@BlessedSSD3Dad
Congratulations!
@PPofEngrDr LOL I have no such powers.
Iâm also having a hard time understanding all the categories. But my inclination is to say that it doesnât matter for purposes of BS/MD students. Most of the kids choosing BSMD have decided to trade the possibility of going to Harvard or Johns Hopkins for the certainty of going to a US MD school. That is certainly true in my daughterâs case.
They may not all be equally prestigious, but they will all give a kid an MD in the end. They all have good match results. Unless a kid has ambitions of going into academic medicine, they are all fine stepping stones for what our kids want. There is really no reason to agonize over these categories and certainly no reason to disparage any individual schools. There are no BAD US MD schools.
Has anyone who was âunder considerationâ for RPI/AMC (after Jan interviews) heard back from them yet?
Also any updates on the REMS waitlist?
@gallentjill _ no one is disparaging any school. The purpose of my posts is to provide info to those who are on the fence about BSMD vs traditional path (like we were 2 years back). most of those who were able to get BSMD admissions/interviews should be able to compete thru traditional path also but whether they are willing to take that chance or not is their individual choice (hopefully not parents 
).
This is one thing you and I agree on fully. I have seen it go both ways. I have seen parents force kids into BSMD and I have seen parents insist on prestigious undergrad when their kid truly wanted BSMD. My guess is that those kinds of decisions often backfire. To be honest, I canât imagine why any parent would force a kid into medicine.
@gallentjill - Simple, best base salary, no need to worry about career growth/promotions and prestige are the things I hear from parents.
Never heard stories that there a Dr among 4000 people let go by an ABC company. Interested into learning about those cases.
Ignorance is bliss. No choice is the best choice. At times simple due diligence may be sufficient than extensive research / analysis.
All the discussion in SDN may be useful only when you go thru the regular MD admission process. Not for BS/MD.
Just to clarify, LizzyM is a scoring system based on GPA and MCAT alone. So later WAR came to include the so called 10+ things admission committee looks. Personally I like WAR. In addition to scoring, WAR also was trying to guide which schools to apply. Deciding which school to apply itself is a complex, tricky and expensive process. So WAR was trying to guide. So whatever the category 1 to 6 is not school ranking alone, but more to guide based on your WAR score which category of school you may include to apply. ( in a way it creates more grouping of schools than absolute ranking)
For example, Georgetown and GWU, have 15000 applications but the seats are limited, So the yield is low and in category 6. The reason, DC (not a true state), and hence every student hopes s/he may have a better chance since medical school admission has the unusual state tilt (even for Private schools).
Also another category of schools which like to improve the acceptance yield and hence if the WAR/LizzyM score is high, they prefer not to offer the interview since they believe most likely the student will go else where.
Let us go 1 step at a time. First BS/MD admission process. Second MD admission process when the need comes. Third Residency process and finally the Fellowship process. Each process is as unique, crazy and equally unpredictable and there is much myths and mystery.
âThe reason, DC (not a true state), and hence every student hopes s/he may have a better chance since medical school admission has the unusual state tilt (even for Private schools).â
This isnât entirely true (while I do agree with almost everything else in your post). Itâs because most medical schools post minimum MCAT/GPA requirements to apply, whereas GW/Georgetown donât necessarily (else have very low minimum bars). Thus everyone applies thinking that since theyâre âwayâ above the minimum bar, they have a decent chance of getting in.
Donât people check the sites like accepted that I shared to realize median MCAT for Georgetown is 513, median gpa > 3.8, acceptance rate < 3% and selectivity index > 95 before jumping to conclusions that it either has no minimums or has âvery low minimum barsâ so anyone can apply and get in?
In the BS/MD parlance it is like assuming one will get into a program since they are above the minimum bars of > 1400/32 SAT/ACT, top 10% of the class and > 3.5 gpa in high school.
@rk2017 The 513 MCAT median is precisely why the acceptance rate is <3%. Compared to NYUâs ~520, where people feel they have a less realistic chance of acceptance.
My point is that people see the 513 MCAT and prefer applying there than NYU because they might be âway aboveâ the Georgetown median (with e.g. a 519).
Since I have brought up WAR tool (yes it is a tool just like any finance calc) few weeks back, I have been struggling all along that how come a highly sought BS/MD program (36 ACT, NMF, top 5% class rank, Georgetown) may have low minimum bar (513 MCAT,Georgetown) for traditional path?
Georgetown doesnât have BS/MD program. As @GoldenRock rightly suggested no point in making a cocktail of mess and confusing one self and everyone else. Letâs take one thing at a time as per individual needs.
agreed. I look at the website â â â â â â â â â â â â that is being referenced quite frequently in this forum. that site seems like another college admission consulting site, only involved with Law, Grad, MBA, MED schools. What baffles me is if you refer to SDN links in forum it gets blocked but private consulting site links are preferably allowed, Is this normal? Am i missing something?
@PPofEngrDr You probably meant GWU and GWU has median MCAT 511 and median GPA 3.72 and
has a 2.9% acceptance rate due to a very large number of regular applicants.
George Washington University 62 79 726 511 3.72 2.9% 1846 93.3
Most BSMD candidates will probably do well in regular route based on MCAT and GPA in UG. They probably are very risk averse and are content with their choice. The risk profile of BSMD candidates ( only of 5% total seats) is different than those of regular candidates who are willing to take risk. Most regular candidates have to apply widely (25-30 applications) to get even ONE acceptance.
@rk2017 The BSMD vs regular route discussion is healthy and beneficial for those who may struggle to decide between these two options very soon. It may not be applicable to all but still as important as all other discussions here like various ranking methodologies, residency match ratio ( primary care vs highly sought after residencies) etc.
Why are ORMs attracted to BSMD program compared to non-ORMs ? May be ORMs do not feel very confident about securing a MD admission via regular route. Is everyone after the highly sought after residencies ? Is there anyone left to do primary care ?
@grtd2010 - Well said. As I said before I am bringing what I read on SDN to this group is to share info about traditional path and not to confuse or advocate against BSMD or talk negatively about any school.
The main reason ORMs are attracted to BSMD is they hear stories about kids not getting admission to traditional path despite having 3.7+ GPA and 90 percentile+ MCAT. If you look at the stats, close to 90% of them in that bracket do get admissions. Majority of those who didnât get are due to lack of good ECs or applying to top schools only and but they will end up getting with next 2 cycles. However ORMs think taking one or two gap years means loss of physician income and doing 7 year program means they can start making money year or two earlier than traditional path and that it self covers the cost. Some are also afraid that kids will change their mind if they go thru traditional path esp given how great job market is right nowâŠ
Also, ORMs are OK with the high cost of BSMD programs (very few state schools) compared to others . I was at RPI/AMC and BU interviews and 18 out of 20 students are ORMs or recent immigrants.
As per residencies, lot of people still go for primary care and there are too many specialists in big cities.
Sure, as this decision making between traditional and BS/BA/MD/DO is right around the corner, let me summarize what students who have admissions on hands and have to weigh in as potential factors in their decision making
Please feel free to add anymore:
- Bird in hand vs unknown fancy bird in future (e.g. GWU vs Stanford med school)
- Having to spend next 4 years with the same rigor and maybe even more intensly in research and ECs besides staying on top academically
- Having to spend 1 or more years after undergrad for further work on strengthening backgrounds
- Having to apply to 25-30 med schools
- And for some, having to spend a fortune on the undergrad itself attending some fancy schools.
Missed anything?