We are applying this year for my son . Is there a way to chat with you for few minutes ?
Thank you
Mom
@Holmes1 not sure who you intended to chat, but feel free to ask questions in public forum without disclosing personal information that can easily identify your child.
If you intend to private chat with someone, you need to wait until you have 15 replies (it is CC policy) to send a private message. You can always refer/address to someone just like how I refer you at beginning of this message.
Let me share an example of a process:
Penn State receives about 3,500 applciations for PMM.
They do a review of the entire application your submit (includes scores, essays, LORs, etc.)
They then send 800 applications to Jefferson/SKMC.
SKMC does it review of the application it receives from PennState. PennState send the entire application to SKMC.
They call about 100-120 for interview.
From this they offer about 60 offers.
A fair assumption to make it that both committees look at the entire application.
How much weightage they give to various parts of the application and interview is an unknown.
So, your application needs to âspeakâ to both the undergrad and the medical school.
Is it your intention to apply this cycle? I ask because if so, your son is way behind in the process.
Applications for BSMDs include multiple prompts- my own kid wrote about 6 essays for Penn state. TCNJ is another 5 or 6 plus their âoptionalâ getting to know you essays (my son just took it off his list due to time constraints, college physics is kicking his butt this semester and he wasnât wildly enthused with this school in the first place).
Applications need:
- Applications (to include common app or coalition app essay)
- Letters of Recommendation
- Transcripts
- Depending on school- test scores
- Depending on school, BSMD specific prompts
You also need to allow for enough time to send in materials and ensure receipt. Many, many schools have a Nov 1 or Nov 15 deadline.
I am not sure what steps you have already completed but I would hasten the completion of that college list, as in finish it tonight
And an additional urging, I donât know if you have some you didnât list, but your kiddo needs some safeties. Schools with high acceptance rates or for whom your sonâs stats place him in the top of the applicants.
To share another example that I am more familiar with, BU. Besides the initial screenings by both undergrad and med school admissions officers, both undergrad (CAS) and the medical school faculties are involved in selection process all the way till interview and done independently. The first interview will be with a CAS faculty member from any of the arts and sciences backgrounds, whether anthropology, economics, psychology, philosophy or physics and so on. The intent here is more towards general assessment and fit to the college and attributes like thoroughness in academics, enthusiasm, freeness in communication, openness or frankness etc.
The interview with the med school faculty member is more geared to reevaluate oneâs claims in the essays about why medicine, oneâs own exposure to medicine, any tall claims about research and the like. I think they try to get a sense of what is driving the applicant, is it due to parental influence, money making, prestige or genuine interest in the profession and personality. Each can go between 30-60 mins.
The distribution of weightage given to each of these interviews is unknown, whether 50-50 or 60-40 or 70-30. If I have to take a guess, I will go with the middle one.
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Thank you @Vicky2019 for clarification.
Unfortunately no medical related volunteering/research/shadowing etc because of this Carona pandemic
Planning to apply BSMD at Rutgerâs, NJIT, TCNJ as these are local.
Planning to apply few more colleges but not sure whereâŠ
Interested to apply 15-20 schools for BSMD, if we have chance to get acceptance with scholarship.
Trying to build my list of colleges from the bottom up.
Hence please do let me know in which state / which colleges usually we get possible BSMD admission for my kid profile if possible with aid and without aid.
@grtd2010 is right, only 5% of the students opt for BSMD. Most students apply via regular MD admissions after UG. Infact many people prefer this since this is a far more flexible route to medical college admission.
Recommended path -
Your kid has very good GPA. The kid should apply to all BSMD programs in NJ so he/she can have UG admission with decent scholarship. This experience will provide valuable learning and he/she can work on GPA/MCAT/ECs right from the beginning. After UG, he/she can apply to any/all medical college.
http://njms.rutgers.edu/admissions/programs_7_8_year.cfm
Kids start volunteering/shadowing/research very early in 9th grade itself. These programs get extremely competitive students so applying to 15-20 programs now doesnât make sense!
Some places the interview may be done by a committee made up of members of UG faculty, practicing physicians and/or medical school faculty. The practice is to have at least two interviews if it is not a committee interview. Another interview format is MMI used in some places.
Your kid can apply to the below if you like. These are likely to give scholarship & overlook lack of medical experience. The below are known to have rigorous screening before kids can graduate to medical school.
The below are early assurance programs.
Augusta professional Scholars program
https://www.augusta.edu/admissions/professionalscholars.php
Toledo
https://www.utoledo.edu/engineering/bioengineering/undergrad/programs/bsmd.html
Seton hall
https://www.shu.edu/academics/ba-bs-md.cfm
Rutgers Biomedical & Health Sciences/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
https://hpo.rutgers.edu/special-programs/academic-programs/ba-md-rwj
Temple University School of Medicine
https://medicine.temple.edu/education/md-program/how-apply/special-admissions-program
Penn state university
https://behrend.psu.edu/school-of-science/academic-programs-1/pre-health-professions/programs/penn-state-college-of-medicine-early-assurance-program
âOther early assurance programs Open to all applicants as a UG sophomore in any college â
Albany Medical College
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
SUNY Upstate Medical University
University at Buffalo SUNY School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine R.O.S.E Program (Research, Observation, Service, Education)
University of Florida Medical Honors Program
University of Toledo College of Medicine
Since some of these are good undergrads, if he gets scholarship, he can choose to go and apply early assurance. If early assurance doesnât work out, then he can opt for regular admission to med schoolâŠ
@mom2boys1999 you mentioned that TCNJ has 5-6 prompts, but I only see 1 on the common app. was this after submitting the common app?
Thank you @Vicky2019 âŠ
Appreciate it sincerely
Yes intention to apply for this cycle.
Kid is really late in the game.
No one in family or friends has medical college exposure.
Just trying to apply the best whatever we canâŠ
hence looking for colleges which we can apply
The vast majority of doctors practicing are not out of BS/MD programs. They go the traditional route of attending college, working with the medical school advisor at their college, and apply for entry after undergrad. IIRC, the average age of a starting medical school student is mid 20âs. So, many donât even go directly out of undergrad school.
Your student has strong academic stats. These will help him with acceptances and merit aid potential for undergrad. But you need to have those schools on his application list.
Is he a national merit finalist? If so, you have some excellent financial merit options out there. Those have been listed for you elsewhere. I realize they are out of your NJ/NY geographic region but they are all good options. As a NJ resident, Rutgers and Rowan should be on the list, in my opinion. Both have accessibility to medically related ECs. Those will be essential to a strong medical school application.
At the end of 8 years of studies, your student could very well be a doctorâŠeven IF he never attends a BS/MD program.
The TCNJ prompts show up once you get your portal access. Thereâs 5 prompts w a max word count of 500 and 1 prompt w max word count of 1000.
Thereâs also 3 âoptionalâ (which are never truly optional) prompts in their Quest to Get to Know You section.
Itâs a lot.
But if it was something he was set on, that would be different. As it is, he has applied to 12 BSMD programs. Who wants to invite the curse of #13?! (Ha!)
I feel for you as a mom! I am even a school counselor (14 years in my field) and my kid is the first student I have ever navigated this process with. Itâs intense too!!
Hereâs the list of BSMD schools my kiddo applied to and what I think are the correct dates for applications. Maybe it will help youâŠ
BSMD Applications
Penn State- by Nov 1
Temple- apply by EA deadline: Nov 1
Drexel- by Nov 1
UPITT- by Nov 15
Hofstra- use EA deadlines of Nov 15 or Dec 15
VCU- by Nov 15
BU- by Nov 15
Case- by Dec 1
GW* (also for undergrad)- by Nov 15
Brown- by Jan 1
URochester- by Nov 15
NJIT- Nov 1
If you add Hofstra, just a reminder to register for the Casper too.
@mom2boys1999, That is 8 essays!!. Didnât know TCNJ supplemental has that many. Any idea when they are due? I think their UG from common app is due Nov 1.
You get two weeks from when they release the prompts to you, or Dec 1st, whichever comes first.
The amount of work in the supplementals is why my son jettisoned it. His Physics class is a struggle- class average test scores are mid60s and he is barely holding his head at a midrange B overall. He and I both would rather he works on studying for those 3 extra points to keep his 4.0.
9 prompts in addition to your common app essay seems excessive. Though I guess it is a good weeding out tool!
@mom2boys1999 thank you so much!! that seems like a lot of work! good luck to your son!
@mom2boys1999 thank you so much!! My D took AP Physics last year and I remember she has to work really hard in that class to keep A. Good luck to your son.
@mom2boys1999 , Thanks for the detailed info. As lot of kids couldnât improve their scores due to the pandemic though they have some scores, probably they trying to figuring out how to select the students.
Do you know how soon they release the prompts after we apply?
All BSMD applicants:
Why does one go through so much work for just 5% of seats when 95% are available via regular route MD ? Understand your risk appetite. How are you dealing with corona pandemic ? Are you really so risk averse.
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