hello @compengineer1
Did your D make her final decision yet? Curious to know. All the best to her.
Per instruction, bringing Questions/Comments from Results thread to here:
@GoldenRock, Thank you for your kind words and glad you see the value and use of the model for prospective families. Appreciated your comments!!
@NoviceDad, Answer to your question = Yes, would classify in that category
@Umich05, see below for your questions.
Que: How did you balance medical/non-medical focus in essays/recommendations? Letās say you are applying for math/cs on one side and based on another side.
- Essays: Common APP and Coalition essay have predefined prompts. Main essay talked about demonstrated qualities like Community service, leadership, compassion, empathy, care for others and global cause. This will be common for UG only and BSMD programs. You have flexibility to modify essay per college. For BSMD, there are secondary essays where why medicine and why BSMD - which doesnāt apply to UG only schools.
- REC Letter: Both Common App and Coalition tools allows you to pick letters for a specific college so you will have full flexibility on sending letters tailored for UG only and BSMD Application
Que: Doesnāt seeing shadowing etc activities show inconsistency if the student is applying for math/cs at non-bs/md schools?
- You need one set for UG only and one set for BSMD. Prior to submitting application, change your activities section.
Que: in terms of research, does it have to be medical field related? What about ai/machine learning type projects?
- Research typically required for Graduate College, not for UG only course of study.
- Research in the context of college admission is defined as involvement in a scholarly or scientific hypothesis investigation. Research may be in any discipline and performed at any site. However, it should involve the testing of a hypothesis.
- Wearing a med school ADCOM hat ā application of technology is well received but that application of technologies - Cloud, 5G, Zero trust architecture, robots, Augmented/Virtual Reality or Data Analytics/Interoperability recommended to be in the healthcare field. Small example - our kid leveraged AP CS class and wrote a small piece of code to automate medical lab test tool. There are endless possibility of technology use-case in US Health-care system.
Que: can you talk about research/internship/paper publication process? How did you get the research mentor and relatively long-duration project? Is the research project done strictly during summer?
- Glad you asked this question. If you are NOT part of the social fabric of medical school researchers, you need to work one extra step, may be few.
- Scan nearby area where you reside for a) medical schools b) UG universities c) Federally funded research facilities d) Medical Science related companies or their operation and e) structured one summer research at various institutions.
- In 60 miles of radius, we have multiple medical schools so kid started with them first. In the Christmas break of sophomore year, kid identified few areas of interests (mental health, memory loss, Parkinson etc), sat thru their websites and made a list of researchers. Send them cold emails articulating interest and reason for the lab exposure at this early age. Most (80%+) of researchers donāt respond to high-schooler (brutal reality - hopefully next gen will fix it), some responded with no and couple of them called for face to face interview. In current lab, two PIs interviewed and offered a spot.
- Each year, spend 7-8 weeks in summer but also worked during some weekends, breaks and remote during school year.
- One-way commute 1Hr 20 mins: car to train station, train, and then bus to the lab. I strongly believe, anyone at age of 17, with competitive profile, who demonstrates research at the medical school, their application will be placed in a different colored manila folder - not sure what they do in electronic filing system :-))
Happy to see that you liked the result post. Hope this helps and add some value to your planning process!!
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@cheer2021
We are also eager to know his Dās choice.
@grtd2010 , was this question for me? Sorry, I missed something here. My D committed to Hofstra BS/MD program.
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Congrats to your D and best wishes at Hofstra BSMD. It seems two user names are very similar "my ".
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Anyone have an idea when round 2 might be?
What do you mean round 2? Coming off a waitlist?
yes
Sorry - Been busy. Many asked us privately and on this forum about Dās decision.
As had indicated, she was determined for Columbia as Egleston Scholar. JHU Charles Westgate in Engineering Full Scholarship was enticing and so were other offers.
I learned a lot about BS-MD process in this group but could not convince her the merit. We narrowed to SBU against RPI/AMC and others mostly in NY.
She narrowed and had to choose between Columbia, JHU, and SBU.
It was easy for her. She is used to risk and I am learning from her. You do UG only once in life.
So Columbia BME for now. She will shoot for the moon!
Hopefully some smart kids here get the waitlist. We are out of BS-MD.
Sorry folks whom I could not respond privately.
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@compengineer1 Great. Definitely she will land on the moon!
My classmateās D from NJ 8-10 years back got NJIT-TCNJ/NJMS BS/MD but went to Columbia and later did MD at NYU and doing Ophthalmology residency at NYU.
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And now you tell me after my head spinning for few months!!!
Anyway I am slowly trying to adjust to reality- She is now my guru as I try to learn more.
On another note, I was already into Gods complex biochemistry on metabolism ( carb, fat, protein) and lipid/endocrine/hormone interactions (having background in surface/solution chemistry was helpful as lipid and plaque are these chemistries). Now hopefully I will learn more via her biomedical engineering!!
Kiddos letter said 53 students are matriculating into PLME this cycle,
somewhat smaller than the 2019 class showing 61.
Hi everyone, I just got notified that I was accepted off of the waitlist into UConnās SPiM. Did anyone else here get in or have a group chat for SPiM students?
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need help and guidanceā¦ so we are on waitlist for 2 bsmd programs and they called us to sign up for their respective orientations. we are already signed up for our preferred undergraduate program for orientation. now signing up for bsmd waitlisted programs, wouldnt that be wrong, or how we should handle thatā¦ we are confused.
So are you then saying you currently have submitted your intent to enroll at two schools? Are you already enrolled at one of these waitlist schools or another school? Technically as far as I know for regular college admissions you can be on as many waitlist as you want, however, Iām not sure if thatās different for BSMDs but Iād think not. I donāt entirely understand your concern though, is it a matter of doing two orientations for two separate schools? Because if orientation means you become enrolled at the subsequent school yes I do think you have a problem since (as Iām sure you know) you can only enroll at one school. I think in that case youāll have to ultimately choose which one you have a better chance at and like more. Iām not sure if this was of any help but I hope you figure it out. Best of luck 
Donāt quite get it, your dilemma. You are still on wait list for the BS/MD programs right, attending an orientation need not translate into getting off of it (though it may improve the chances since they may be using to gauze the interest). So what is wrong in attending? If you are very sure of attending the preferred undergrad, then there is no point attending (or if you are concerned about the cost of traveling, but I would consider that minor). But if you ambivalent, donāt see an issue why you shouldnāt attend.
Let us say if some other more preferred undergrad that you are on wait list of, asks you to attend an orientation, what would you do?
I am getting conflicting info. Letās say I attend bsmd orientation where I am waitlisted and also attend orientation of preferred accepted undergrad college, wouldnāt that count as committing at 2 colleges. If not, then we will surely attend waitlisted bsmd orientation which could also show strong intent.
IMO, Commitment translates to paying a deposit etc, usually one needs to pay a couple of hundred dollars in the form of a deposit to commit. Even after you attend 2 BSMD programsā orientation, they may or may not offer you confirmed admission. If at all you get confirmed admission in one BSMD, at that time you need to pay a deposit, etc to commit to that BSMD. IMO, you can commit to two or more colleges, but eventually, you will lose your deposit if donāt end up attending, although committing to multiple colleges wonāt be recommended, as someone else who desperately needs a seat could use that opportunity. If I were you, I will attend 2 BSMDās orientation, unless I am 200% sure that I am going to explore the traditional route, and do not want to tap the BSMD route. Good luck.
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thanks everyoneā¦ attending orientation does make senseā¦ thanks.
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