Sounds good! I am currently filling out the extracurricular section on the common app, and since I have quite a lot of high-tier extracurriculars (4x research opportunities, with first-author pubs and a poster and a potential international conference presentation + a non-profit), I am having quite a hard time sorting them. Therefore, I decided to truncate my volunteering opportunities in one slot with hospital volunteering and non-profit organization volunteering, and I completed another slot for shadowing and EMT opportunities.
Would this be okay? Should I transfer some of this into the âadditional informationâ section? Would this look too tacky/conceited for college AOs reading my application? Please advise!
For AP Psych - drop this from college application. Its no where in the transcript.
However, for AP US History will show up in your transcript and adcom will wonder why you didnât take the AP exam or guess that you probably got a lower score! So, sending it is still ok. Atleast it will show that you are strong in STEM but are not afraid of taking history AP exam!
@I_Love_BSMD - As @NoviceDad mentioned you have only 10 slots for ECs. Just pick top 10 ECs which are most important and meaningful. You can attach your 1-2 page resume to your application as well.
Donât make it confusing for the adcoms by combining two-three related ECs in the same field.
One option - Choose only medically related ECs for BS/MD applications
Second option - For non BS/MD applications, Choose unique ECs that shows that you are a well rounded student. For example, instead of 4 different research projects, pick the most important 1-2 research projects with first author publication, etc.
What kind of committee letter you recommends?
Are those from academic committee and Research committee from college or pre medical activity like volunteer and/or club activity committee?
Each college has a Prehealth Committee. There should be a process to request the Committee Package. What goes into the package is a set of letters of recommendation from academic and research professors (I donât know if clinical jobs/volunteer would go here too). The Prehealth Committee takes information from the applications and LORs and compile its own summation. Applications for the committee letters are usually due in the fall semester of the year prior to the med school application cycle.
Not sure why this question is in BS/MD/DO since there are no committee letters involved.
@thumper1 is right. I had two Ds go through the process and oneâs school does committee letters and otherâs school didnt. It reflects badly on the student who does not get a committee letter from a school which issues them because they are known to withold them from students who they dont believe will make the cut.
If not all colleges have committee letters then it would be unfair for those who go to those schools when itâs time for them to apply to med school because there are still 40-50 schools preferring committee letters over individual LORs.
If you google âmed schools prefer committee letters,â youâll see a lot. NYU is one of them. Since my son didnât consider applying out until after his MCAT score came back. Since the cost going to NYU wonât be much more than Baylor and it has a new 3-year MD program that matches early, he considered applying out to NYU. However, after discussing with his prehealth advisor, he realized that not having a committee letter would put him at a disadvantage, he decided against applying out.
I think itâs a valid question about committee letters. Students preparing to apply to BSMD programs should also understand the traditional application process to make informed decision when it comes time to choose which colleges to apply to and which to attend at the end. It looks like as more people apply to BSMD, more will end up with either not getting acceptances or getting accepted to program they donât have as much interest in as other non BSMD undergrad porgrams.
These schools prefer committee letters from the colleges *that offer committee lettersâ. Medical schools cant require committee letters from undergrad schools that donât give them!
Agree w/thumper1. Students who come from undergrads that donât offer committee letters are not disadvantaged when it comes to applying to med schools that âpreferâ committee letters. If that were true then no students from public universities would ever accepted to med school since public Us generally donât offer committee letters.
And the contents of a committee letter varies by school. Some are âpacketâ letters which just attach LORs from the studentâs recommenders without any comments. Some are summary letters which are written by the HP committee the excerpt quotes from the the studentâs recommenders. Some are written solely by the committee itself. Some have still other formats.
The biggest difference is that most committee letters rank/stratify students by achievement/strength of application compared to other students applying from that same undergrad.
Med schools know which undergrads offer committee letters and which do not. Not having a committee letter from an undergrad that offers can be viewed as a red flag by adcomms. But even applying without a committee letter from a school that offers one doesnât doom an applicant so long as they have a good explanation about why they donât. (Like an alumni applicant who canât come back to campus for a required in person interview with the committee. Or an alumni applicant who has taken post- grad coursework elsewhere.)
I am currently talking to a very very very high stat student from UT Austin who has interviews from Columbia, Yale, NYU, Chicago among others this cycle. I got a confirmation that UT Austin does not have a committee letter.
Unless you are applying out, it is a moot point for BS/MD students.
And if you are opting for the traditional route, I doubt a college having committee letters or not will not be among the top 5 factors one choose an undergrad college.
My DS is 2024 BS/MD applicant, his SAT score is not perfect (1600) score and we read that UPITT BS MD program needs perfect scores.
His GPA is good(4 UW) and recommendations and essays will ok, his EC and awards and volunteer and shadowing hours etc are decent , but nothing extraordinary âŠ
We are Asian and if there is no chance for UPITT due to SAT, ( he got 1540+) , will try another school.
Thank you all