Few articles about Covid impact on college admissions.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2021/03/16/college-admissions-coronavirus-golodryga-newday-vpx.cnn
https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2021/03/13/covid-19-wreaking-havoc-on-college-admissions.cnn
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@grtd2010 - I tend to agree with you. However, I went and looked at the PLME website for prospective students. They do say - “University policy dictates that no candidate for admission be denied solely on the basis of the degree program for which he or she seeks consideration. Therefore, those applicants not admitted to the PLME are still considered candidates to the College for the bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree.” for details, also see -
https://www.brown.edu/academics/medical/plme/information-prospective-students/admission
On the other hand, Brown accepted 21.92 % of their students from Early decision round. So, because of their diversity requirements as well as weightage for ECs, they can easily select students for their UG outside of those who applied for PLME (this is based on my assumption)
IMO - One has to assume that most of the PLME candidates have qualifications similar to each other - very high stats, scores and excellent ECs, awards etc… And, after offering 94 seats to PLME students, they have no incentive/inclination to offer UG seats also from the same pool of students. There could be an exception made for students who applied to ED to PLME (we have seen that kids who applied ED to PLME were offered UG seat in RD round even after being deferred in ED round)
I wonder why some famed schools use ED to get 30%+ students 
I think ED should be banned, it’s predatory.
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The question was related to what order the PLME application is processed during regular round ? Is it similar to BU SMED where SMED processes first ? Can some one confirm it Brown regular UG looks at first, then if approved for UG admission, it goes to PLME section. Otherwise one is denied altogether.
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Since there is no interview for PLME, it’s tough to know.
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Nope, one of my friend’s dtr applied for Brown PLME and did not even wrote one of the PLME essays that great and she knew she was not getting into PLME, but she got admitted to UG BROWN.
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Agree with Neither, but the premed classes are very challenging I guess that’s true for any top colleges. Mean you can still get A’s and A+ if you work hard and it also depends on how the class dose and how professor curve the grade. My son is at premed at Upenn and he made it first semester with all A’s and A+, and hope he does same for this semester as taking Bio and Chem and Psych together.
what’s GPA for A+? AMCAS treats A+ as 4.0 I believe.
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Yes not sure why Upenn has A and A+ but they are both considered as 4.0 so does not make any difference to get A vs A+ on transcript. But the final grade if you get an A+ will show A+ on transcript but calculates towards 4.0 as my son got both mixed A and A+ but had 4.0 first semester.
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Is getting As at UPenn like impossible or is it doable? I know that’s very subjective and dependent upon what courses/professors and all, but is getting As at UPenn relatively a common thing or is it something that is extremely difficult/borderline impossible?
I remember chatting with an alumni of PLME.
PLME has two officers who read files and separate them into the groups – those who would be recommended for PLME, boarderline kids, and those who are unlikely for admission. The officers then select finalists for the program and these applications are rushed to another committee comprised of brown and PLME admissions officers as well as a committee of doctors. They make the final decision on an application to PLME.
I am pretty sure that you still need to be admitted to the UG to even get your PLME application looked at.
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No where I saw UPenn talked as grade deflation school and no complaints from S’s friend.
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You need to work hard to get "A"s
If your high school felt is was easy and was like a breeze, be prepared for a shock - Penn will NOT be anything like getting an A in high school.
You will have to earn every A you get.
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Does GW normally release results with RD results? Just curious
Brown applies the same “limit” to Asians students for PLME as it does for its undergrad admissions i.e. about 15-18% of incoming batch is Asian.
This is a key reason why one sees only about 15 Asian kids in PLME every year.
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The limitations on number of As in a class may be placed by the department or some institutional guidelines. So you have to compete for those. These may vary at different institutions but may be around 15-20% for most large pre-med classes, IMO.
Sad. UCSF seems to have 20% quota for each race/ethnicity!
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So one has to pass a first hurdle by getting a Brown UG admission, before PLME folks decide one’s fate. Two persons reading a file is very common at most schools.
What does PLME, or just the bs/md world in general, look like for a caucasian applicant? It’s definitely tough for ORMs of Asian/Indian backgrounds.
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from the website:
Candidates considered admissible by the Office of College Admission are reviewed by the PLME Advisory Selection Board. Decisions are communicated to PLME applicants just as they are to other Brown applicants. It is expected that the number of PLME applicants will greatly exceed the places available each year.
specifically this page:
https://www.brown.edu/academics/medical/plme/information-prospective-students/admission
and thanks for the heads up, I will word my posts more carefully next time 