<p>My mom really wants me to apply to these programs. I think she is out of her mind. First of all, I would never get into a decent one considering that I have no experience whatsoever in a hospital and truthfully, I'm not that into medicine, and my scores aren't like, STELLAR. But no matter how much I try to talk to her, she keeps on threatening to not pay for my college tuition if I don't at least apply and then we just argue. I wouldn't mind attending one of the programs, but I just think its a waste of time and effort and could damage effort that could be spent on applications that I actually have a chance with. She wants me to apply to the Northwestern and Brown programs (Ha!). What programs could I realistically get into?</p>
<p>Here are my stats:</p>
<p>SAT I (superscored): 2240 (760 CR, 750 M, 730 W)
SAT II:
Math IIC 800
Lit 740
US 740
Going to take Chem in December(ugh) </p>
<p>GPA: 3.86 unweighted, 4.45 weighted in highly competitive public school. It will probably go up to 4.6 if I keep up my grades this semester.
Senior classes: AP Calc BC, AP Physics, AP Bio, AP English, AP Comp Gov, Orchestra</p>
<p>My EC's are pretty good, a lot of leadership positions....but none of them are related to medicine. I worked at a Biotech company over the summer...which is the closest I've got.</p>
<p>Varsity Tennis
Concermistress at school orchestra
Soloed and 4th chair in Oakland Youth Orchestra (second best in Bay Area, behind SFSYO)
President of Commission of World Awareness
etc.</p>
<p>My only real volunteering is at a soup kitchen serving food for 60 hrs and learning how to cook it and also I peer tutored mentally-challenged students for 180 hours. Since I'm a senior, I've pretty much run out of time.</p>
<p>Oh, and I'm an Asian female. Argh, curse asian parents and their obsession with making their children be doctors.</p>
<p>Well! Your SATs and GPA are pretty good. ot good enough for Brown but you might have had a decent shot at HPME if you had had medically oriented ECs.</p>
<p>Given your lack of interest in medicine, it's not very difficult to get rejected at these highly demanding programs. All you have to do is express your lack of interest at the interviews. They will reject you outright if you tell them that you are simply applying due to parental pressure. You don't have to tell your Mom all your frank answers at the interview. She will think that you really tried and got rejected.</p>
<p>This way, you could get in whichever program you truly seek and your Mom can be happy that you at least tried.</p>
<p>I figure it's your parents' application fee money, so why not send off an app or two just to placate them?</p>
<p>Since that's the purpose, no need to pick realistic programs. Just apply to the ones she tells you to apply to, don't waste time on the essays, and keep the parents happy.</p>
<p>Urban legend around my high school was that a classmate of mine was a Penn legacy but wanted to go to a big state school. She printed out her essays for her parents to read, got them approved, and quietly sneaked a line into the end of the essay: "I appreciate the time and effort you've invested, but this application is a result of extreme parental pressure and I would be very grateful if you would decline it."</p>
<p>If her scores aren't good enough for Brown, what is Brown looking for? Do they actually publish their requirements? Academically, she sounds really solid to me, but I am not familiar with this particular program.</p>
<p>However, I would like to apply to one or two not-as-prestigious programs that are actually feasible for me because perhaps given the opportunity, maybe medicine is something that I would be interested in if I look into it more. Since you guys are such experts, can you possibly list schools that offer these types of programs that are a) possible for someone like me to get in b) don't require clinical work.</p>
<p>Oh, and keep in mind that I took non-AP Chem in sophomore year. Only God knows how well I'll do on that SAT, lol.</p>
<p>If you can find an undergrad which you like -- in and of itself -- that also offers a BS/MD, then by all means go for it! But especially if you aren't actually interested in medicine, then this should not be a major factor in deciding where to apply.</p>
<p>Oh, this definitely is not going to be a major factor (I hope) in deciding where I want to go. Ultimately, I want to go to Brown (non multiple degree program, since it's highly unlikely I'll get in, unless some bizarre shortage of applicants occurs) or maybe UC Berkeley on an engineering major. But I've never been one of those people who are sure about what they want to be when they grow up, so I'd like to keep my options open. Or maybe this is just the pressure from my mom talking. Anyways, any suggested schools?</p>
<p>Pharmagal is under the impression that you need a 2390 to get into PLME (she has stated this in several of her posts). Just because the thread in the Brown forum makes it seem this way, it isn't true! CC students tend to be of the absolute highest caliber, so the acceptance stats end up being inflated. Now if she said that she wasn't good enough for either, I could understand that.</p>
<p>BS/MD programs are definitely not a good idea if you're not sure about medicine and it certainly doesn't sound like you are. Applying to Brown and Northwestern might be smart as you are likely to be rejected from both. Then your parents will have nothing to say. The worst thing that can happen would be for you to be accepted to a BS/MD program and for your parents to force you to attend.</p>
<p>In BS/MD programs, you need to convince them you're going to stick with the program the whole 7,8 years. Seeing as you can't even type a paragraph without dripping with sarcasm and "ughs" here and there in your chance thread, you're probably not a good fit at all. Just apply, as everyone is sympathetic towrds the unrelating nature of the Asian parent.</p>
<p>I was actually saying that even for HPME which CC'ers tend to rate slightly lower than PLME, her SATs were decent. But since she does not have any medically oriented ECs, she would most likely not be able to get in here either.</p>
<p>I have noticed from last 2-3 years that only valedictorians get in at PLME. Not so for HPME.</p>
<p>In OP's case, she should apply to both places since she would be better off getting rejected in these programs to satisfy her Mom.</p>
<p>By the way, let me clarify that I am not plugging to get high scorers for PLME or anything. Just that your scores are similar to my S's who applied to PLME last year and did not get accepted</p>
<p>Just a last addendum to my previous message.
My S had similar SAT scores as OP's except his SAT IIs were 790 Bio, 780 for MathIIC and Chem. </p>
<p>He also had a research poster which won 3rd place at NJ Sci Fair, an EMT certificate, 200 hrs volunteering + doc shadowing every Wed during Sr year.</p>
<p>And still he was not considered good enough by PLME. Last year everyone who was accepted had minimum 2300 scores in SAT.</p>
<p>So, Central Perky, I am being realistic given my experience about Brown PLME.</p>
<p>What you know means very little. If I say I know few people with 2000 on SAT got into Harvard too, does that mean Harvard isn't super hard to get in? No, because they aren't representative of what the average Harvard candidates have.</p>
<p>I've already given you the published stats from both schools: HPME has SAT AVERAGE significantly higher than PLME; it doesn't matter what counter-examples you give. You may even know some HPME admits with only 2050 on SAT...or whatever. Whatever you know isn't representative.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I was actually saying that even for HPME which CC'ers tend to rate slightly lower than PLME
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Really? Then I wonder why HPME thread is the most visited and longest. People actually rate HPME higher because Northwestern med school is ranked a lot higher.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Last year everyone who was accepted had minimum 2300 scores in SAT.
[quote]
Students offered admission to the PLME for fall 2006 achieved an average score of 730 Critical Reading, 735 Mathematics, and 732 Writing on the SAT Reasoning Test.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Would you want to verify the total is 2197? So who is the "everyone" you talked about? How do you get a hold of the score of "everyone" anyway? :rolleyes: Sorry that your son wasn't accepted. Your son is still amazing and there's no need to exaggerate the difficulty. Your son probably just didn't present himself in the best possible light while he's actually more qualified than many of the admits. It's all just crapshot.</p>
<p>I got your obnoxious PM which you would not put on line of course. I am too Senior in age (may be not so in my # of posts). So, I refuse to indulge in petty bickering in front of kids who write to get advice from Seniors.</p>
<p>Besides, this thread is not about whether HPME is better than PLME.</p>