<p>Whats the point of it? Isn't getting into an OK College then applying to like Harvard Medical School better than getting into an an 8 year BA/MD program at Brown or something? Guaranteed acceptance into a mediocre school isn't that good.</p>
<p>1) a lot of kids mess up when they get to college (the majority). why not apply now and get into a decent med school?</p>
<p>2) being pre-med in college will eat up your time…you can party all four years, get sub-par grades, then happily matriculate if youre in a program.</p>
<p>3) many programs allow you to apply out. you can get in, still do the traditional pre-med route, and if you do well, apply and get into an even better med school.</p>
<p>4) you dont have to waste time on the mcat, or if your program requires it, you only need a crappy score.</p>
<p>5) being pre-med is just annoying. the people, the activities…its better to save yourself the stress.</p>
<p>you are right, though. if you are certainly overqualified for a mediocre ba/md program, you shouldnt go…unless you really dont care where you get in. and getting into harvard med isnt easy lol…much harder than harvard undergrad from a statistics standpoint.</p>
<p>the point of any program is to eliminate the stress of the entire med school application process. Brown is unique in offering an 8 year program and is also unique in that Brown lets you apply out, so if you wanted to you can still apply to Harvard or JHU. Brown PLME, Northwestern HPME, and Rice/Baylor are the top 3 programs in the nation, I would hardly call their medical schools mediocre (definitely not as good as Harvard, but as the above poster said, getting into Harvard isn’t something one just decides and makes happen) </p>
<p>Guaranteed acceptance into ANY medical school is a feat, especially out of high school. Medical school acceptances are extremely low across the board, regardless of what sort of reputation the school may have. One doesn’t have to go to Harvard med to be a good doctor.</p>
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<p>It depends on what you want to do with your MD. If you want to teach at Harvard med it could be an issue, but for the vast majority of docs, it really doesn’t matter where you go to med school.</p>
<p>@zzzboy: wat does pre-med mean? majoring in medical field in college? and when u say screw up: did you mean screw up in high school or in college?</p>
<p>you cant major in “pre-med.” you major in anything, but being pre-med means that you take the courses required for med school (bio, physics, calculus, chem, ochem, english, etc.). and i meant that you will most likely do much worse in college than in high school.</p>
<p>I’d like to put a plug in for University of Rochester’s program as well. Rochester’s medical school is in the top 20 in the nation, and their 8 year program follows the same path as Browns. It’s not about the acceleration -for me it was more about the experience. I didn’t want to spend my time in college so caught up in studying for the MCAT and putting on a good resume. Instead, I get to major and minor in fields that I probably wouldn’t (like English literature and International Relations) if I wasn’t in the program. Also, it’s just the piece of mind factor. It gives you support to fall back on and not worry as much when going through college. Finally, I just went through rounds of interviews and SAT testing and applications galore -why go through it all again?</p>
<p>is MCAT like SAT? I do pretty well on the SATs</p>
<p>…no, the MCAT is significantly harder than the SAT</p>
<p>“Whats the point of an 8 year BA/MD?” </p>
<p>I just saw this thread. As we all know, not all combination programs are the same. Although an 8 year BA/MD doesn’t accelerate the program, some don’t require the MCATs and some allow you to “apply out”. Of course they don’t encourage this but some allow it without you having to give up your assured seat in your combination program medical school. So you can kind of have your cake and eat it too. You get the assurance of a seat in medical school plus IF you do exceptionally well as far as GPA you can take the MCATs and if you do exceptionally well there too you can apply for a seat in a top rated school like Harvard (mentioned in another post). Pretty good situation if you ask me.</p>
<p>Orange Peel. About the correlation between SATs and MCATs. I assume that you’re strong in Math and Science. If I’m correct, I think that if you did well on your SATs and if you prepare well for the MCATs, you’ll do well on them too. Of course it’s all relative to what you call doing well. Most people who do well enough to get into one of the better combo programs have high SATs and can expect to get high MCATs too.</p>
<p>Isnt it as hard as harvard to get into combined programs?</p>
<p>Orange Peel. No, it isn’t as hard to get into most combined programs than into Harvard as long as you have strong evidence of interest in medicine. That’s the difference. Harvard is mostly exceptionally high numbers. Combination programs is high numbers plus strong demonstrated medical interest. Combination programs want to avoid as much as possible admitting students who then decide that medicine isn’t for them after all.</p>
<p>“a lot of kids mess up when they get to college (the majority). why not apply now and get into a decent med school?”</p>
<p>If you “mess up” in combined program, you are out. This actually is good to keep somebody focused.</p>
<p>And the idea that it is not hard to get into programs, is not correct, sorry. It is as hard as hell to get into them and getting harder every year. D’s program at state school used to have 30 spots for freshmen in 3 undergrads. They cancelled 2 of them, so there are less spots. She did not get to 50% of the ones that she applied. She graduated #1 from private HS that normally sends at least couple top ones to Ivy’s. She did not have any desire to go to Ivy’s instead she applied to several combined programs mostly at state schools and was accepted at half of them. Yes, she is in 8 years program, she had a choice to be in accelerated one (6 or 7 years), but she wanted normal college experience. She is happy with her choice and the fact that she will have a spot at Med. School if she gets MCAT = 27, which we heard is average. Since only about 43% of applicants get into any Med. school, you can imagine that average mcat score is not so good going regular route. There are also tons of opportunities at state school that are open only to the very top students, makes this additionally very attractive option for top caliber students.</p>
<p>I don’t recall anyone saying that it wasn’t hard getting into a combo program. It’s all relative, depending on the student. But it certainly isn’t easy. I mean you’re being accepted into medical school right from high school. About that 27 on the MCATs. Not all combo programs require MCATs. That’s a differentiating factor. Not all combo programs are the same. Some are harder to get into, GPAs to stay in the programs are different, some require MCATs and some don’t and of course the medical schools associated with these programs are not the same. Some are much more highly rated than others.</p>
<p>I provided example of my D. because she is at state school, which would be considered somewhat easier to get in. And it was not easy at all. And classes are extremely challenging, so no point to go after more challenging curriculum if that is a goal. The other huge factor to consider is if you can apply out still retaining spot at Med. School in your program. This added flexibility at the end is very attractive.</p>
<p>Yeah so if you’re not in the top of your class theres no chance?</p>
<p>The top of your class in some small schools might not be enough. The top 8% of a large school could very well be enough. But we’re focusing on grades and scores alone again. Strong evidence that you’re trully committed to medicine counts too. Without this demonstrated commitment you may not get into a combo program even with great numbers.</p>
<p>i dont care about your “D” (just freaking say daughter), miamadap. when i say “mess up” i mean kids at my college go from being top 1% of their high school to having a 3.0. and if you cant score a 27 on the mcat, youre a loser. the requirements for ba/md programs are so ridiculously low.</p>
<p>i would say its as difficult as harvard to get into the top programs. they look for different things, though. harvard specifically looks for well-roundedness PLUS excellence in one of the things that you do (something very unique, some crazy award, etc) imo. in the top programs, you could get away with having high stats, good med experience, and being well-rounded (not that its easy). you dont necessarily need to do something crazy outstanding, though.</p>
<p>the acceptance rate for top programs is lower than harvard if i recall correctly, but it seems that harvard kids are usually a tiny bit higher caliber.</p>