@Arnkim - other than prestige what attracted you to Stanford? what are you career goals? Does COA matter to you?
@srk2017
At Stanford, I already have a lab position, working with a professor who worked with Feng Zhang at Harvard. The weather is also a plus!
I eventually wanna be a cardio-thoracic surgeon.
I got a full ride to Rice, and I would only have to pay 5k for Stanford.
@Arnkim - I noticed you are an URM and I would advise going with Stanford and leave BSMDs to ORMs 
You should have no issue getting good medical school admission if you keep up the good work.
@Arnkim You can drop Case PPSP and Yale. With your profile you can get in to T20 medical school via regular route also if you continue the good work. If you prefer regular go with Stanford. If you prefer BS/MD go with R/B. Mostly you will get free ride at Baylor when that stage comes. UG/MD is closer to your home base, I assume.
@Arnkim
Congratulations!
Looks like you are vested in Stanford.
I think if you are really keen on medicine, go with Rice/Baylor.
I understand as an URM, you may have more options than ORMs in a regular route, but Baylor is a top medical school.
Why let it go?
@studiousqueen
Yes; my DS got into the TCNJ/NJMS and NJIT/ NJMS BS/MD program.
Anyone in or know of someone in TCNJ/ NJMS program, who can speak about their experience, with regards to any plus points over the NJIT/ NJMS program besides location? And if TCNJ is worth the extra $25k a year (since NJIT gives full ride vs TCNJ doesnât).
@BlessedSSD3Dad Everybody says they get to do research at UPenn when you are at TCNJ. i am not sure how it is possible when it is 40 miles away (1 to 1 1/2 hr away). you need to compete with UPenn kids to get one.
getting quality research at top schools is not easy, you will be competing with grad and Ph.D students.
As you are a high achieving and low income URM, you can easily go to Stanford for practically free and then to some top medical school. However, Rice/Baylor is an enviable combo by any standard and what a blessing to have it on free ride. Congratulations!
Iâm actually in the program and do research at UPenn unlike some of the above 
Research is actually quite easy to get- usually half of our BSMD class goes to Penn to do research, and our students are a known quantity to most PIâs there. Case in point- I emailed a bunch of professors in the Radiology Department since I enjoy reading images, and ended up currently doing research under a famous physician who discovered one of the three main imaging modalities (MRI, CT, PET).
And the distance is not bad at all- the SEPTA is very cheap and drops you right on the doorstep of CHOP in 50 minutes.
The main thing about TCNJ that is nice is the flexibility- students can either choose to finish in 2 years, 3 years, or defer the admission to a 4th year. For example, we currently have 3rd year students who are getting one-year MPHâs at top-notch public health schools like Emory and Columbia before they enter medical school.
Likewise, we even had a 4th year student intern at Google in Cupertino, CA during his junior summer, and land a full time job that he is doing in his senior year before he enters medical school.
And also- COA per year is only 19K, and if you finish in 2 years, you donât have to pay anything during your third year- so your total cost is only 38K, which is almost nothing. Most students could probably pay that 38k undergraduate cost off just by themselves by working a summer or two.
@GreenPoison Thank you so much for sharing the experience at TCNJ. This is the kind of info very useful for students to make the right decision. Even for this cycle students it is not too late.
1 info ? Do NJMS allows to matriculate any year or need to wait for 4 years?
No problem.
Our program director here at TCNJ and program liaison at NJMS are notoriously chill- students can enter NJMS anytime after they finish their degree (so either after 2, 3, or 4 years).
And yes, we have had people who have entered NJMS after 2 years at TCNJ, and in essence, made the program the only 6 year program not in the Midwest.
But I would say that most oftentimes, people finish in two years, and either do a year of research, study abroad, or one year masters simply because they want to enjoy their third year before entering medical school.
Good to know.
NJIT/NJMS combination should also provide ample opportunities I guess. Firstly NJMS is right across so students should have access to research and anything else there all 7 years. Secondly NJIT faculty seem to receive 20M in annual research grants from NIH alone for life sciences and allied fields. Thirdly access to NYC is 45 minutes. So students may similarly explore opportunities at NYU, Columbia and Cornell medical facilities, though one has to find out how to go about that which may or not be straight forward as with UPenn.
It appears they cannot go wrong either wayâŠ
At first glance it appeared NJMS has about 3 times the NIH funding of sister organization Robert Wood Johnson. But on second look, the funding may have been split across and accounted for by multiple entities under the Rutgers umbrella.
RBHS -CANCER INSTITUTE OF NEW JERSEY NEW BRUNSWICK NJ UNITED STATES 34 $14,329,859
RBHS-NEW JERSEY MEDICAL SCHOOL NEWARK NJ UNITED STATES 92 $46,670,325
RBHS-ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON MEDICAL SCHOOL PISCATAWAY NJ UNITED STATES 45 $16,660,355
RBHS-SCHOOL OF NURSING NEWARK NJ UNITED STATES 3 $1,211,345
RBHS-SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH PISCATAWAY NJ UNITED STATES 23 $13,842,186
RUTGERS BIOMEDICAL/HEALTH SCIENCES-RBHS NEW BRUNSWICK NJ UNITED STATES 8 $7,905,369
RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIV OF N.J. PISCATAWAY NJ UNITED STATES 144 $58,944,243
Have been following this forum for some time & have really appreciated all the good advice. My D was accepted into the NU HPME program. When we embarked on this BSMD journey, we didnât for once imagine this is where she would end up, even though she had the credentials, just because everything we read said that this program was extremely selective & very hard to get into, so she basically took a chance & said whatâs the harm in applying. Hence the cost factor was never taken into consideration. Now that she has been accepted & after all the hard work she put in during HS, we feel really guilty not letting her pursue something she has so fervently worked for & managed to achieve, only because of finances. We are a middle class family who have been very careful financially & have saved up a little for our kidsâ college education, but NU is prohibitively expensive. When they calculate NFC, they do not take into account any expenses whatsoever, so it is a very misleading figure. We still have to go on living & save up for retirement & have another child who will be going off to college in a couple of years. As middle class, I feel we get royally screwed every which way. We can fund half her education (although it will be a stretch) & she will have to take out a student loan on the rest. But thatâs a HUGE loan & itâs giving us a lot of stress to put that burden on her. At that same time, we do not want her to forgo this opportunity since we have researched & know how incredibly tough it is for an ORM to get into a top 20 med school via the traditional route. Kindly advise.
Regarding my last post, we have been offered no financial aid of any kind. Especially appreciate any advise from @NoviceDad, @rk2017, @GoldenRock, @srk2017, @OldSchoolMD and anyone else who can chime in
You havenât mentioned if NU HPME is the only choice you have or some other options too. I would imagine someone having credentials enough to get into HPME would be having few other options open too.
To repeat myself, donât fall into the trap of rankings. They are very questionable. If you must, consult some of the more reputed agenciesâ of the likes I mentioned earlier.
If I were to advise someone with a tight financial situation, I will have no hesitation in advising to go to a more affordable institution like, say NJMS for example. Agreed you may not have all the top notch faculty, facilities and great undergrad experience of the former, but still will provide good enough exposure that wonât put you in disadvantageous position in anyway but rather lets you to be a star of the future. (I have known few myself). Good luck with your decision.
@gladitsover19 With the info you shared, not sure what else you can do. Either stomach the loans or forgo NU and go via regular route and hope she gets good aid during MD.
Do you have other BS/MD or just UG with merit aid? What state you belong?
There is no garauntee that loan forgiveness provisions will stay as they are, however, if the current program stays in place, it should make loan repayment much less burdensome for our kids who are willing to work in pulbic service for 10 years after graduation. Given that many of those years will be internship and fellowship â already considered public service â it should be quite doable.
https://www.studentloanplanner.com/pslf-distorts-physician-salaries/