You can’t expect concrete proof for everything. That’s why you reply on experience. No school will admit that they have do yield protection but you can tell by actions. For example, Case Western for UG puts you in WL but gives you merit with WL decision.
Anyway, you seem to have joined BSMD advocacy group and tailoring your arguments.
LOL…if you are not with us, you are one of THEM! That’s what is annoying for some of us.
This is a thread for BSMD Applicants anyways. Coming on this thread, calling out individuals, questioning people’s individual choices, and saying things that are meant to shame them (bird-in-hand, risk-averse, etc.) is borderline harassment. I sincerely hope some of you can stay away from doing that!
Unfortunately, CC’s policies don’t let anyone delete posts. The posting patterns are all there for people to see. Just saying!
Exactly what happened to DD. Case WL with 31k merit. And we get an email every week asking if we are really really interested.
No one is shaming anyone. If you go thru last four years there are couple of people who come up with failure stories from traditional path and tell everyone that BSMD is the best choice for everyone and they should be happy to get any BSMD including infamous CNU. Some of us with kids who have gone thru BSMD process and decided to take traditional path either by choice or not getting BSMD wanted or great non BSMD UG acceptances counter that with our own examples. So how is that harassment to you? Risk aversion, bird-in-hand are used by advocates not opponents. I like everyone to soar like an Eagle not any bird 
Our family had a long discussion with one of the financial aid offices. Again, this is one school’s policy and so, take it with a grain of salt. Financial awards are completely determined by that office. There’s also a level of automation based on criteria (especially with merit scholarships where you don’t have to submit any essays or anything.) Appeals are always manually reviewed (also happened in my case.) Emails are automated… many of the systems and processes across admissions operations are in silos with not so much integration between them or their actions. I still get emails from NJIT from last year’s admission cycle after I’ve declined it. Some systems are showing that I’m still relevant there.
Another personal gripe related to systems…Columbia’s student portal is one of the worst that I’ve seen! One would think that a top-notch university would have put more thought into their students’ experience.
To sum it up…while we can try to rationalize and reason, there are times when the actual truth is just chaos and randomness. That’s my experience from about 60 applications across two application cycles.
Many posts were directed AT me and a few others. I’m not naming names!
Teen, you need to grow skin. Why you think any stranger on this forum has any bias for/against you?
Ha ha, I can take it. But, requesting for some civility and maturity from grown-ups isn’t too much, is it? Maybe it is…
I don’t know, maybe they got their egos hurt when somebody doesn’t agree with them!
Again, we all call it randomness and schools calls it well thought out process. You have 2 cycles experience but schools have decades of experience and they know with 90% certainty what kind of students join them, so they give admissions and WLs based on that. Yield is one of the metrics for rankings they play yield game.
No school is perfect and some don’t pay attention to certain things or have incompetent people in some departments just like any other organization.
Discussion/debate/suggestion is not meant to be something I like only…
A truth is not always liked by others. So you need to stop taking things personally.
At the end of day we can always agree to disagree.
If someone egos get hurt,they can have more 
from their freezer…
I can relate to the incompetent part. A state school rejected DD for their honors college, even though her stats were above what their expectation was. I wrote to them and they said it was a mistake on their part. After that, DD dropped that school from consideration…
Lol…The few who I’ve spoken to in admissions were also students mostly. So, I’ve learned to empathize.
Don’t drop because of someone messed up Again not every school/person/organization is perfect. You look at the key things and then decide.
There is a whole field of Risk Management in school of business and one can get a Bachelor’s degree in some places. Risk tolerance/Risk appetite are widely used terminology to describe a person’s ability to take a risk. Risk aversion is one of the term used to describe where one wants to avoid any risk (same as a guarantee, with no risk).
Ethics is also a great area of study that can be combined with any field of study.
Actually if one takes CASper, it will test medical ethics.
Just a question, is writing an engineering to medicine essay okay for bs/md programs in y’alls opinion?
What concerns me more is…T20 undergrads (looking at Vanderbilt) going to medical schools irrespective of ranking. It appears some Vanderbilt undergrads went to even unranked medical schools for the 3 years according to the pdf report @srk2017 shared. While a large number went to unranked or low-ranked medical schools, only a handful went to T20 medical schools. I do not see this as a reflection on the T20s itself, but more on the candidate and what kind of competition is running in medical school admission.
Off-topic, my DC was advised by many (not from CC) assuring, DC has the caliber to get BSMD now (StonyBrook 4+4), so DC can get into a medical school same level as the BSMD medical school he got now(StonyBrook) or even better if at all DC choose to go with the traditional route. Vanderbilt (14) and USC (24) rankings are not too far from each other per usnews. Looking at Vanderbilt data, I feel it’s an uphill task and some risk (and luck too) involved in getting into T20 medical shools. Or am I missing something here?
Whether to go with SBU (4+4) BSMD or do regular UG and take a risk (at Vanderbilt/USC), it should be your DC’s and your family’s decision.
Risk is always there. Not every kid continues to perform or improve continuously. I don’t want to say every kid can get my son’s results but also don’t want to say he is special. Need honest self assessment is what I preached not chest thumping with incomplete data.
Again there is only one or 2 T20 BSMD programs and to me it’s worth taking a chance.