@grtd2010 The invitation stated the decisions will be made by April 1 (yesterday). Haven’t heard from them yet though.
@BSMD2019 GL to you
@collegeboundxyz Please do consider traditional route vs Drexel BSMD. Drexel medical school is ranked 84 in Research USN ranking.
84 Drexel University 511 3.69 6.5% 88.6
Median MCAT score 511 and Median GPA 3.69 for traditional route. Acceptance rate is 6.5%.
A MCAT score of 513 for bsmd is higher than traditional route (MCAT 511). Again a bird in hand vs two or more in birds argument is also important.
@collegeboundxyz thanks for sharing the information about the Drexel BSMD.
@mi2019 You can drop your choices 3, 4, 5. Decide between UM (Regular) or MSU (DO).
When you have UM as IS with Regents scholarship, there is no need to consider CWRU or Rice or WashU.
Not sure if this person posted here or not. Interesting situation. People already pointed out that the USF is not guaranteed program but an early assurance.
Hi everyone,
I am blessed to have been accepted to Duke’s Class of 2023 and University of South Florida’s BS/MD. However, I am super stressed about deciding between these two schools. There are pro’s and con’s of both but I just don’t know how important Duke’s prestige is (vs. a state school) in terms of med school admissions. So, I have outlined my package at both schools:
Duke
- It would only cost me about $5,000 (all in) for me to go there
- No guarantee of med school
- I do not have connections there
- Ranked 8th in the nation
- High Med School placement rate
- Harder academics? Graded on Curve?
- Great prep for MCAt
USF
- As long as I meet the MCAT/GPA requirements, I will be guaranteed an interview (and likely admission) at Morsani COM.
- I have an summer internship at a local General Hospital working with the med school
- I am a National Merit Scholar so undergrad is FREE and I will get $30,000 to put towards my first year of med school
- I have research connections
- Really nice/supportive advisors
- Lower prestige
Hi everyone! I am desperately in need for some advice…
I am a Virginia resident who got through the interview at VCU but did not make the final cut and have also gotten into UVA. I am not sure if I should go to UVA or VCU and apply after 2 years. I made a pro/con list as follows:
UVA vs VCU
UVA pros:
- Great school
- High ranking
- Lots of friends go there
- Bragging rights
VCU pros:
- Higher gpa
- More time to do other things
- Have more time to study for mcat
- Can apply to med school after 2 years
- Honors college pros
UVA cons:
- Harder to do well, MUCH harder
- Less time to do other things
VCU cons:
- Location
- Not challenging- might get lazy
- Not so highly ranked
@srk2017 I will take Duke any day over any other Early Assurance Programs like USF, SLU Med scholar etc.
@PPofEngrDr - You mean the national merit scholar based on PSAT one is the deciding factor? 
lol I changed my comment initially I read as NMF…
I agree with your advise but i am planning to write MCAT and apply in MD programs after premed for sure.
I think if I join MSU my profile will fall behind UM profile candidate ? Please let me know your thoughts and how the undergraduate premed schools are viewed in Med school admissions ?
@mi2019 - only 5% (or less) of medical admissions are thru BSMD, so don’t worry about it too much. GL with UG.
@mi2019 MD Admission, care less which school you went for UG, nor what major you did. MSU is not a community college or in bottom most of all colleges.
MSU you are considering for a different reason. Among the rest they are all regular route and easy to suggest go with UM. But UM vs MSU, you need to make the call. If you 110% sure about medicine and DO, go for it. Or if you want safety and still don’t want to loose DO, go for MSU as long as that program is not binding.
Or be prepared to work hard and take the plunge and go for UM. Great school for both UG and MD. Though UM may have more funding, more opportunities than MSU, you need some specific one opportunity to do research or volunteer work etc., Also you can do any summer research at UM also.
@mi2019 - I know someone who did UG at Wayne state and got into top 5 medical school. so it all comes down to your hard work and some luck.
@HELP2018
If you are 100% sure about medicine, go with VCU.
If you are less sure about it, go with UVA.
Mean time, reach out to few students in the last 4 years from your HS and who were in the same level (let us top 5 or 10% ranking in your HS if you also fall in this bracket) and doing UG in both UVA and VCU and find out how are they doing and how are their grades to get a feel for it.
Finally, the cons you have mentioned for both UVA and VCU are in your control. That is not a good way to succeed. Because there are so many things we can not control and that already traps us. You can not say, I may get lazy or need work harder. Of course you need to do. No pain, no gain. GL.
I concur with the advice of senior members here. Also few days ago I shared this NIH link which showed allocation of research grants in VA. VCU is next only to UVA (don’t remember details, you may want to go search for it here). But given it’s smaller size, you may have better access to research opportunities. To reuse the often quoted cliche here, big fish in smaller pond than vice-versa.
Also what is wrong with VCU location? Is it in Richmond? Then I don’t see an issue. Or is it because of away from home feeling? Don’t worry you will get used to it 
Also before committing either way find out normally how many students does VCU take into the med school after sophomore year. Doesn’t UVA also not have similar program (but guess competition will be much higher, right)?
Did you have any special financial awards at either place that you want to consider in your decision making?
And don’t worry about getting lazy, if you have an interesting research opportunity at hand, you will not slack off, or the Prof won’t let you
Thank you @grtd2010 and @rk2017 for your comments on Drexel. Yes the MCAT requirement is higher than the current incoming class… During interview session they said average of incoming freshmen class 4 years down the line will be 513.
Here is interesting data about IS vs OOS Acceptance(based on matriculants ) via traditional route for a few Medical Schools. The data used is from AAMC. For OOS candidates, odds are probably against you compared to IS candidates.
https://www.aamc.org/download/321442/data/factstablea1.pdf
Medical School # Applicants Instate Out of state Total Seats % Matriculant-IS % Matriculant-OOS IS Acceptance OOS Acceptance Ratio IS/OOS
NJ Cooper Rowan 6,690 18.5 81.5 107 68.2 31.8 5.90% 0.62% 9.45
Rutgers New Jersey 4,993 29.8 70.2 178 81.5 18.5 9.75% 0.94% 10.38
Rutgers-RW Johnson 5,476 27.1 72.9 179 79.3 20.7 9.57% 0.93% 10.31
SHU-Hackensack Meridian 2,100 24.8 75.2 60 50 50 5.76% 1.90% 3.03
Temple-Katz 10,063 11.7 88.3 200 46 54 7.81% 1.22% 6.43
Jefferson-Kimmel 9,907 11.1 88.9 268 31 69 7.55% 2.10% 3.60
Drexel 13,529 8.5 91.5 256 38.3 61.7 8.53% 1.28% 6.68
Ex.
Traditional Route Drexel’s OOS 1.28% acceptance rate where as IS acceptance rate is 8.53% The raito IS to OOS is 6.68
Traditional Route Temple-Katz OOS 1.22% acceptance rate where as IS acceptance rate is 7.81% The raito IS to OOS is 6.43
Traditional Route Jefferson-Kimmel OOS 2.1% acceptance rate where as IS acceptance rate is 7.55% The raito IS to OOS is 3.6
Instate preference is more evident for NJMS and RWJMS
Traditional Route NJMS OOS 0.94% acceptance rate where as IS acceptance rate is 9.75% The raito IS to OOS is 10.38
Traditional Route RWJMS 0.93% acceptance rate where as IS acceptance rate is 9.57% The raito IS to OOS is 10.31
@collegeboundxyz If Drexel is the only bird in hand, please consider it seriously. What is your home state ? For NJ residents, NJMS and RWJMS favor IS candidates in traditional route (see post # 5645).
Does anyone know how to find the OOS and IS admit rates for various schools? I’d like to look up the NY schools.