This thread is to post the stats and feedback/reflection from students / parents to post the BS/MD Acceptance at the end of the cycle. Below is a post from a student of previous cycle to provide the sample format.
This is a very nice post from a previous year’s results thread. You can copy & paste & update with your details when you post. Thank you so much in advance to help future students / parents.
Important Note: Please post only results. If you have questions and discussion topics, please use the other thread which will have the year and BS/MD applicant in the title.
******* SAMPLE POST *****
Posting for my daughter …
GPA: 4.0 (UW), 4.75 (W) at the time of application
Class Rank: NA; Class Size 350+
ACT : 34
SAT: 1510
SAT Subject Tests:
Chemistry: 800
Math 2: 800
Bio: 800
AP’s (at time of application)
AP Calculus BC: 5;
AP Physics C-Mechanics: 5;
AP Computer Science A: 5;
AP Biology - 4;
AP Chemistry and AP Statistics (both will be taken this year);
IB – MYP certificate.
Teacher / Counselor Recs: Not seen but assume to be Very Strong, teachers knew my daughter well and mutual respect existed at both ends.
State: PA
Gender: F
Ethnicity: Non-Caucasian
Income: >150k
Hooks: None
Awards:
- SWENext Northrop Grumman Community Award – Winner
- Aspirations in Computing Affiliate (Regional) Award Winner and Honorable Mention
- Associate Scientist Award (Regional Science & Engineering Fair)
- Junior Scientist Award (Regional Science & Engineering Fair)
- Top 5 International Finalist at a well-known competition
- Data Jam - Winner (twice) (also Captain)
Major ECs:
- FIRST Robotics - member; Qualified four times for World Championships in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC)
- Piano - 10+ years ; Winner of competitions
- Martial Arts - 3rd degree Black belt – 10+ years
- Golf - High School JV and Varsity team — 4 years
- Music technology - 3 years
Other:
- AMIE / Math League
- Verizon App Challenge
- Cultural Communications Alliance International Marketing Competition
Community Service:
- President of the Local Youth Chapter of a foundation focused on education (involvement > 5 years)
- Volunteer - at an Independent Senior community &
- Volunteer - at a Rehabilitation and Wellness Center:
- Teaching and playing piano to patients needing memory support due to Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Medically related activities:
- Physician Shadowing
- Research Assistantship at a local University
- Research Survey at a Medical center
Mentoring/ Teaching:
Peer Tutoring: Tutor other students at school in the subjects of Chemistry and Geometry.
Robotics: Founded a FLL Team and mentored middle school kids; mentored 3 other FLL / FTC teams
Martial Arts: Volunteered to teach children
Applied to the following BS/MD Programs:
- Northwestern HPME - interviewed - ACCEPTED
- PennState / Jefferson - interviewed - ACCEPTED
- Stony Brook Scholars for Medicine - interviewed - ACCEPTED
- Drexel/Drexel - interviewed - ACCEPTED
- Temple/ Temple - interviewed - rejected (accepted undergrad with scholarships)
- Hofstra - interviewed - rejected (accepted undergrad with scholarships)
- UPitt GAP, CaseWestern, URochester, UCinncinati - rejected pre-interview (accepted undergrad with scholarships)
- Rice/Baylor, Brown PLME - waitlisted undergrad; rejected BSMD
- BU, UConn - rejected
- GW - withdrew
Applied to the following undergraduates:
- Carnegie Mellon - Computer Science - ACCEPTED
DECISION: Northwestern HPME
Scholarship: None
Reflection:
It is a Roller-Coaster ride; be prepared for a long 6 month ride!
God only knows what these admissions committee folks look into the applications;
Interview acceptance or rejections APPEAR to have NO relationship with your score or accomplishments; a “higher” rank university may invite you for an interview and you may be rejected by a “lower” ranked university!
So apply to 10-15+ programs and pray for the best.
Somethings we learned:
- About 3500-4000 students apply for BSMD programs. If you add up the BS/MD seats available across all universities, they are < 500. So, you know the odds of getting in.
- Many universities prefer in-state students e.g. NJ, TX, CT, OH universities.
- Universities constantly re-calibrate their yields - i.e. ratio of offers to accepted students. For example, Rice this year had over 2000 applications compared to 750 last year. But they sent offer acceptances to 199 this year compared to 233 last year. You may be on the wrong side of their yield management.
- UPitt: Apply only if you have a FULL score on SAT or ACT ; it is a wasted effort otherwise. It has an OUT-of-state preference (one of the odd ball universities in this regard).
- Rice/Baylor: they have 6 seats; RICE will send around 200 applications to Baylor and Baylor will invite 25. Odds for out-of-state are low.
- UCinncinati: If out of state, put it on a very low priority; very strong in-state preference.
- Same for UConn - if out of state, do not waste your time.
- BU: should change its name to “Mute” university for lack of any communications.
- Rice/Baylor and Brown PLME - I would like to call them “apply and forget” - after applying, think about them only after March 21.
- Northwestern : HPME program officials were absent for HPME session on Admitted Student days; I believe this is not respecting time and money parents spend visiting the university; excellent HPME student interactions - kudos to them; Regular Undergrad faculty present for other sessions - good interactions with them; good vibe at the campus.
- Penn/Jeff: The best and most well organized interview day. Kudos to the university. Great speakers; good financial aid session; excellent student interactions; good vibe at the campus.
- Stonybrook: No parent sessions; could not form any opinion about the school/ program; student-to-student interactions with WISE students; daughter like the university.
- Hofstra Medical: Very good and small group parent session; very informative and open to all kinds of questions; other universities should emulate them.
- Temple : Was chaotic.
- Drexel: was on a Saturday; limited student or faculty interaction; informative session and Q&A.
Lastly, be judicious about the time you spend on College Confidential. Spending more time here DOES NOT increase your chances of acceptance. But it can definitely increase your anxiety levels, especially as folks get interview calls. But, it remains a great source of information and support.
Thank you for a great forum and all the best to future aspirants!
