@rk2017 Baylor, Rice and Baylor medical, all are private schools and unlike public programs, these aren’t limited to Texas residents
@CupCakeMuffins That is true. But bear in mind, R/B is a top notch program and takes around 5 or 6 people max. In general they have done some outstanding things even at this stage itself. B/B, some times students may or may not prefer because of UG at B. Also note, Baylor medical is not fully affiliated with Baylor University. R/B interview and results are the last one and only in April 20th you will get to know if got the BS/MD or not. Irrespective of BS/MD, still Rice is a very good choice for pre-med and they give merit aid but for very few students.
Well, we have had students on this forum who chose to go to not so fancy BS/MD programs (in their opinions) in preference to Rice pre-med alone, even with some scholarship amounts 
and I for one have supported those decisions.
@DSOF20192023 My 2 cents, there is an unrealistic expectation of securing even a single BS/MD admission without a 4.0 UW GPA. Please apply more widely than your current list. Even for top 20 UG programs, it seems low. Is this even competitive for UVA ?
Do you guys think Im out of the BS/MD race if I got a 3 in AP Bio?
Got a 750 on the subject test (retook it yesturday and I’m expecting a perfect score, if not, Atleast above 780).
Sadly I dont apply for “free or reduced lunch” at my school, so I will need to pay $98 for the AP Exam, which by May of 2019 I wont feel confident in getting a 5 either way. So, I am not planning on retaking it.
I know some colleges like Pitt care about research papers, of which I am in the process of writing with a nuerologist at UCLA.
Other than that, I would say I have enough Medical Expereince to make me a competitive applicant (pre med internships, scholarships, hours, shadowing, etc) in addition to school based extra curriculars such as science bowl, etc.
Im a rising Junior, and paid a lot of money on SAT Boot camps that will hopefully bring my score up above a 1500. As of right now I am hitting low 1400s. But hopefully by november I can get that up to a stable 1500.
Gpa/rank is also great. Valedictorian as of now, and teachers are fond of my education (recruited for Aca Deca but had to decline because of an AP I needed to take).
ALSO: I dont plan on taking AP Physics. But will take a college level Physics class. Also, currently I am taking a college level physcology class, and plan on taking more college classes senior year.
I will finish AP Calc, Chem, and Bio by the time I graduate, in addition to USH, WH, lang, lit, Comp Sci, econ, gov.
My school is competitive, multiple people go to MIT, Caltech, USC/UCB/UCLA, JU, and Vanderbilt. Grade deflation is also somewhat known to happen. Couple of my friends ended with a C in APWH/Bio but ended with a 4 on the exam. BS/MD programs are at the same degree, if not harder, to get into as some of the colleges students from my school are known to get into, however, I am worried that a 3 will drastically hinder or scare away the AOs from my application.
I don’t think you need report your AP scores.
If retaking the AP next year is not feasible, with a good subject test score I think you can to a very large extent mitigate the negative effect of the AP score you are so worried about. Admissions folks know that one bad day of testing can ruin someone’s AP score.
Technically you don’t have to report your AP score(s), i.e. what you got on the test(s). But as I mentioned earlier, and I recommend you to take a look at the common app/Universal app samples, there is a section asking you to list all your AP and subject test scores.
What happens if you don’t report your not so good scores there? Any one’s guess. But my guess is that the more coveted BS/BA/MD programs’ admissions folks have sharp eyes to notice such things. That if you took a course which says it is at AP level on your transcript but no corresponding test score reported in this section of common app, then you are giving them liberty to draw their own conclusions.
The same holds true for some some of the more competitive programs in traditional route such as those you mentioned above.
3.78 at one of top STEM is not same as 3.78 at a given high school. Even compared to such prestigious suburban high schools, such as Glenbrook North high school in Northbrook IL and Great Neck South high school in Great Neck NY, 3.78 at such school as TJHSST is more difficult to obtain than 3.9 at other aforementioned schools. The reason is simply the level of competition is quite different. At TJHSST, you will be competing against 145 national semifinalists versus about 20 at GBN high school or GNS high school.
Therefore, your daughter should be encouraged to apply to direct BS/MD programs along with other top universities.
Our son with 95% gpa from a similar STEM school got into four of top 20 universities along with a BS/MD program.
But I still think that your daughter should choose an university that is just beneath her so that she has a good chance of getting those As, especially in introductory science courses as I have mentioned in the previous comment.
Good luck!
Finally made a CC account… How do colleges know if your school is competitive or not? I similarly worry because my school is awfully competitive and my GPA might not appear impressive to BS/MD schools. Usually they compare GPAs from a pool of applicants in the district, but as far as I know, nobody else in my class is applying to any BS/MDs…
Generally they expect the candidates to be in the top 5% of the high school class (though they say 10% on the programs’ brochures, don’t go by that unless you are an URM). So even if no one else in your school is applying, they can figure out where in the bell curve distribution you fit in by looking at the overall students profile the high school counselor is supposed to furnish along with your application or from the school’s website. If not clear, they can call up the school counselor asking for more info. This tells them how competitive your school is in and where exactly you fit in.
So a top 5% in school ABC could mean a 4.0 UW gpa and 3.7 in school XYZ. Unfortunately in D’s cycle, some of the rather run by the mill programs she applied to didn’t care to look deeper and did not grant her even an interview even though she was clearly in the top 5% of her batch. Their crude way of preliminary filtering out candidates seems to be gpa of 3.9+ (irrespective of the school district) and some other god darn standardized test score.
But fortunately the program she was most interested in, did know her standing and the school’s reputation for toughness and granted both interview and admission.
Congratulations to your daughter.
Another question: Can you apply to both restrictive single-choice EA and BS/MD programs at the same time? The restrictions on Yale’s website say that you can’t apply to private/non-rolling universities, and if this is to be taken at face value, then I don’t see how a BS/MD candidate could apply for EA at Yale/Harvard/Princeton.
Yes you can. None of the BS/MD programs have early decision/action options except for Brown. So no issues unless you apply for Brown ED. If you apply to Brown ED, bear in mind, you are bound to attend it even if you are not selected for their PLME program which may not be known till much later in the game. So apply there ED only if you are bent on going there no matter what.
I have a different understanding of ED. Not saying I am right. It is best to get this clarified by experts or call the college of your interest before applying as ED.
It does not matter to which program or college you apply. If you apply as ED and get accepted, you need to attend that college and withdraw other apps. For example you got ED either in Harvard or UCB or UAB, you need to attend that. You can NOT say later in March, I got R/B BS/MD and hence I can join Rice now.
It is best NOT to apply for ED at all, if any plans to apply for few BS/MD programs.
From TCNJ web site. I did not understand average GPA of accepted students. It says UW 4.72?
of students who apply 400
of students academically eligible to interview 200
of students who receive an interview at TCNJ 100
of students who receive an interview at NJMS 80
of students who are accepted into the Seven-Year Program 40
of students who enter program Fall semester 20
Recent average SAT of accepted students 1534
Recent average GPA of accepted students (Unweighted) 4.72 or 100.05%
@DSOF20192023 Don’t assume all schools use GPA max of 4.0. It appears schools in east coast like NJ, use different scale.
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and may be few others, don’t have ED, only restrictive early action that @Cherax is referring to, and are not binding. They won’t hold you by the hook if you are offered admission under that option but decide not to join later, but upfront restrict how many such early actions you can apply to one.
Also I believe for EDs, if you are deferred to regular decision cycle, it won’t be binding any longer.
Don’t give too much importance to what they posted, they haven’t updated it in ages. Looks like they don’t want to give out latest info on their admission stats and policies. But from what I have heard you need to be a 3.9+ uw gpa to pass through their first filter. Doesn’t matter how great your school and how challenging your course work may have been or any other achievements.
Anybody here applying for anything like Oxford’s/Cambridge’s med program?
@cherax I thought about it 2 years back but after the initial research decided not to pursue that path.
US and Canadian system is unique and different from the rest of the world. If your child plans to live outside US, can think about it or willing to go thru the additional hoops related to IMG for residency.
Make sure read all finer points. For example, one of friend applied to UK and also to India. But later found out that in India (per MCI rules) he was disqualified, because a student must do the BCMP in 11 or 12 the grade. So happened, in his school he finished Chem in 10th grade.
While some of the concerns are very valid, the fact that Oxford and Cambridge are two of the top 5 or so institutions for medicine worldwide, I don’t think it will be a problem for people taking this route to gain residency back in US. One student 2 or 3 years senior to D in high school, with more or less a valedictorian type credentials, went to Oxford.
The educational style is different so there will be an adjustment factor in a foreign locale. You can finish the degree in 6 years. People need to take an international test called BMAT which needs some serious preparation (most of the students taking this are from China and south east asian countries) and application date is well in advance. You need to have 5 or so AP subjects finished by application date with all 5s. If you happen to be one of the very few who actually gets called for an interview, the interview will be mostly academic in nature with the panel asking you all kinds of questions in core BCPM subjects.