<p>Many people will say that this program is the top of its kind in the nation. I was just wondering what makes it unique and why it deservs such an acclamation. I'm very interested in it, and I was just hoping people can tell me out of experience its pros/cons.</p>
<p>As a disclaimer, I am not Rice/Baylor, but here’s what I think of off the top of my head:</p>
<p>Pros:
- RESOURCES. There are so many opportunities in so many different fields in the Texas Medical Center (the largest in the world, if you didn’t know - no, seriously). MD Anderson in particular is known world-wide as an excellent cancer research center.
- Tuition at Baylor is very (well, relatively) low if you’re from Texas, so a guaranteed admission here may mean a lot</p>
<p>Cons:
- Hard. Hard to get in and, for some, difficult to stay in - you have to keep a 3.5 GPA, and I know a girl who failed out.
- There are better med schools out there than Baylor. Luckily, you can back out if you get into one of them, I guess. I know (and probably everyone on here knows) a Rice/Baylor guy who graduated in 3 years and then got into Harvard med, so…</p>
<p>Hey, that’s my old roommate! (Well, probably).</p>
<p>In addition to SilentSailor’s input -</p>
<p>Rice/Baylor was considered a top notch program until Baylor’s rank started collapsing from about 10 to the now 22 due to their breakup with Methodist Hospital. They made some missteps since then trying to build a hospital and running into financial problems because of that. It is still a great combination when you consider the cost of attendance at Baylor both instate and OOS. People try to become instate by the end of first year by acquiring some property before they start school.</p>
<p>It is getting quite hard to get into Rice these days.</p>
<p>R/B is a good program as it guarantees admission into medical school while allowing you to spend your UG career doing something that interests you, even if it is in an unrelated field.</p>
<p>As Texaspg says, R/B was a lot better when Baylor held it’s peak rank of #7 in the nation.</p>
<p>BCM’s fall in USNWR rankings was not because of a change it’s academic quality or its financial strength. It was due to how NIH federal funding was accounted for between BCM and M.D Anderson.</p>
<p>[Baylor</a> medical school falls from Top 20 | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle](<a href=“http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7051614.html]Baylor”>http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7051614.html)</p>
<p>Academically, BCM is as excellent now, as it was before the change in accounting for the NIH funding.</p>
<p>BCM student’s average Step 1 score (a very important component for top specialty residencies) has been in the top 5 in the nation for several years. The mean BCM score for 2011 grads was an incredible 244. The Sabin Institute just moved its vaccine development program from GW to BCM. Rice has lured three of the top cancer researchers in the world, and their labs, from UCSD.</p>