@Mom22DDs - I am discussing the below points since you asked. I also noticed that you are asking these questions proactively with the future in mind (since BU results are not out yet). I will do my best here…
@grtd2010 brings up an important point of cost savings. Cost wise PSU is better than PSU. BU costs 75K per year during the UG. The total cost will result in 225K for UG. PSU costs 50K per year with an option to complete your UG in 2 years. In such a case, the total cost will be approximately, 100-150K for UG.
Location wise, Boston is better than State College, PA if you are flying from California. State College, PA is in the central county and is not close to any metro. It is atleast 2 hrs drive from Pittsburgh and 3.5-4 hrs from Philly.
Medical volunteering/shadowing/clinicals/rotations etc. wise BU wins! BU UG college is located approx 1 mile from the Longwood medical area where world famous hospitals are located. BU Med college is located next to the Boston Medical Center.
Boston University is in the middle of the city. The minute you walk out of the BU dorms, you are in the busy common wealth ave with heavy traffic. Also, there are trains and buses on the same street. Kids would need to cross busy roads each time they need to go from one class to another or to go to the cafe to eat, for their research. This can be pretty difficult for kids from non city background to navigate.
Ultimately, the last point (that you are well aware) - BU has better usnews ranking for UG as well as for its medical college.
Its upto you to decide, how much weightage you want to give to each of the criteria that I discussed.
Well with any NMF awards the difference shrinks to somewhere ~50-100k between these two over 7 years … should not be big deal for those Californians
Another factor may be the class size of incoming med class each year. BU had gone from ~180 to 160 last year and 150 this year. SKMC is relatively bigger and got even bigger recently. So student faculty ratio at med school may have to be considered (if it matters)
I firmly believe that BU is as careful about giving out their NMF money as PSU. Both of these colleges do not want to waste their Presidential/NMF scholarship money for their BS/MD students.
In the past year, I only heard of one kid who mentioned vaguely getting NMF scholarship but was not planning to join BU SMED anyway!
As long as one names BU as their NMF choice before March 1st, they will get the scholarship from BU. Penn has the same condition too but PSU scholarship is only $3k and not sure if it is even for multiple years, whereas BU scholarship is for all four years, so DD took a chance and put BU even though we are still waiting on results.
Yeah agree, they should limit the scholarships to true all round achieving students and not based on just one test in junior year (PSAT) which hardly anyone even bothers to prepare for. None of their peers award that kind of money for some NMF status. Their policy is really outdated and should have been gotten rid off a while ago, but seems they continue to give it out, losing some truly outstanding students in the process.
@Mom22DDs - Thanks but I am aware of this. My S too put BU as his first choice for NMF. He too was interviewed last year for BU SMED. Also, my S went to BU during summers for his medical research and got recommendations from a BU professor.
Also many people probably guessed that I am very familiar with BU area since we live in the surrounding area
Has anyone applied to W&J BSMD and heard back from Temple? Interview invites were out by this time last year, so guessing some must have gotten the invites this year too.
Not sure how your C would have felt like if had to attend BU SMED after living there all the time. C hated the idea of the possibility of having to attend neighboring so called top Ivy and was not at all enthusiastic in filling the app, only did so after my persuasion. Lot of kids want to go away from home for studies. C and half a dozen other high school batch mates chose to head to BU. Some of them had presidential scholarships at BU and some didn’t, including C. They all had close to free rides at the state university with decent reputation but probably hated to stay in the vicinity.
That’s my case, I have a BSMD program I like in state close by and a T20 out of state I’ve been accepted to and like. But if I get the bird close by in state I’m taking it, it’s cheaper and my mother is disabled so if I’m close to home it’s probably better to be frank. Would I love to got to the T20, yeah it’s warmer there but if I get the in state BSMD I know it’s a more viable option for my family and am willing to put their finances and comfort above my desires. But I think it all depends on family circumstances.
and maybe I would have 
but if I get the in state BSMD I know it’s a more viable option for my family and am willing to put their finances and comfort above my desires. But I think it all depends on family circumstances.