Posting for my daughter
She is currently a junior in high school. I want to know what are her BS/MD chances. Thanks.
Her situation is unique in a way because she goes to an independent small school, which doesn’t offer AP courses. Also because of COVID she only took the ACT once and didn’t have a chance to retake it yet.
Here are some stats:
Female
Indian
GPA: 3.95 Unweighted (no weighted GPA)
no class rank but likely near the top
ACT: 32 (but will retake, hasn’t been able to because of COVID)
Like I said, she doesn’t have AP Courses at her school but as the equivalent, she would have taken: AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP World History, AP French, AP Calculus, AP US History and other challenging classes like anatomy and physiology, and biotechnology
She only took/ is taking the tests for chemistry and world history as most people do not sit for these exams at her school.
State: AZ
Income: >150k
Major EC:
Varsity rower on club rowing team for 2 years 10th and 11th grade
JV rower in 9th grade
president and founder of science club
officer of diversity/ equality club,
Two years on student council in executive cabinet
Plays violin for over 6 years and is in school orchestra
Also sings and has won contests, has been invited to sing on stage with famous singer
Community Service
over 200 hours of hospice volunteering over 3 years
3 lab research projects in different years
volunteered abroad over the summer
has shadowed physicians
wrote over 200 cards for hospital/hospice patients during pandemic
Awards
science fair 3rd place in state in division
nominated for national science fair competition
received superior federation rating in violin
over 10 rowing competition awards and end of season awards like Coaches’ Most Improved Athlete award and Captain’s Award for best performance in an individual race
school two time high scorer for the rc math league competition
auditioned and selected to sing on stage with a famous Indian singer
honorable mention/ 4th place at state wide singing competition
won numerous school art competitions several years in a row
Medically related activities:
lab research
hospice volunteering
shadowing physicians
biology projects in collaboration with overseas students
wrote review paper and published in science journal
Please let me know if you think she has a chance in any of the programs/ which ones, even if they are less competitive ones. I hope it won’t be used against her that her school does not offer Ap classes but she has taken as rigorous courses as she could. thanks.
The short answer is no one can really predict one’s chances for bsmd. It is a crapshoot.
You D should improve her ACT to at least 34-35 range. Some programs need two SAT II scores but this year is a special one. Please apply widely and do not have great expectations for a large number of interviews. All you need is ONE acceptances.
@melslemonade - Your daughter has excellent Extra curriculars including medically related experience (Shadowing, research and volunteering).
The fact remains that the competition for ORM students is cut throat. My suggestion is she improve gap areas so she becomes even more competitive.
What your daughter should focus on -
Suggestion#1 - Have her take couple of college level online course/s during summer just to show she can do well with difficult courses
But the fact is competition for BS MD is cut-throat (there are way too many qualified candidates) especially for ORM students. Usually kids have 10+ AP courses. Students take AP exams even if these are not offered in the school. Alternatively, students take several college level courses outside of school. Inspite of taking All Honors/AP courses, students are able to get near perfect GPA.
Suggestion#2 - Have her take ACT again or SAT II tests by November otherwise she may not be considered by competitive BSMD programs. Like @grtd2010 mentioned, this might change due to Corona virus. But, the reality is students do take all these tests in 10th grade itself and most competitive students have near perfect scores
BSMD programs in the past have mandated SAT I or ACT. In addition, two SAT II subject tests have been required - Math level II and Chemistry/Biology.
Suggestion#3 -
Have her write up essays such as - Why medicine? Why BSMD?
Suggestion#4 -
Have her prepare a 2 page resume.
Suggestion#5 -
Have her come up with a college list with BSMD and UG programs. Choose 18+ colleges. Look at BS MD 2020/2019 results forum to see examples of college list.
Thank you for the suggestions. I think taking college-level class over the summer would help her a lot. she is planning to retake ACT in June and hopefully it will not be canceled. her section scores were all good except for reading. 26 reading, 33 English, 34 math, 35 science. hopefully with a couple more points she would be more competitive. i am worried about the AP’s considering at the time of applying she would have only taken 2 ap tests. lots of courses but only 2 tests.
@melslemonade - Your child is a smart kid. Since you want the best for her, you should try to close gaps.
Like @grtd2010 mentioned, have her apply widely to colleges. By doing so, you are covering all types of colleges. colleges look for something different in students. So, hopefully few of these colleges will love your child.
Your D has something that stands out in comparison to typical BS/MD applicants. Sports. Hopefully that will help her get at least few interviews. I have heard of couple of students with strong sports or athletic backgrounds snatching these Uber competitive slots. Also reminded of someone in this year’s results thread mention about how he wrote the essays tying his both the passions together. You may want to private message him for any further guidance (once you cross 15 posts, the option will be enabled for you).
All other aspects of your D are pretty solid as well, no need to be worried.
Word of caution. Just for the sake of do not do any college level courses. Only if the student is really interested in doing some course and has the necessary pre-requisite background to do well and can earn A. If not it is going to do the exactly opposite effect. It is double edge sword. Any courses done as dual enrollment, community college or 4 year college (even in HS years) need to be reported in AMCAS application and if the grades are not good it will damage the GPA. Especially if it is a STEM course it will damage the important sGPA.
Also don’t get worried about the APs. Just because others are doing 10+ does not mean every student must do. It is a known fact not every school district allows AP from 9th. It varies and many students got admission with not stellar number of APs.
Hi @rk2017 you mentioned last month on this thread that you have heard of sports helping the students in the BSMD process. Do you know of anyone specifically on here who could give more insight as they got in because of sports? (I reached 15 replies and can now send PM) Thanks
It is a pure speculation and only those who are members of admission committee will know. They are bound not to discuss this in public. Sports can project a well-rounded applicant profile along with arts ( music, dance etc). Stats (GPA, MCAT in regular route MD) are used as first screening criteria in medical, school ( MD part in bsmd is soley handled by medical school) admission. Apply widely and hope that some one will like you and invite you for an interview.
I have answered in the other thread, but this was what I was referring to. I think it was a parent who posted but hope won’t mind giving the student’s contact if you PM.
Also in the same thread (and perhaps same page too) there was one who was a marching band drum major, a varsity swimmer and a karate black belt. And may be one or two others too. That is a decent indicator (5 or 6 out of 22 who posted) that excellence in sports can be the differentiator, all other things being more or less equal. Also search for my take on the other thread by searching with the words like sport, athletic etc
Also heard from a former colleague about their C, from a reputed HS, perfect GPA close to valedictorian level and SAT 1600 and plenty of medical ECs, losing out to another top athlete student from the same school who happened to apply to the same set of BS/MD programs.
Re: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22694374/#Comment_22694374
If one reads through the page, it is mentioned that the above student was contacted by a Brown Prof about Latin (AP Latin score 5) and may be the reason Brown admitted this applicant. There is no substantial evidence of sports being a factor. It is a pure speculation at the best.
The applicant had a rank 2/580. The others stats mentioned are:
Rank: 2/580
SAT: 1570
Subject SAT: Math 800, Chem 790, Latin: 750
GPA: 4.0 unweighted
Just how sure is she that she will want to pursue medicine? I ask this because most college students change their major after joining. Mine from from pre-med before college, to dropping pre-med right before joining college, and switching two majors while in college.
But BS/MD effectively locks in a student right after high school. And that matters because many BS/MD colleges don’t have great educational opportunities if she decides not to become a doctor. Currently she doesn’t have the criteria for admission to the most selective BS/MD programs like Northwestern, Rice, or Brown where they are excellent all around.
But she is in contention to get admitted to Northwestern, Rice, or Brown as a regular student who can do pre-med and later enter medicine if she chooses.
No lock-in in most of the BS/BA/MD programs. If the students change their minds in a year or two either because they don’t want to do medicine any more or they don’t like the undergrad experience, they can always opt out and transfer some where else.
Among the places mentioned above, Brown and Rice are practically impossible to get in for ORMs. The former selects only low to mid single digits out of a large cohort of 60+ and the latter has only 6 slots.
If the students change their minds in a year or two either because they don’t want to do medicine any more or they don’t like the undergrad experience or they want to apply out to other med schools regular route or change in family or financial situation they are free to opt out (rarely anyone does though) and transfer some where else. Only expectation from them is to inform the program director at least 2 semesters ahead of their intended date of transition into the med school portion of the current program.
Brown selects more than 90 for it’s program, both ED and RD combined. Final enrollment number will be in 60s, with ORM strength among them as mentioned above.
No one talks about bsdo programs (e .g. NYIT BSDO 7 yrs program) but those are alternatives for some one to apply along with bsmd programs to secure a bird-at-hand option.