Thread for BSMD Applicants 2019

Side note, current GPPA freshmen class, a current student knows about 20 students, out of ~20 only 3 are non-ORMs. Go figure that out.

@dd0106 My son is looking at Usciences/LECOM. he preferred that over Nova, as the undergrad program appears to be better. And Yes it is binding-but no MCAT and can complete in 3/4
Have you decided?

@NoviceDad

Any thoughts on comparing these top BS MD programs to Brown PLME ?

Yes. My D is going to pick LECOM over, NYIT,Nova and Seton Hall BS/MD. Seton Hall MD is only 3 years, has restrictions on residency, looks like you can get that only in their hospital settings. They guarantee only primary care. For UG, we are debating between Clarkson and Seina, going to visit Clarkson this weekend. Then we have to decide

Thank you @NoviceDad and @rk2017 for your suggestions!

latest MCAT stats for top schools.

Median MCAT scores for 2017-18 matriculated students–

522 - NYU, Yale, WashU
521 - Chicago, Hopkins, Penn, Vandy
520 - Columbia, Harvard, Northwestern, Stanford, Mayo
519 - Sinai, UVA, Cornell
518 - Case, Michigan, Boston, UCSF, UCLA, Duke

522 is the 99th percentile nationally
517 is 90th percentile nationally

I need some help deciding between FAU’s BS/MD and Nova’s BS/DO.
FAU- minimum 3.7 GPA 510 MCAT, interview before acceptance into med school
NOVA- 3.4 GPA, no interview

Thanks in advance for the help!

For FAU, the interview before the acceptance to medical school is a formality according to the director of the program.

@sean1111, @dd0106

Congratulations! Guess LECOM is one of the most applied to med programs in the country? Also heard some negative chatter too here, so I am sure you have done your home work before committing.

@poplar459,

Few things first. Do you have any financial awards at either of the places? So worst case scenario if you want to pursue MD on your own by applying out, you won’t end up spending too much for undergrad.

Regarding FAU I wouldn’t worry too much about 3.7 GPA (people seem to take similar risks even at places like NU) or 510 MCAT. Just make sure they give you more than 1 attempt at MCAT (unlike Hofstra I believe) or any other fine print, like minimum in each section, and how high that minimum is … The big unknown is interview. If at all I would be concerned that’s the major thing. You may want to connect with folks in the program or on any of the threads like this to figure out how iffy the interview part is and what are their expectations of the admissions committee leading to it.

Regarding Nova, how comfortable are you with a DO compared to MD. You will be facing similar tuitions and cost of attendance is similarly high as MD programs (70-90k per year typically). I know the differences are shrinking because of the new unified matching but still no one seems to know whether or not it may help or hurt DO candidates. Also check the match lists for Nova, as to how spread out are the specialties their graduates matched into.

According to a US News& WR article some time ago, the students there had highest match rates into residencies of their top choice (which may be mostly primary care though). But again, I disregard most of what is published by USNWR myself, so it is your call.

I hope folks here have some more points to add to this.

At HPME, is the 3.7 cumulative and 3.55 science GPA requirement per quarter or per year?

@rk2017 FAU would be giving me a full-ride scholarship, so I am leaning towards it. I’ll definitely ask the program directors for more info about the interview and mcat requirements!

Anyone know when Rice/Baylor interview invites will be out?

Folks

In the DO world, LECOM (Erie- main campus) has a good reputation.
In fact, Goro, an Adcom in a DO school, prefers LECOM over NOVA (as an example)
LECOM has >98% residency match rate.
And students from LECOM have matched to many specialty residencies.

Plus they offer multiple learning pathways - that may be beneficial to some who learn differently.

Please talk to current students and find out more info.

Looking for help for my son deciding between Union/Albany and VCU? Thanks in advance.

@poplar459
Physicians that I know tell me MD better than DO.

When asked why, most point directly or indirectly to lower MCAT requirements for DO. I believe you can become one with MCAT = 500.

Please note I am not a physician and this what I have heard from physicians.

Physicians on the forum may chime in.

Disclaimer: I have not spent any time on anything related to DO schools and BA/DO programs.
Last week some parent reached out to me and informed that her Child who went in to BA/DO program with LECOM 4 years back was informed 2 weeks back she can not join. Still I have not understood the full story and root causes. But it appeared there is so much communication gaps from both LECOM and the Student and the the sequence and why LECOM asked the student to apply thru the process when MCAT was not taken. Now technically the student has gone the application cycle once with AACOMAS.

In the process, when I took a glance, some thing was glaring and wanted to share here. LECOM lists it has affiliation with few colleges (which was 5 pages and around 150 colleges!) with a guaranteed BA/DO program. Random sample of 1 college mentioned it has 5 seats to LECOM. Even if students does not meet GPA or any such reqs and for an average of 2-3 students, that itself will come around 400 students. I am not sure LECOM has that many seats per year.

All that I would like to convey, please read and discuss with both LECOM and the undergrad school clearly what you are getting in to. It did not give me a warm feeling at all, of course I have not spent any time to do any research on this area.

@trustybsms
Brown PLME is a good program.

Reputation wise it is the only IVY with such a program.
Undergrad is good though biased towards liberal arts.

Medical school:
It’s primary care residency match is about 45% - it is higher than NU, UPitt, BU, Rochester, Baylor.
Historically It has had a high primary care ratio.

@GoldenRock
LECOM has 3 locations and the undergrad linkages shown are to these 3 locations.

Agree with you that their intake from BS/DO programs is very high.
However, if I am not mistaken, their total enrollment across 3 locations is >2000.

We got UG admission acceptance to Rice. But no mention about Baylor interview. Anyone else waiting for Rice/Baylor here?

@NoviceDad - IF med school is more important than college, then whether one goes by USNWR med school rankings or % primary care residency matc, all the med schools you named are ranked higher than Brown. Besides being an IVY (but how much should this be a factor does if the other med schools you mentioned are ranked higher), why Brown PLME? Easier requirements to enter med school?