I’m sorry, I don’t think kids should be directed into activities, and definitely not as a freshman in HS. If your kid is interested in medicine, it will be organic, not pushed at age 14.
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Ideally speaking your logic and advice is a 100% correct. If you ask any counselor in high school or college this is the advice they will give.
However the reality is a bit different and especially for highly competitive groups like Asian/Indian ORMs. And I eill explain what @vicky2019 probably meant:
The parents can see that the kid is interested or is inclined towards medicine. And they have heard about guaranteed medical programs and want to explore that in the future. Instead of doing extracurricular activities like 3 or 4 sports because the kid is interested in sports and 2 or 3 summer activities like computer camps, outdoors camps, camp counseling etc. the parents can let the kid do 2 or 3 such activities and explain to him/her that if they r interested in medicine it is worthwhile to explore some Activities like volunteering at the hospital or at the nursing home or hospice and try for summer research programs and also try to take part in science or stem related science fairs.
If you wait for organic growth in this area for 2 years it’s a lot of time wasted and the person will have less medical extra curricular activities as compared to their competition. Instead they can try these activities and if they like them then pursue them so by the time the application season comes they would have had a blend of some fun activities that they like and some activities that would give them an advantage towards a future profession that they were inclined towards.
Now if for some reason say in 10th grade or 11th grade they are not Really interested in medicine but are interested in some other field they can always change these activities and pursue other activities. however the reverse is not true. If you have lost time say 2 years and don’t have substantial medical related extra curricular activities your BSMD Chances diminish substantially.
Sometimes parents do have to take some decisions based on the child’s interest and if they think the child is going to pursue Guaranteed program pathway thenIt is Sometimes not good to wait for such opportunities to come by organically.
As @vicky2019 mentioned The competition has gotten much fierce and Sometimes it is better to plan than be late in such things especially with each program only having 8 or 10 or 15 or 30 such seats.
Many Parents want to do such extracurricular activities for their kids however do not have proper guidance and that is where @texaspg s suggestion starting some such forum to help the kids amd parents makes sense. So I think that both of their advice and guidance are spot on however if some parents want to let their kids pursue activities of their choice and pursue a path that way, or go through the traditional college route and decide a career later that is not wrong either.
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Kids do activities in high school based on their goals and there is nothing organic about it. My kids had to choose between doing orchestra for IB vs not doing orchestra for IB but taking classes outside school because they were interested in music. My older one spent a summer in NIH because she felt that is the only way she would be competitive for top schools despite top scores and expected national merit. The younger one chose to live in Korea for a language program instead of doing research somewhere and that ended up deciding where she was admitted in my opinion (if she did research she would have had different choices).
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Thanks for the explanation
@CottonTales - The advice/suggestion is only for kids who are interested in applying to BS/MD programs and would like some direction & guidance on how to prepare.
As a parent of two college aged kids, I can tell you with authority that kids have their own mind! One of my kids got most A’s in high school but she wanted paid employment instead of ECs. she was not interested in a particular major/career either.
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Yep. My older one told me what she must do to get through and have a differentiator with her high school peers based on which I advised the second one which schools would want research and which schools more liberal arts and she went with liberal arts despite being interested in those which would prefer research. These are all choices kids do make knowing fully well what it might mean.
@texaspg understand the recs are for those who are considering those programs. I have a hard time thinking that a 14 year old has the foresight to want to do all these med EC’s without parental pressure .@ park had mentioned above that ORM’s were doing these programs, thinking it is the easier path. My D is a 6th year resident at a top hospital. She has many colleagues that are ORM. None have come from a conbined program.
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90% of all medical students come through the traditional route with an overwhelming majority having gap years.
So, it is perfectly natural not to find ORMs who went to combined programs.
Also, students are perfectly capable of broadly deciding what they want to do at 14. If that wasn’t the case, there would not be engineering magnet schools or healthcare magnet schools, or pathways offered in high schools or governor programs focused on particular tracks.
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I did not imply in any way that it is an easier path for medicine at all. However it does reduce some stress inthe long run and kids eho are almost a 100% sure that they want to do medicine and would like a comb8ned pr9gram, go for it.
Even here in the forum there are many who feel that a traditional path is better. Different people have different ideas and criteria.
Guaranteed program is more difficult to get to after high school than getting into med after traditional route after college. Most people who opt for BSMD I think opt as it reduces some uncertainties.
But in no way is it easy to get in a BSMD program.
Also … if a kid is interested at age 14 in joining the military and wants to apply to west point … which is a much dangerous profession with a lot more hardships… what makes someone say that a kid doesnt know at age 14 that they want to be a physician.
Now interests can change over time… but the argument that kids dont know what they want to do at 18 or 15 cannot hold ground because kids join military academies at 17 and they have decided by 14-15 that they want to apply there. Or is it under parental pressure that they join military academies? 
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In most cases kids pick what they have available and what is needed is not always available to them. In many cases STEM focused activities and volunteering activities is what makes students more competitive for both elite schools as well as BSMD programs, but all they are doing is picking an activity in a similar area that makes them more attractive to BSMD programs.
Let us say one has an opportunity to serve in a soup kitchen vs a hospice, what should a BSMD interested kid choose? If my kid were trying to get volunteer hours to put on their resume, I look at them equally but if they were in 10th grade and planning to apply to BSMD, which one would I recommend?
There are many school programs requiring volunteer hours (nationnal honors society, IB etc) as well as boyscouts and girl scouts. Kids have to volunteer somewhere.
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For folks interested in rankings, Forbes top 50 college ranking:
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Interesting list. I don’t see BU in the list , so don’t approve 
There is a lot of “chance me” discussion on Reddit.
Seems folks are active there.
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Becoming more popular.
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With the soft skills, such as writing, introvert vs extrovert personalities, became more important since there are a lot more qualified applicants know about these programs. That makes it incredibly hard to do “chance me.”
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Totally agree.
Hard skills are now table-stakes while soft skills are now the differentiator.
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Hi y’all, with the upcoming cycle starting, feel free to DM me with any questions regarding BS/MD & PLME. I am a rising senior in the program and also a Student Admissions Ambassador at Brown.
I know how stressful everything can be so I’m just doing my part in giving back to this community that greatly benefited my application cycle.
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@ramen2020 - Congratulations on your journey. How many seats in PLME and have they stayed same since you started undergrad?
Usually 70-80 students admitted with 80-90% yield Yes, PLME is committed to staying the same size, both AMS and Biology Deans have emailed communicating that they foresee the program to play a vital role in medical education in RI (aka not closing shop anytime soon)
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