Congratulations!
Sorry I know is not related to BSMD, but just need thoughts and advice as my son dream school is Harvard, of course he got deferred REA, but got into MIT and PMM and still waiting for more decisions to come Brown PLME, UPenn LSM. But if does not get into any of these and then and still deciding between MIT and PMM. He just loves Boston. He wants to go to MIT and study Computational Biology but he fears that is very difficult to keep up the GPA high for med school. And he is thinking about Harvard MIT MD PHD program later on. I was going to wait next week until we get more decisions, but just want some thoughts ahead of this as time just goes fast to commit. If anyone knows someone who went to MIT and get in touch with them, really appreciated it and hope to decide between MIT and PMM. He loves to do research also. But going to in PMM will be stress free.
Copying the famous SDN adcom, letâs not do hypotheticals and wait until all decisions are out.
Sorry I understand as I mention I was going to wait until decision comes. Sorry and now I can not delete the post as was trying.
Donât worry about it. I know these are anxious times but you will have enough time to decide. BTW, my son did Computational research (and will be submitting a first author paper soon), you donât need to be at MIT to do it at UG level. In fact his computational research started in HS.
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Which 8 year programs will strip off the guarantee other than Brown? Based on my limited knowledge (C was never interested in these), UConn, Hofstra, REMS, UPitt all allow for that (though UPitt may have tightened these days) May be even Stony Brook.
Well pick whatever word you want- the English language has lots of adjectives.
I donât know your history, but I can tell you that many of my students assume if they get into a higher ranked school, it is easier to get into a lower ranked one.
My kid got into Stanford via REA but denied at CMU. Itâs a bit wonky as the whole admissions cycle is in so many ways. And I say that as a person who was an adcom for years at a well known PNW university- itâs designed to be opaque and can be challenging in how things play out.
My point was and is- donât get discouraged by the results. Some of it quite frankly wonât make sense.
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I agree, but for adcoms at each school their selections make perfect sense to them 
. What was your criteria when you were an adcom?
Knew someone a while ago who went to MIT Chem & Biological engineering. Too bad out of touch these days. S/he suffered somewhat there, made it to state med school but quit after a year. Went into healthcare management consulting.
Coincidentally, heard someone saying on this forum about a student having exact choices and choosing PMM over MIT and displaying the laminated MIT acceptance letter or something at their open house or something 
Let your C choose so he/she wonât have any regrets later.
Hello All
We have been going through the same âfitâ discussion at home, living in bay area, we were pleased with admission to all UCs applied. Kiddo got interviews to Brooklyn/Downstate and UMKC. All along C had no intention of going to UMKC, will consider Brooklyn after visiting but favorable towards SLU. We were hoping C would go with UCB and explore other things but C says SLU is a better fit and would have chosen this even if admitted into UMKC/Brook. C says does not need to explore, wants to be a doc, just wants to focus on getting GPA and wants a school that supports it. Initially C was concerned about not being able to apply outside through SLU but says not concerned anymore. We do not know the reasons but I thought lot of folks in this forum were not keen on SLU. C is yet to talk to couple of UCB folks in premed track to get more info. We do not want to impose and hoping to support Câs choice. Please provide your advice - we donât have much knowledge in this process.
This is actually a good question and you donât have to delete it. Congratulations on your sonâs admission to MIT. It is a strong affirmation of how intelligent and hardworking he is. His hard work paid off. Your support paid off. Congratulations!
Now, straight to your question: your son got into MIT, loves Boston but wants to be a doctor. Should he go to MIT to do Computational Biology so that he can apply for MD after graduation? Thatâs how I understood the question. If he could get into MIT, there is a high chance he would get into Brown PLME. So, your question is reduced to: should he choose the PLME pathway to Medicine at Brown or choose the Computational Biology pathway from MIT to an MD elsewhere? This is not a trivial question and I think it makes a lot of sense to ask that question while you still have time to think about it.
Personally, if my son had already decided to be a doctor and had no plan to explore something else, I would choose Brown PLME over MIT. He can still get an excellent Computational Biology education at Brown via the PLME pathway. Going to MIT to do computational biology would be a risky choice because you really canât predict what will happen in the next four years. He may fly like an eagle at MIT (graduate with a 4.0 GPA) or sink like lead (graduate with GPA of 3.1 or less), in which case his chance at medicine would drown! You have to remember that the students admitted to both the MIT and the PLME programs are roughly in the 99.99th percentile (considering test scores and other metrics) of all students anywhere in the United States, I dare say the world. The competition is going to be fierce at both locations. But because the PLME program is specifically aimed at eventually getting them into the MD program, they will have all the support they need to ensure that he gets there. The same support might not be available at MIT where he is training to become a computational biologist who eventually wants to attend medical school. This is the fine point I would thoughtfully consider. Yes, it is something worth talking about right now while you still have the time to do it. After all, dreams do come true! I pray your great dreams about your son will come true.
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C has really good profile except ACT/SAT score which might have impacted BS/MD prospects. C wrote ACT as a sophomore got 34.5 and could never take another ACT/SAT as every one of them we booked got canceled in CA.
So my D has great stats, research with publication, ECs, 2 non profits, APs, perfect ACT, 3.9NW GPA. She applied to 6 BSMDs, had only one interview (PMM), rejected from PMM even though interview was great. Rejected from JHU. Waiting on PLME with no hopes. D is ok with all the results, has accepted that she will go regular route for MD. She did have some disappointment initially but thankfully has moved on with a positive attitude. Its great disappointment for me as parent, since I see so many non deserving students around us get in to great programs. I am ok with her going to regular UG and then MCAT for MD, but feel cheated with the college admissions process. Also could applying for financial aid have been a cause for rejections?
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admission process is need blind ie they donât get to see that part of the application. I can only speculate on essay as the reason.
yes thats what they say in principle but not sure about that. Also read somehwhere that CWRU and JHU are not need blind, they are need aware.
Essays were very high quality and genuine. Got a review on those from multiple sources.
Non deserving students!!! Thatâs harsh.
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I definitely second this! Got BU SMED and Northwestern acceptance, but did not get into Emory (only Oxford) and waitlisted at Casewestern. Also got rejected from many âlowerâ tier BS/MDs, so this process is very random. If Iâve learned anything, it is to expect the unexpected.
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I hear your disappointment. Hopefully, your D learned a lot in the process of going through BSMD to benefit in the traditional path. It may appear to us from outside that a student getting an admission is undeserving, but having been through the BSMD process the second time, Iâd like to share the view that there are more well-deserving students than they can accommodate and thus they end up making an offer to a subset. It is hard to understand what criteria they use to narrow the list down. However, every student that receives an admission offer is more than deserving of it, as are many that donât receive admission offer, imho.
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thats brutally honestly speaking. These are students in my community whom we have seen growing up since elementary school and know their caliber. The comment was not meant for CC forum students.
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