Hi
I am new to this forum and college confidential. My daughter is applying to combined BS/MD program from California. Other years have posted stats as well schools they have applied to. Is it the best way to do so? I have a question in regards to class rank- our school only does decile - do they look at scores and grades as well as the difficulty of classes. Thanks again
For regular MD, the most important stats are UG GPA and MCAT score.
Maximize your chances of a very high UG GPA ( A state University with full ride will do).
Prepare well for MCAT by taking all necessary pre-requisites and professional MCAT courses if necessary. Plan on taking MCAT only once and done.
Do medical related ECs, community service/ volunteering, research and have leadership positions in school.
Your UG school may have a EAP, if so apply to EAP during UG.
Based on your UG GPA and MCAT score, make a list of medical schools to apply ( 20-25 on average, include your state medical schools) and apply early when the AMCAS application opens.
Fill out secondary received from each medical school promptly.
Wait of interview invites and attend the interviews.
Select the best option at the end of the application cycle.
Someone had posted that there will be more bsmd applicants this year. What is the reason for that?
Many of the schools have gone test optional- this allows students who couldnât get that high score on a one shot attempt on the ACT or SAT to still merit consideration
My kid spent 5 months studying to move his score from a 32 to a 35. We are fortunate in that our county told all of us counselors that unless we absolutely had to cancel, we had to offer the July test. He got his in. Others in the country didnât, heck even one county over was a different story. These are unprecedented times.
I saw an article recently from WSJ that said common application submission is down 8% from last year at this time.
More applicants due to test-optional policies and no travel required for interviews (Zoom video interviews ), IMO.
More applications
means more candidates to choose from this is good for programs and bad for applicants
May be they will increase intake intake which may help
Does it mean BS MD program which takes 1 to 5 percent of the applicant and it may be .5 to 3 percent this year
@mom2boys1999 @grtd2010 @sam2024 thanks makes sense
@mom2boys1999 same thing happened to my daughter. had to drive more than 4 hours to get to a test center in the middle of nowhere. the drive and fatigue messed up her score but was offered at school in October so it worked out
o well bs md are so hard to get into anyway whatever happens happens
i was thinking that for ORMs it would not help to be test optional but i suppose for URMs it would not matter as much. Would test optional look negatively for ORMs?
Wrong conclusion! Those figures represent average credentials for traditional route taking 10+ factors into consideration in their admissions decisions.
For a typical ORM candidate, add a fudge factor of 5 MCAT points and gap years to get in there. No guarantees still.
My kid was able to write only 600 words for that 1000 word essay as submission time was approaching and submitted. Hope that 1 essay doesnt decide his chances .
Just a reminder how important it is to keep on track-
The storm hit our beach last night and dumped about 5 inches of water in our home and garage. One of our cars is probably done for.
We are all fine and safe, just booked a hotel and am enjoying the power and air conditioning. But even happier kid had submitted all his apps so we arenât scrambling with those to make the deadline!!! Insurance will handle everything material but I donât think they would submit his college stuff for us haha
You truly never know what can and will happen. So make good choices with that planning! <3
same here. TCNJ Supplemental essay of 1000 words is ridiculously long.
Did anyone hear from U of Pitt ?
Be aware that not all state schools are ideal. Some of the U Cal schools are notoriously hard for getting good GPAs (I listed few more earlier). Unless one can attend a state school like Penn State, plush with research funds of ~1 Billion annually, it may not be easy to find good extra curricular or research opportunities. Wonât find much help from the staff there either in finding outside internships and such, you are usually on your own. Classes are usually over crowded especially the likes of Orgo with hundreds of students each batch.
There are reasons people want to send their kids to private schools. If you are careful to avoid half a dozen or so notorious ones among these and finances not being an issue (will have to spend on medical school too later on).
Since the focus of private schools is success of their student population, which in turn translates to boost of their own image and alumni donations, one can generally expect good support system throughout. Also the location of some of these may be an added advantage. For example students at BU, Northeastern (with a great coop program), Brandeis and Tufts all enjoy great benefits because of the location, great world class institutions around like Mass gen, Boston Childrenâs, Brigham and many research companies in Bio tech. These are above and beyond the activities within their own institutions. All these translate into high quality and impressive research and ECs to present for their med school applications.
If there were a change of mind about going for medicine later on, usually such schools excel in multiple disciplines so the student can transition to some other field close to liking which also open up excellent career options upon graduating.
Most of these also have medical schools where it is relatively easier for their students and alumni to gain admissions into than for outsiders. They also maintain sufficient rigor in the undergrad so that students will do well in exams like MCAT and in med schools they choose to go to.
So one has to weigh in multiple factors in their decision making.
I just sent in my Sophie Davis application, and I sent in the one for Hofstra, Stony Brook and Brooklyn College. Now it is just a waiting game.
@mom2boys1999 Stay safe. Such events bring things into perspective.
God bless you all! Take care.
Thank you, @rk2017 . How is Pitt GPA-wise for UG? Which private schools are good for pre-med, and not hard on GPAs, other than the ones you mentioned here?