uab med school

<p>anyone have any experience (currently attending or graduate) with university of alabama birmingham med school. also anyone know anything about their mstp program ie stats needed, best path to get there etc.</p>

<p>hmm no experiences here (or on post re mspt thread)?
i checked over at sdn and there is some info there but despite registering they havent sent a confirmation email, so i cant post. seems to get good reviews from those attending but havent found any real comparisons with any other schools. seems to have a strong research base and certainly does well with nih funding (ranked 18th).<br>
has an early acceptance program to med school (not combined..you have to acheive certain gpa and score well on mcat) and would be state school for son. some other factors come into play to make it well worth considering but so early in the process for him want to get all viewpoints</p>

<p>If it's your home state school, then it absolutely must be on your son's application list as he'll have the best chance to get accepted at any place where he has in-state status. </p>

<p>Given that most students only ever get accepted to one school, it's entirely premature to worry about comparing to other places. If he gets that 2nd or 3rd acceptance letter, then you can start worrying about experiences of students, research and so on, but if it's the only place he gets accepted, then it doesn't really matter.</p>

<p>thanks. great points. its actually way early to even be asking based on the fact he is still in hs. although young he feels strongly about medicine just unsure re clinical vs research/academics. He had heard about the mspt program and when he told me about it i checked what schools offered it. Right now he has no idea what schools he will apply to for undergrad, or combined programs, but i know even though i may like the idea of instate tuitions or merit scholarships etc, he would like to look at out of state schools as well , i just thought i would try to get more info to help an in- state argument.</p>

<p>This is way too premature to start thinking about med school apps. MSTP programs are very stats oriented. I'd say 3.7 college GPA (at least) and 33+ MCAT score for the least competitive MSTP programs (keep in mind, only the top 35 or so research med schools even have MSTP programs).</p>

<p>thanks norcalguy. i'm sure i'll be back with more questions through the next year or so. hope you guys will still be here in this section then. all input is appreciated. as it gets closer i'm sure it will be my son on here with a zillion questions also.</p>

<p>Glad we can help. </p>

<p>One thing I'll definitely point out is that MSTP is a great program, but it's not the only way to finish with an MD/PhD. My school is not an MSTP school, but there are a number of people who will end up with both degrees. In fact, my school has trouble filling the MD/PhD spots they do have (spots in which they already have the money accounted for), and they consistently are trying to recruit from the first and second year classes. One of my really good friends - who had applied to other schools MD/PhD (but only applied MD for our school) - got into the program in the middle of our second year, and then started his research after he passed Step 1. </p>

<p>From the sounds of friends I have at another non-MSTP school, there's a similar situation of open spots there as well. </p>

<p>So just something to think about.</p>