<p>My daughter received an e-mail from Washington University's Scholars Program in Medicine. It said that selected students have opportunity to be admitted simultaneously to undergraduate study and to the School of Medicine. She has received lots of recruiting material from Washington University but this really got our attention. Has anybody else received this and is it really as good as it sounds?</p>
<p>Getting into this program is extremely difficult, I think less than 5 are chosen each year. If your daughter can keep a 3.8 gpa and I’ve a 36 mcat she will be admitted to the med school after grad.</p>
<p>Quite a few universities and college all offer these sorts of programs, but like nooob said, they’re all extremely competitive. </p>
<p>Northwestern, Brown, Vanderbilt, and Rice University are just some that have these programs. Other colleges like George Washington University, University of Rochester, Rhodes College, and Knox College all have it. </p>
<p>But few, even with AMAZING statistics and essays can even get a chance to being accepted into these programs.</p>
<p>I remember a college admissions dean telling me that every year thousands of students applied to their early medical scholars program, but the acceptance rate was less than 1%.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt doesn’t have a program that does that. They stop it. </p>
<p>But yes, it is harder to get into those programs than Harvard pretty much.</p>
<p>And like nooob says, you have to try to maintain a 3.8 GPA (a hard thing to do at a top school like WashU AND a 36 (which is in the 97%tile if I remember correctly). So you have to study a lot. Also you have to have a good interview and a good EC’s along with the good grades and MCAT. So in other words, she has to volunteer during her free time.</p>
<p>Thank you all for input. It helps a lot.
We live out of state and had not heard of Washington University until they started sending my daughter brochures. We are very impressed with their reputation.</p>
<p>if your daughter is interested in a guaranteed med program, washu med scholars is probably the worst one out there. Granted, washu med is very highly ranked, but to maintain 3.8+36 mcat + do an interview…the whole point of a bs/md program is that your undergraduate years are much LESS stressful. Case in point: northwestern HPME- 3 years undergrad, maintain something like a 3.3 gpa. No mcat, no interview. And Feinberg med school is nothing to scoff at either. Brown PLME and Rice/Baylor are also programs that come to mind. In my opinion, getting into Northwestern HPME, PLME, or Rice/Baylor is much more difficult than university scholars at WashU, simply because they are that much more desirable (source: i was admitted to northwestern HPME but turned it down).</p>
<p>Wait, wait, wait. The fact that you got into Northwestern HPME and turned it down makes it more difficult to get into? What?</p>
<p>Baylor’s medical school is ranked 17th. Northwestern’s is 19th. Brown’s is 34th. Wash U’s is 3rd. Do Penn, Harvard, or Hopkins have a similar program? No. A large number of medical school applicants won’t be admitted to ANY medical school, even with solid grades and scores. Guaranteed admission to WUSTL med school with a certain score and GPA is a big deal.</p>
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Wash U’s program makes you take a MCAT and makes you have to get at least **36<a href=“that’s%20in%20the%20%5BB%5D97%tile%5B/B%5D”>/B</a>. Wash U makes you have to maintain a 3.8 GPA (I ask how many people that are in premed have a 3.8?). Do you even have a 3.8 GPA?</p>
<p>Northwestern, Brown and Baylor don’t. Their students are much more involved in clinical and research experience while Wash U is stressing out about work and have little time to volunteer. By the way why are you relying on med school ranking. You know that it is near impossible to rank med school accordingly. How to you rank a med school that is more focus on AIDS over a med school that is more focused on cancer? The answer is you can’t.</p>
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It’s going to be a big deal when you learn that you had little clinical experience when compared to other med school applicants. Honestly I would rather go to Baylor with a lower GPA and more clinical experience than Wash U with little clinical experience. It doesn’t seem worth it working your butt off trying to get a high grade and not having enough time for volunteering. You know that you still have to follow the traditional pre-med route. You have to be able to complete a interview where they nail you with questions about experience. They look at your EC’s. They aren’t any nicer to you (on viewing your EC’s and interviews). It’s just that if you have good EC’s, a good interview, the GPA and MCAT score they want you will get in. And by the way, getting into Baylor, Northwestern will allow you to have the same chance at finding a job. In fact there are some Baylor students that are better than Wash U med students. That also applies to the fact that there are good Wash U students that are better than Harvard. Bottom line is Wash U’s program totally doesn’t follow a traditional goal of BS/MD programs. Traditional programs are made so that once you get accepted, the MCAT (if any) and GPA requirements are easier but you have to volunteer, attend seminars which they give very detailed facts about medicine (something you don’t ever get in regular school) and they help you find internship (something that regular undergrad school don’t).</p>
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What? how in the world do you not understand that? it is clearly explained. “getting into Northwestern HPME, PLME, or Rice/Baylor is much more difficult than university scholars at WashU, simply because they are that much more desirable”. More people apply to those program than Wash U’s. And the he states that he got into HPME. I don’t get how you didn’t understand that statement.</p>
<p>first of all, if you’re admitted in the first place, a 3.8 GPA and 36 MCAT shouldn’t be that hard to accomplish. Second of all, to receive your first choice of residency, a lot depends on your grades in medical school. A better preparation in your undergrad years will help you perform better. Clinical experience will come into play but what can you really do as a college student? administer shots? most likely not. A lot of WashU premeds who have those stats also participate in lab research. You guys are all exaggerating the difficulty of maintaining those stats. Remember these are kids who beat out 99% of other applicants for those programs, they are not the average college students whether it be at Harvard, WashU, or your local state school.</p>
<p>“Clinical experience will come into play but what can you really do as a college student?”</p>
<p>Clinical experience is volunteering at a hospital and yes it is possible. Read this: [Getting</a> Into Medical School - The Importance of Clinical Experience](<a href=“http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/aa042502a.htm]Getting”>Clinical Experience and Medical School Applications)
Notice the title: getting into medical school
Even Berkeley says that: <a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Article/060224a-pm.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Article/060224a-pm.stm</a></p>
<p>So if you “most likely not” have clinical experience, then you are going to get rejected by top med schools.</p>