Wouldn't it be better for me to NOT apply PLME?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
1

<p>Okay, well I am pretty interested in going into medicine, and obviously, PLME is an amazing opportunity. However, as a non-hooked ORM applicant, PLME is undoubtedly a loooong-shot. I absolutely love Brown and Providence and I would love to attend Brown regardless of whether I get in PLME. So, would not applying PLME be better, because I would be considered as a regular applicant, which gives me a chance? Or can I still apply PLME, because they say that they “consider” PLME applicants for regular admittance if denied PLME?</p>

<p>Stats:
Rising senior, Asian (Indian) from a very, VERY diverse public high school in NY</p>

<p>SAT: 800 M, 800 W, 740 CR (2340 Comp.)
ACT: English 35, Math 35, Reading 34, Science 36, Combined English/Writing 35, Essay 12, COMPOSITE 35
SAT IIs: 800 Math II, 800 US History, 780 Chemistry, 780 Biology E, 770 World History
APs:
10th grade: Biology 5, World History 5, Environmental Science (Self-study) 5
11th grade: Chemistry 5, US History 5, Statistics 5, English Language 5, Psychology (Self-study) 5, Human Geography (Self-study) 5
12th grade schedule: Macroeconomics (Self-study), Microeconomics, Physics B, US Government (Self-study), Calculus BC, Spanish Language, English Literature, Comparative Government (self-study)
GPA: UW: 4.0
Rank: 1/~350 (this will not change)</p>

<p>Awards:
2-time regional Science Olympiad medalist
2-time district-wide Writer of the Year
National AP Scholar
National Merit Semifinalist
~15 or so school-wide achievement awards in different subjects, generally insignificant
RPI Math and Science Medal
Smile Train Plaque (Community Service award)</p>

<p>ECs w/ leadership positions, if any:
Mock Trial/Debate Team (secretary)
Science Research (very involved, exclusive class), wrote the AP Environmental Science syllabus
Model UN
Foreign Language/Science (Vice President)/English/Social Studies Honor Societies
Mu Alpha Theta + Math League (president)
Asian Club (former treasurer, secretary)
National Honor Society (secretary)
Science Olympiad (president)
Academic League (treasurer, will participate in the television show, “The Challenge”)
Choreographer for the annual Indian cultural program in our county (choreographed little kids)</p>

<p>Summer Activities:
2008: AP Summer Academy at school (6 week intensive program preparing students for AP classes)
2009: Mathematical Modeling Program at Mercy College
2010: Research assistant at a NJ hospital (in the cardiac lab assisting with clinical trials, also got to see open-heart surgeries!)</p>

<p>Work:
-Work at local Kumon Center since September 2008, about 8 hours a week
-Private SAT Tutor</p>

<p>Essay: should be good, I’m still working on making it stand out</p>

<p>Recs: AMAZING. I know my guidance counselor very well. One of my teacher recs will be from my AP Bio teacher/Science Research mentor/APES syllabus co-author/NHS advisor/Science Honor Society advisor (basically everything short of a principal) who I have grown a close personal connection to. The other will probably be from my English teacher who I had in 10th grade and will have again for AP Lit in 12th grade.</p>

2

<p>I swear, your chances threads are approaching the millions now. Seriously. If you doubt your chances <em>this much</em>, you really shouldn’t even apply.</p>

3

<p>Don’t do PLME. The med school isn’t good and 6/7-year med programs are stupid.</p>

4

<p>@chemwz, thanks for the advice.
@TheHelper, it’s an 8-year program, and I’m not picky enough to think of Brown’s medical school as anything less than sufficient.</p>

5

<p>sd6, TheHelper has a point. Alpert Medical School is ranked significantly lower than many medical schools (in the 30s, I believe). It’s something to definitely think about.</p>

<p>In terms of your chances…with almost no medical extracurriculars, minus your research, you have little chance. They are looking for a STRONG commitment to medicine. So that people won’t drop out of the program and become an…engineer, for example. You have good extracurriculars, but just not in the medical arena.</p>

6

<p>Believe me or not, look into their med school website, you will find out the university has grabbed a lot of donation money and research grants. It pours tremendous resources into medical school compare to other graduate school or college in campus. They don’t have law school or business school, so this is the only place(medicine) to invest. In the near future, they are going to compete against John Hopkins, Harvard and others. If you see the med school rank climb from 40 something up to 31 now within 10 years, and the med school is relatively young, it is a tremendous achievement. I strongly believe the med school will advance within 20th rank in just a few years. Remember your job mainly relies on your GPA and class rank, so you have a better residency spot, not med school itself. And Brown is Ivy league school, its every year’s match list is pretty impressive, that means, the majority of the students there have very good USMLE score at least.</p>

7

<p>You simply can’t look at rankings to decide which medical school you’d like to attend. Medical schools are lot more homogenous than undergraduate universities and far, far more important than the “ranking” of the university (unless you want to do academic medicine) is your ability to succeed at said medical school. Getting into residencies is a lot more dependent on what you do at med school than where you are (even truer with med school than with undergrad). Furthermore, Alpert’s ranking suffers because PLME’s don’t have to take MCATs and that I’ve heard, causes its ranking to suffer.
BigFire also brings up great points about the money that is being injected into Alpert right now and how young the med school really is. For the sake of full disclosure, I’m a PLME who is thinking about staying at Alpert and not applying out, but I think the points I’m making are still pretty valid.
Of course, you might say, what happens if I had the choice to choose between Harvard Medical School and Alpert? Would I reverse my position on rankings and their importance and choose Harvard? I don’t know. I think as a PLME, the guarantee and being at a school that is so focused on the purity of academia is great. You can do extracurriculars because you love them, not because they look impressive. Other professors and people recognize that and give you opportunities because of that. Not to mention, being able to foster your true passions and interests without worrying about building a monster resume will better help you achieve your ultimate goal: becoming the best doctor you are able to be. So in that sense, I would choose the PLME experience over getting into Harvard Medical School. </p>

<p>By the way, residency match lists aren’t exactly the most accurate gauges of quality, but if you’re worried about the residencies you can into, check out Alpert’s match list. It looks pretty impressive in my opinion.</p>