Definitely you need to look at Duke
their med school ranking also went up.
Well Vandy and Rice are #1 and #2 happiest schools for UG if it means anything. I believe Duke has some grade deflation and dominated by north east privileged classes (remember assault case from few years back by Lacrosse players). My S didnāt apply to Duke medical but at that time it was not T10 
@Didjaco was obviously confused from srk2017 statement.
We all know srk2017 son is in Vandy pre-med and got into 2-3 T5 med schools.
But srk2017 mentioned āMy N=1 gave up USC BSMD with full UG tuition 10+ years back and his path is Harvard ā Stanford MD/MBA-> Harvard surgery (before he quit for VC).ā
@srk2017 - What does āN=1ā mean? cousin or nephew/niece?
Also, curious to know How a Doctor āharvard surgeryā can be considered a top candidate for venture capitalist? and, find it lucrative enough to switch from surgery? What is the qualification for VC?
N=1 means, my sample size of 1. That candidate did MBA from Stanford and did internship at same VC, so they didnāt want to wait until he is done with surgical residency.
Warning: long post! But please helpā¦
SLU med scholars vs Vanderbilt, vs Rhodes College
I am deciding between these 3 programs and would really appreciate your help so I can make an informed decision.
Normally, if I was a regular student I would pick Vanderbilt without any doubt, BUTā¦ I am stuck in an unusual and difficult situation. I am technically considered an āinternational studentā even though I live and go to school in the US. This is because of the backlog of green cards for Indians and I will unfortunately age out of my visa and will have to apply for F1ā¦
Now the big problem:- the acceptance rate to med school for international students is only 10% compared to 42% for US citizens because only T30 med schools and SLU even consider applications from international students. In addition, I have heard horror stories on the internet of international students with 517+Mcats and PhDs not getting into any med schools.
These scary stats have made me very risk averse on this matterā¦
Because of this situation, I am heavily leaning towards SLU simply because of that hope that I at least have a shot at an interview. Additionally many top colleges like JHU and Amherst College explicitly say on their website that international students in their colleges tend to have a very low shot at med school. This is another reason why I am suspicious of top schools like Vanderbilt for pre med. on the other hand, practically everyone in my school who I have talked to suggests that I go to Vanderbilt or Rhodes college since thatās where most of the top students from my school go to. In terms of research and networking opportunities, all 3 options are similar due to a unique circumstances that I will explain below. Overall, I am not too concerned about tuition fees or prestige since I am 100% sure of being a doctor and will go the DO or foreign route if I donāt get into MD.
Some objective comparisons:-
Traditional pre-med acceptance
Vanderbilt=70%
Rhodes college= 65%
SLU= unknown
Net price for me (but cost is not prohibitive for me)
Vanderbilt= 70k/year
Rhodes college=20k/year
SLU= 35k/year
Research and shadowing opportunities
Similar across all 3
Vanderbilt= Affiliated more prestigious institutions, lots of hospitals nearby
Rhodes college= I already did research and volunteer in the town so I will be able to continue my activities and get great LORs
SLU= has famous NIH vaccine research center where I have a chance of getting better research projects since I have Covid vaccine research experience
Difficulty of excelling
Vanderbilt: hard, since I will have to get at least 3.8, 518+MCAT and outstanding ECs to even stand a chance of admission as an international ORM
Rhodes: medium hard, since the class sizes are very small=better recs, and students I know say it is very grade inflated, however I will have to really excel at GPA, MCAT and ECs to stand out since there is no prestige
SLU= dependsā¦ I would only need 3.65gpa and 500+MCAT and average ECs. But if ,god forbid, I get rejected from slu, then I my med school chances through traditional path might go down the drain
Overall conclusions:
I am leaning towards SLU because of higher chance of getting into med school and SLU med would have been my top realistic choices anyways through traditional applications. But I want to carefully consider my other options before I make a decision, so your help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much!!!
Only 5 people are in the program, and everyone goes to med school as long as they maintain a 3.5 gpa and 509 mcat score.
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I agree with the charm, but my main concern for Duke is the possible grade deflation I have heard of.
Go with SLU as the realistic option.
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Technology injection is big time in healthcare and lot of startups with AI backbone Are expanding in diagnostic to all the way to robotic surgical intervention in medicine. Along with this VC activity is expanding and money is being invested,
Question is does a VC team need a MD ?
Was the MD resident candidate offered so much that he wanted to leave planned residency for money ? Who knows.
I hope my elder one completes 7 years as it was lot of effort for him to match that speciality residency
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Go with TAMU S2M BSMD option for in-state TX residents.
Yeah, depending on which list and what year are you using ? 
here is the list I follow (PD) and based on that he got 3 top 2 programs, sounds weird.
VC will make so much in 7 years, a surgical residentās pay may not be a match ever. One can do a MD/MBA combined program (maybe 1 year extra).
Your risk is too high as long as you are certain about your immigration situation.
SLU, talk to advisor for your unique circumstances and understand how would be played out as long as you meet requirements, before you commit.
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Yes I would go with RD ranking more than US news ranking
Hey everyone, I just wanted to thank you all for your time, insight, and adviceāit was definitely a shock to see all these replies!
Iāll do my best to respond point by point and share some other info. about each program in case it helps others decide. By the way, the numbers listed in my original post represent my total cost of attendance.
@grtd2010 - Yeah, Iām planning to visit Rochester and UIC over the next couple of weeks! I was mainly worried about COVID-related safety. I know that UIUC did a great job with testing early in the pandemic (2% of the nationās testing at one point), but as you said, I would imagine most colleges are comparably safe in terms of COVID as well as campus security.
At REMS, I would likely major in either Biological Sciences: Computational Biology or Data Science, minor in Epidemiology, and cluster in something else for the humanities requirement. It depends on what will work best with the REMS program requirements.
@srk2017 - First and foremost, I am considering MD/PhD programs, and both UIC and REMS have fully-funded programs that cover the cost of tuition and provide living expenses. However, my interviewer told me that UIC GPPA is creating a program to specifically funnel GPPA students to the MD/PhD, while Rochesterās program does not seem to be guaranteed, and Iād have to go through the competitive application process, may have to take the MCAT (this hasnāt been verified one way or the other), etc. Being in REMS might give me some sort of advantage, however.
Though I could definitely see myself NOT pursuing an MD/PhD, so cost would be more important to make note of. Either way, I am pretty much only considering internal med residencies, and Iām not sure how that plays into overall cost. Itās getting pretty hard to predict 4 (or even 8) years into the future.
@PPofEngrDr - Definitely! I agree with your analysis, and it sounds like am in a similar situation as your son. All of my options seem to have great support systems and a friendly student body. If I did end up going to UIUC, Iād probably transfer into Stats (with CS minor) or CS+Stats (both LAS at UIUC) rather than CS (engineering). MCB would definitely be a possibility. I only applied to Bioengineering because they have a bioinformatics track, but Iām not a fan of many of the other requirements.
I also found out that UIC is implementing a Data Science major next fall with a bioinformatics track (it also has a good amount of overlap with the GPPA requirements), so Iām excited by that possibility as well. Iām very happy with the options I have, and thereās definitely multiple paths to success!
@Vicky2019 @givingadvice125 - Optimizing cost/location vs. academic fit/rankings will be one of the main things I have to consider. COVID-related safety is a big issue for me, but colleges will probably do pretty well with that.
@offerAdvice - Iāve looked at match lists at both UIC (Chicago location, specifically) and Rochesterāmany students do get into competitive residencies. However, it seems to differ based on region of the US in that Rochester students usually match in the northeast and UIC students match within the midwest. Iām aiming for internal med as opposed to derm, surgery, etc. Iām definitely open to changing plans, though!
UIUC is by far the best at CS, and I did look into their MD/PhD program combining engineering and medicineāseems like a good fit. I mentioned this above, but I recently found out about UICās Data Science major, and it seems like a great fit as well! But Iām definitely partial to Rochesterās wide selection of academic programs (Comp Bio, Epidemiology, Data Science, etc.).
Anecdotally, Iāve heard that many students at T10s matriculate to UIC med school, and many strong students choose REMS over Ivies as well, so I donāt really know what to make of all the good things Iām hearing!
@givingadvice125 - REMS GPA requirements are 3.4 (first year), 3.5 (second year), 3.6 after that. At UIC, I believe I would have to maintain a 3.6. Rochester classes are probably harder and more grade deflated, but Iām not totally sure. Itās definitely toss-up! Cost and location are looking to be important factors.
MD/PhD programs are fully funded almost everywhere and one has to apply after UG. Computational Biology has very little to do with AI, IMO. Data sciences will give you exposure to AI.
Correct, the competition and unpredictability of grades are a given in traditional route regardless of the school you choose, not to mention the unknown chances of success even if you ace it. Someone here recounted a personal acquaintanceās experience from Yale couple of days ago. Thatās why you need to decide which path is better for you, traditional or direct. If medicine is a top priority for you you should go with the latter. Does TAMU program let you apply or explore out without taking away your slot? If so, you should seriously consider it.
Duke on the other hand will open a lot of other doors of opportunity for you if you decide to change your mind about medicine for any reason. Donāt count on going there with the hopes of making it to their med school. You have to do extremely well (and lucky) to make the cut.
Money cannot beat passion where you dedicate yourself.
VC and management is a different skill and you do not need MD
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Again, without knowing the details of your acquaintance (I donāt follow this thread to know all of the posterās backgrounds so congrats on your son at Vandy) I still hope that med school applicants enter the field to help patients. A venture capital project to develop a new medical technology that can help patients might be an excellent use of the elite training your acquaintance had, but itās tough to assume so and most VC ventures in medicine arenāt in this category. Instead, in most cases, VC endeavors in medicine are bottom line profit optimizing strategies that hurt our patients.
To a venture capitalist, the numbers at the bottom of a spreadsheet are just numbers and their job is to make that number as big as possible for the investors/shareholders. If that means closing Toys 'R US, closing vital (but less profitable) hospitals or replacing board certified physicians with poorly trained unsupervised midlevels then so be it.
Again, I had replied to your comment to keep all the applicantsā focus where it should be so they feel willing to turn down that lucrative VC offer when it comes.
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Iām not planning to go into academia or anything, but I do love research, and an MD/PhD might be a good option for me. Hopefully, this would drastically reduce costs as well, but without the PhD, I honestly have no clue. I think Iāll have to make decisions based on cost (MD only), location, academic flexibility, and overall reputation, as the GPA, MCAT, requirements, etc. at both programs are definitely both manageable.