BA/MD vs Top-20 school

YaleGradandDad
Sun, 08 Apr 2012 11:57:22 +0000

I personally believe the experience is what you make out of it, no matter what school you attend

True.



having a guarantee at a medical school I would love to attend while staying close to my family/friends is more important to me.



I think you made your decision there.

Ordinarily I recommend against the combined programs. I faced that dilemma many years back to turn down Northwestern’s 6 yr. program to attend Yale without any uncertainty that I would be a physician. That program is considerably more prestigious than the Hofstra program and would have saved my parents tons of money but I never “valued” a guaranteed medical school acceptance and you probably shouldn’t either. The Hofstra program requires a 3.6 GPA and minimum MCAT scores. If you make those elsewhere you will get into another medical school.

It is interesting that Brown recently changed its combined program to say you could not choose to apply to other medical schools after completing the undergraduate portion without losing your guaranteed spot at their medical school. I can only think that too many of these high achieving students jumped at a combined program but realized there were better medical schools to attend if given the option.