I have a couple questions.
- Does it matter which undergraduate school you graduate from? I was accepted to Vanderbilt undergraduate (still waiting for a few others) and I was curious if it would make a difference for med school applications if I went to a state school vs selective school. I am also looking into Ohio State BMS program (I interviewed and think it went well). Regardless of BMS, is going to Ohio State as opposed to Vandy going to hurt me? Is it significantly harder to maintain a high GPA (one for med school) at Vandy? Based on what I have seen I think I could maintain a high GPA at OSU.
- Is to me advantage/ disadvantage to go to an accelerated program. I have interviews at UMKC BS/MD and NEOMED. While I may not be accepted, are these programs considered as good as OSU? Will it restrict my options after med school? I am confident I want to do medicine but do not know through which path.
Ultimately, which path is best, assuming acceptances.
D. belived tht she had a significant advantage being in bs/md. She was accepted to NEOMED (used to be called NEOUCOM), but choose non-accelerated bs/md at Miami (OH), which is cancelled now. the significant advantage is a great peace of mind knowing that you need such a low stats to rtetain your spot at Med. School. D. needed only 3.45 / 27. That peace of mind enable her to enjoy greatly her UG experiences, sit without worry thru MCAT and actually get stats of 3.98 / 35. These stats also enabled her to apply out of her bs/md while still retaining her spot at U of Cinci Col of Med. Going to interviews while knowing that you already have one acceptance in your pocket was also a huge advantage. She got accepted to 3 additional schools and had hard time deciding.
She was also accepted into Ohio State BMS program. She turned in down for the combined non-accelerated bs/md at Miami where she was on attending on full tuition Merit award. She did not apply to any UG that would not offer some Merit award. And at the end she was choosing between 3 bs/md programs where she was accepted.
Seeing worrying pre-meds around her, she did not believe that she would enjoy her college experience without having the guarranteed spot at med. school. Whole different ball game. She had couple minors, traveled abroad, was on sorority board and travleled to national convention, participated in whole bunch of ECs, all long term, was on a club sport team (for one year), had a great job and did not take a single summer class.
people are different, you need to assess how you feel about different situations, nobody will help you with that, What has worked for one, may not work for another. That is why we all speak from our personal experiences and it is definitely different from person to person.
Almost nothing will restrict your options after obtaining an M.D… and all M.D.s are equal.
Is there something special you want to do after earning an M.D.?
(For what it is worth, my grandfather got both his B.S. and M.D. at Vanderbilt. It is a fantastic school, and I truly love it, but frankly these BS/MD programs are a great path, and remove a ton of stress about applying to med school.)
“Almost nothing will restrict your options after obtaining an M.D… and all M.D.s are equal.”
-. You are MD after graduating from Med. School. While at Med. School. you will take two boards exams, Step 1 and Step 2. You will also have grades even at p/f school. At p/f school, you will be graded for your rotations. So, consider these your Med. School stats. In addition, you will have some degree (not as much) of ECs and Research, written up cases,…etc, some of them may result in publications (if you are so lucky). All of it WILL either open doors very widely or severely restrict your options or something in between. If you have choices of Med. School, and choose the one that fits you the best, then any place will be fantastic for you. Some people do not have choices, but everybody is making the best out of any experience, so any Med. School will do. I am still not clear if Med. School name is important when applying to selective specialty, but Step 1 and Step 2 scores are extremely important as well as your grades. Sorry, not all MDs are equal…
I know several cases personally of people successfully applying to very selective residencies graduating from NEOMED (combined bs/md). I do not know anything about UMKC or Vandy. As usual saying goes, it is UP TO A PERSON not the place
I don’t know why you’d want to give up 2 years of undergrad for a guaranteed acceptance at a med school you’d probably be able get into anyway. I think it’s harder to get into BS/MD programs than MD programs.
We have met lots of families that wnated specifically accelerated route. In case of my D., she wanted guaranteed spot, but she did not want accelerated, so she choose non-accelerated bs/md. There are kids out there who really do not care about all these “UG” experience, my D. was opposite of them. However, being out there in this large crowd of bs/md applicants (during interviews and info sessions), I would not ask about reasons, all have different reasons, family situations and some indicated that the reason was a negative prior experiences with the older kid who is attneding Med. School after applying regular route. You never know, it is for some and not for the others. And, frankly, as I said before, my D. was the only one in her program who applied out (she is into more adventure than the most), others simply did not bother, they went to the U of Cinci Col of Med. wihtout application fees, any travel, no interviews, absolutely NOTHING and that NOTHING was extremely attractive to them. And these did not miss ANYTHING at all in UG. D’s bs/nd did not even allow participants to graduate earlier than 4 years, no freedom here, but they dould have any combo of major(s) / minor(s) and in fact were an intergral part of general student body, no special requirements (except for 3.45 / 27) and they actually kept low profile about participating in bs/md, D. said that they did not want any social disturbances from other pre-meds who had much higher requirments. Frankly, bs/md participants did not have even requirements for the medically related EC’s, not at all, D. had lots, enouph for several applications just out of her own wish.
My medical school has a history of taking students with lower GPAs and no MCAT through a linked program. It only takes a few of them, but the linked undergrad school is so weak, that YEAR AFTER YEAR these students are some of the weakest students in the incoming classes. There was a year when several of them had to restart the next year due to failures. The UG school I am talking about is a “directional” state university. I have to wonder if the UG did strong students a disservice…or if the students were weak to begin with and would have never have made in through the pre-med requirements in a tougher school. Hard to tell. I am in state with very strong state schools and I would say aside from these students from the directional university, everyone else is on equal footing, including students from other, nationally-known, state schools.
I do not know about others in D’s bs/md and how they performed at Med. School. D. was an absolutely equal among her classmates with the majority of them from Ivy’s / Elites, Berkeley had the highest representation.