After seeing NU Feinberg, I am wondering why these talented kids are trying to attend lowly schools through BSMD instead of taking traditional path… just for assurance? Costly price… Difference between NJMS and looks like diff between super 8 and 5 star…
??? Diff between NJMS and NU
@bsmdchat20 , I have not heard anything from Njms either
@mahikesh Maybe these talented kids understand that what a school looks like isn’t what matters, or that there is no such thing as a “lowly” US medical school. Maybe they understand that the acceptance rate for all US med schools is in the very low single digits. Maybe they really want to practice medicine more than they want a prestigious alma matter.
I believe Feinberg school of medicine has an acceptance rate of about 6%. Thats close to Harvard’s rate.
Maybe it would better not to denigrate schools that other people here would be delighted to attend.
@gallentjill ok. . I was under the same opinion. I didn’t do any college visits prior to any interviews… I just got loud with my thoughts… please bear with me.
@diaash Thanks for the reply!
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… diff between super 8 and 5 star…
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lol … don’t know how you got those two phrases up there. Super 8 does have a super in it 
If I may weigh in, and to repeat myself, most of the programs, if not all, offering BA/BS/MD are good. Kids will do just fine going anywhere. This includes some of the often attacked brand names like SLU, Drexel, UMKC … whatever. As long as the kids stay motivated and matured and stay the course that got them into these programs.
If you have multiple choices of programs you have the option to debate which one to attend, if not, no point debating. It comes down to either that one school or traditional path. No right or wrong approaches there either.
Most of these programs offer price breaks for undergrad one way or the other. Such as in state tuition, partial or full rides, regional fee tiers etc. So not bad deal that way. Imagine a kid going to an Ivy or similar (most likely paying in full) with a major in say biochemistry or neuroscience or classical biology and not being able to maintain high stats there due to the intense competition and regretting later. Also the cost associated with gap year(s) if any. Also, I think one often unmentioned factor which I brought up earlier is, getting into a med school is just the beginning. You have to do the same grind all over again, may be even more intensely, may be even risking a burn out in the process, to get into a good residency of your choice and school/location. Having a relatively stress free undergrad and guaranteed route is likely to lessen this burden significantly I feel.
Kids and parents who seem to get multiple choices of programs seem to take into consideration variety of factors such as the school location, the choice of undergrad curriculum they can pursue, facilities, the overall undergrad experience and of course financial affordability. Multiple kids we have known having such choices chose not to take the full rides and go with the more branded names (I am not naming them here since folks seem to have taken offence to that recently). But that is their personal and family decisions/choices.
@Mahikesh @gallentjill @rk2017
I am re-producing my post # 1271 here. You may also want to refer to my posts # 1759 and # 2778:
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Please note < 5% of all medical school students come through the BS/MD route.
However, we must guard against one important thought-process - “If you can get an admission to Ivy-league undergrad then you can surely get admission into the “top ranked” medical school.”
Most general folks are unfamiliar with the medical school admissions process and therefore they can get into the above thought process. Many years ago, I was in one of those folks. But since then I have become wiser.
Yes, with good grades, great MCAT score (>515), a resume complete with research, shadowing, volunteer and other factors, will get you a medical school admission. It may or may not be the same “Ivy-league kind” of schools.
To get into extremely competitive “top ranked Ivy-league kind” medical school, I have seen top-ranked students take 1 to 3 drop years to build their resume. And live through anxiety. And finally select a not-so-top-ranked medical school. I know of cases where folks declined BS/MD from HPME, PSU/Jeff, Case, Temple, and others and went to Ivy-league undergrad. During the regular med cycle, they had great MCAT scores (>98 percentiles), great GPAs, and they would have accepted admissions from these same colleges without a second thought but had to settle for their “safety” programs.
If we think the current BS/MD cycle is stressful and unpredictable, the med school process is even more so.
Also, note - there about ~130 medical schools in US. The “top half” ranked schools are more-or-less equally good if you compare their residency match list.
Also, Medicare (and insurance companies) pays you the same whether you graduated from Harvard or Hofstra.
So what we told our D is that if you are dead-sure you want to do medicine, focus on getting into a BS/MD program.
Any update on NU Hpme interviews received so far?
@Mimic17 all hpme invites have been sent
How many candidates here got Hpme interviews ?
@Mahikesh Are you back from your DD’s HPME interview?
How did it go?
@curlyfries , yes… My D told me that interviews went well… They tried to know about her more… another interesting fact is that many kids whoever were there hardly got very few interviews… for some, this is the only interview…
@NoviceDad HPME students were talking about NU programs and their friends who were taking MCAT who are in normal route… many got 520+ easily without much preparation because of their course structure and teaching… it should be applicable for top 25 undergrad schools…
@Mahikesh
The cases I am referring to had MCAT scores > 99.7 percentile.
MCAT is only one criteria in the overall scheme of things.
Darn, just realized @NoviceDad beat me on that by a minute :-), nevertheless this is what I had typed up before hitting the button:
MCAT is just part of the puzzle. Not too long I mentioned about this Cornell undergrad who went to UCF for med school (but nevertheless in a top residency now). Wouldn’t be too surprised if he too had a 99% ile in MCAT. But with a gpa of 3.2-3.3 (not talking about that particular student here), 520+ MCAT most likely won’t land in one’s desired destination (as @NoviceDad rightly mentioned with examples). I don’t know enough about NU so can’t comment about that here. In general, the higher the competitive the undergrad school is, the tougher for one to stand out amongst such distinguished student body.
@rk2017 @NoviceDad I clearly get your point… but we always try to compare bottom of the top schools against top 20% of the average schools… I had a UChicago medical student sat next to me in flight. He got both NU and UChicago and he did his undergrad from UChicago… Sorry, my perception has completely changed after seeing NU…
I felt that kids who didn’t get any interviews or getting rejections has a much bigger door to open if they execute it right… luck favors only brave or who take chances :;
@Mahikesh
The cases I mentioned had GPA of >3.8, some 4.0
Clearly these were not bottom of the class kids.
We all have our perspectives.
So what was ur perception on NU after interview?
@Mahikesh - while i do see your point ("luck favors only brave or who take chances), i have to say i tend to agree with @novicenugget and @rk2017 . it’s definitely a gamble and that’s what the BS-MD programs offer, a little bit of security in exchange for foregoing certain ‘glamour medical schools’. i do believe that a great majority of those who are accepted and do attend a BS-MD program would be able to get into a medical school via the traditional route. however, by no means is it guaranteed or that it would necessary lead to a ‘top-ranked’ medical school.
we have many in our family pursue medicine via different routes. i went the traditional route. my wife did the BS-MD program at RPI-AMC (foregoing an IVY League school) when it was a 6 year program (yes, that’s what it was back in the day). her sister decided to take a chance and forego the combined program and attend columbia university. her GPA was not ideal. she ended up taking a couple of years off (research) and eventually went to medical school in the caribbean and is doing well now as internist. my cousin was a genius (IQ-wise) and went to UPenn for undergrad. disractions happen. GPA subpar did not overcome good MCAT scores and ended up in a master’s program then eventually got into medical school (not a ‘glamour’ one). my brother in law and his wife went to medical school abroad and was able to return to the US to do their residency/fellowship (peds GI, peds endo). by the same token, my wife has two cousins who had to go abroad to do medical school but was unable to return to the US after graduation to do residency, and are thus, not practicing physicians (nurse practitioner, director of a hospital lab back here in the US). and yes, i have cousins who did as i did going the traditional route and have done well (radiology, ophthalmology, dermatology, infectious disease, pediatrics, plastic surgery-only got accepted to one medical school ironically).
anyway, the point is, it’s a crapshoot. it’s far from a guarantee. while i’m confident that pretty much all of those applicants who were granted interviews (as well as those who applied and did not get interviews) have the intelligence and drive to succeed and get into medical school the traditional way if they wanted to. however, certain non academic situations may derail that path, usually emotional/physical reasons (e.g. a relationship gone bad, one’s health is seriously affected either long-term or even short-term that can significantly affects one’s GPA, etc.), which is not uncommon in college, especially for most type A personality types.
@Mahikesh - but i certainly do understand your question. my wife and i used to talk about it all the time. there’s a lot of threads here in CC and elsewhere that broach the topic. interesting is that in the past year, i’ve sampled my physician family (good number as noted above), physician colleagues, and my medical school friends. when asked the question BS-MD program vs top-ranked undergrad university, about 85% say they would recommend the BS-MD route. one did say that if their goal is to be in academia (head/chair of a department in a university), then he would place value on the research ranking/reputation of the school. another did say that if you’re that good, good enough to get into combined program, doing the same thing the next four years should land you in medical school (i didn’t disagree with this, but the issue of health/psych issues derailing that path, and potential factor of burnout are nothing that should be ignored in my opinion).
anyway, sorry for the long comment. i just wanted to share my thoughts on a topic that i’m sure has entered the minds of many of the parents and students here.
best of luck to everyone here as we enter the home stretch of this BS-MD cycle.