how competitive/hard is to maintain a good GPA at Cornell, if she ends up regular route.
You dont normally try your luck at just one school. If someone is good enough to get into Cornell, they could probably get into others.
Ranking wise, peers of Cornell are Vanderbilt, Rice, WashU, and Emory, all of which have merit scholarships if you are not eligible for financial aid.
Statistics show that when people get into tough to get into schools, even if they don’t attend them, they do well academically in other places and succeed in getting into medical schools or meet any other type of career goals.
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Cornell is considered a grade-deflated school.
Students have to work really hard to maintain their GPA.
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Agree with others…
CORNELL (or any IVY’s for that matter) opens door to other connections…
So if she got in … irrespective of Medical or not , she will probably have good opportunities in other areas
Look around… All IVY league lawyers(politicians) or businessmen or Grads (usually) flock together.
That doesn’t mean success is guaranteed but chances are more (IMO)
Good luck
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If medicine is the ultimate career goal, then Cornell for pre med will be a bad choice for most, if not for all. I have known people who went to such places (in last year’s thread I listed few such places if you want to search), spent a lot of money on undergrad, only to have their plans of going to medicine completely derailed. Few others ended up going to medical schools which they probably would not have ever even considered their safeties in the first place (some after gap years and doing masters)
Yes, if medicine is not the ultimate goal and one is open for other career options, and one loves the school and ambience and finances not a concern (no one practically gets merit based price cuts), then any place would be good (provided one gets in first). Again, I am not saying your child won’t thrive and come out of Cornell with flying colors. But most find it very challenging and end up putting lot more hard work than what their future peers at med school would have and possibly risk burning out in med school.
Ideal case scenario, one qualifies for need based awards, thrives and flourishes at undergrad there, has smooth sailing into med school (without gap years) and does great at med school without any burn outs. It is possible in that sequence, but not to a vast majority.
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(Barring edge case scenarios)
We discuss this every year and this is purely “my opinion/though”.
In case of traditional MD a person admission path is “totally different” than BSMD so your game plan should be different.
So, If Person A is motivated/determined to put in effort in school while also determined to go to med and able to afford/pay as many don’t give scholarship for a good college (say IVY) then it’s a “no brainer” decision (IMO).
The thing what anyone is trying to achieve is “push” you application to the next stage for traditional MD and “College name” does add weight along with other things.
(PS. I am not saying that this person will be best and students from local college will be bad… so let’s not twist . Also this may not apply to BSMD as you are already got MD so the UG college may not matter).
Just my 1c
@Parentof2Ds
If your D focus on one major, and survive the weekout org chemistry courses, then chances are good that are your D will pass magic 3.7+ GPA. Your D can do post-baccalaureate academic record enhancement program if any lag in the GPA, but it appears post-bacc can only boost up to 0.2 jump in GPA.
According to Cornell, the MD application process is so competitive, students should be prepared with an alternate career path, which may also be in the healthcare field. Here is a mythbusting article from Cornell. https://scl.cornell.edu/get-involved/career-services/graduate-and-professional-study/medical-and-health-careers/preparing-health-careers/mythbusting
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Hi everyone! I was wondering if anyone you know of, or yourself got accepted with a 3.86-3.88 gpa to a BSMD this year?
Organic chemistry is not as big a devil as imagined to be. Most of serious aspirants should be able to come out of both the courses unscathed (at least a B or above). The bigger issue is overall GPA, especially for ORMs. Gets even more complicated if one chooses a grade deflated college to attend.
The next big issues is the competition pool from within the same undergrad batch. Some of the students from local public colleges (fairly reputed ones) who just graduated have done well with ~3.9 +/- but still having to take gap year(s). The issue is they are probably competing with the top few folks in their batch > 3.95 ranges and applying to same set of medical schools as every one else there and shooting down their chances. Too bad that after all said and done these top folks would be attending only one med school each, but due to the unpredictability of the admission process, end up applying to a whole bunch of med schools.
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I am sure you will find some if you scroll through the results thread of the past few years (if not the current one). Private message them to get their take and tips. I am sure some of them will respond back. If you happen to attend a grade deflated or highly competitive high school (like my child did few years ago), but still have done reasonably well, like top ~5% of the class or so, have your high school counselor highlight that on your application supplements. Sometimes the counselors are kind of enough to do such favors even if the school may not give an official rank per se.
If you have everything else in place other than GPA, then you still may have a chance even though may be low. But no matter how low it may be, it will be still > 0 which is the case if you choose not to apply altogether. Think about a good alternative plan/school going traditional route.
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What proof do we show that the kid shadowed x hrs under Dr1, y hrs under Dr2?
Colleges trust what students put on their common app.
They generally do not ask for proof.
But If they find out that a claim made a by a student is not true, they have enough resources to cancel/rescind offers and/or discipline the student.
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Everyone who drops out of premed track may have their own reason, its’ not necessarily Org Chemistry alone. LOL. According to The Stanford Daily, “Many of these students cited chemistry as a deciding factor to drop out of the track” [premed track].
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@Parentof2Ds
Maintain your own log of hrs with Dr1 and Dr2 with date, checkin/checkout times.
Ask for a recommendation letter from Dr1 and Dr2, in which they can cite student xyz did job shadowed for these many hrs. If you feel the recommendation is going to be strong, then you can also have Dr1 or Dr2 submit a recommendation letter from common app. Some colleges allow additional recommendation letter submission from other than teachers, check common app/college reqs on this. IMO, in the event student has gone through 50 or 100 job shadowing hrs with them, a student can request Dr to give out a recommendation letter. IMO, If job shadowing hrs are too small (<2 weeks) then it’s difficult in general to write a recommendation letter for anyone. Good luck.
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Thank you @NoviceDad @cheer2021
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