***BS/MD/DO RESULTS THREAD - Fall 2023-24 CYCLE***

[NoviceDad]

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 the previous cycle to provide the sample format.
This is a SAMPLE POST for the results thread. You can copy & paste & update with your details when you post. Thank you so much in advance for helping 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:

1. Northwestern HPME - interviewed - ACCEPTED
2. PennState / Jefferson - interviewed - ACCEPTED
3. Stony Brook Scholars for Medicine - interviewed - ACCEPTED
4. Drexel/Drexel - interviewed - ACCEPTED
5. Temple/ Temple - interviewed - rejected (accepted undergrad with scholarships)
6. Hofstra - interviewed - rejected (accepted undergrad with scholarships)
7. UPitt GAP, CaseWestern, URochester, UCinncinati - rejected pre-interview (accepted undergrad with scholarships)
8. Rice/Baylor, Brown PLME - waitlisted undergrad; rejected BSMD
9. BU, UConn - rejected
10. GW - withdrew

Applied to the following undergraduates:

1. 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!

[darbeeny]

Going through the process with my daughter in NYC.

ACT 32
Diversity Student
Ranked 6th out of class of 900 in NYC public HS.
Did all her own essays with me just proofing them.

She go into most of her schools BUT not the dual programs. GWU, Rutgers (2), Augusta plus a bunch more.

She was accepted into the CUNY Sophie Davis program. While she is grateful, she is not sure if she wants to be in NYC or a more suburban location.
I also have not been able to find out recent info on the program since it changed a few years ago to using their own medical school.

Lessons learned:
There are many different types of dual programs.
Very hard to get into especially out of state.
A number of schools offer dual programs and use 3rd tier (as best I can tell) medical schools which is too risky IMO.

[texaspg]

Congratulations to your daughter. Based on CUNYs first residency match list they have done quite well.
The goal of all students is to match for residency. All medical schools in US follow the same curriculum prescribed by AAMC for MD and AOCOM for DO but they are both competing in the same pool for residency ever since merged residencies in 2019. Please dont believe the hoopla about first rate second rate etc since how successful a student is ultimately based on whether they had the opportunity to match into the residency field they are interested in and that primarily depends on how well they do IN THEIR OWN medical school.

[SA2024]

Here’s my student’s stats

GPA: 3.95 (UW), 4.70 (W)

Class Rank: NA

SAT: 1580

AP’s - 4
AP Calculus
AP Biology
AP language
AP US History

Teacher / Counselor Recs: Not seen but assume to be Very Strong, teachers knew my student very well. My student also started corresponding with teacher very early on in their junior year regarding their intention with regards to rec letter.

Major ECs:

• Violin - 6+ years ; Winner of multiple competitions
• Baseball - High School Varsity team captain

Community Service:

• President of the Local Youth Chapter of a foundation focused on Alzheimer’s awareness
• Volunteer at an NGO for adult ESL
• Volunteer Teaching violin to underprivileged students

Medically related activities:

• Physician Shadowing
• Hospital Volunteer
• Research through Liberty Science Program
• Research assistant for a professor at a local college

Applied to the following BS/MD Programs:

1. Rutgers/NJMS - Interviewed and accepted
2. Drexel/Drexel - interviewed and accepted
3. Temple/ [Temple ] - interviewed and accepted
4. PennState / Jefferson - interviewed and rejected
5. [Hofstra ] - interviewed and Rejected
6. UPitt, URochester, PLME - rejected pre-interview (accepted undergrad including Brown)

Deciding between Rutgers and Temple BSMD. It’s tough to give up Brown and Yale (2 of my students top UG choices if they did not get into BSMD)

Reflection:
It is a long long journey which begins in Freshman year of high school. Profile building literally starts in the 9th grade - trying different things and then narrowing down a few which you would like to continue for all 4 years and go deeper. It’s quality vs quantity. For my student, I think what stood out was research experience and the fact that they were able to get it published. Also, they were genuinely interested in medicine and all their activities and essays reflected the same. This was very important!!

Somethings we learned:

• No BSMD program is a 100% guarantee. Most schools require a min GPA, MCAT (most not all) and a few other requirement such as an interview (Temple does). Check these requirements before you apply to make sure you are comfortable with it.
• Application/supplemental is extremely important but so is the interview. Do not neglect to prepare for the interview. Do not leave it for the end. You do not get more than a couple weeks once they shortlist you for an interview

Good Luck to all future candidates. It’s a tough road but totally worth it if that’s what you want!

[Lamdagamma]

Posting for my child:

We are an immigrant family having moved to US at the start of my child’s 9th grade.
We had no clue about BS/MD or US college admissions.
Luckily through Google search ran and through couple of posters came to know about this forum on college confidential.

Some stats:

GPA: 3.94
SAT: 1510
APs: 0 in 9th, 2 in 10th, 4 in 11th and 4 in 12th

Shadowing - about 100 hours
Volunteering - about 200 hours
Other than AP Research, did 1 independent research.
Did EMT ride along
Sports: child likes cricket but did not pursue any sports.
Region: Somewhere in US

Recommendation letters: Don’t know. Had average of 1 meeting in 9th and 10th grade. Had more at the time of application cycle. Teachers knew the child and hopefully gave good letters.

Applied to a wide range of colleges - both BS/MD and regular admissions.
Luckily, child got accepted into 2 programs - Union/AMC and W&J/Temple.
Also, accepted to in-state college and undergrads of most BS/MD colleges.
Did not apply to Ivys.

Thoughts:

• The process is a mess. My child got frustrated writing so many essays. They should have a common set of essays for all BS/MD colleges.
• We were very lost initially but a good private counselor was pivotal for us. There were so many things we learned from them. For immigrants like us, they were godsend.
• Colleges need to communicate more clearly. Also, they should stop the rolling declarations of interviews - it just added to our anxiety.
• Our calls to admissions office were generally answered politely but at many places the initial person was generally clueless about BS/MD. At one college, we got conflicting responses.
• During the application process, we lost all hope as we kept getting rejections. But our counselor calmed our nerves. There were so many ad-hoc calls I had with them. Thankfully, they were kind and did not even once indicated we were calling too much.

We are thankful to have 2 offers and while my child has accepted one, they do not want it to be shared in a public forum.

At last, it is over.
All the best to future students and parents.

[JD2024]

Posting for daughter:

GPA: 4.0 (UW), 4.77 (W) at the time of application
Class Rank: NA; Class Size 850+
ACT: 33
SAT: 1500

AP’s
AP Physics II: 3
AP HGAP: 4;
AP Biology - 4;
AP Psych: 4
AP Eng: 5
AP Spanish: 3
AP Chem: no score yet
AP Calc BC: No score yet
AP Eco: No score yet
AP Gov: No score yet
AP lit: No score yet

Teacher / Counselor Recs: Not seen but assume to be Very Strong, teachers knew my daughter well and mutual respect existed at both ends.

State: TX
Gender: F
Ethnicity: ORM
Income: >150k
Hooks: None

Awards:

• Presidential volunteer Gold award
• National Junior Olympics water polo team 4th place
• Various State & Regional Science Olympiad awards
• AP scholar w/distinction
• USA Water Polo outstanding All-American

Major ECs:

• Non profit founder for a women’s cause for last 4 years, raised over $12k and opened chapters in 2 other cities.
• Piano - 10+ years
• Swim/Water polo – 10+ years
• Swim/water polo - High School JV and Varsity team — 2 years
• Student Council VP - 4 years
  Science Olympiad Captain - 4 years

Community Service:

• Volunteered for 4 years at local community blood drive center, organized drives, sign-ups.
• Volunteer - at Senior living facility playing and teaching piano to seniors
• Volunteer - assist disabled athletes with training for marathons
• Prepare sandwiches and care packages for homeless shelter

Medically related activities:

• Physician Shadowing (250 hrs)
• Hospital ICU Volunteering (100 hrs)
• Research: summer paid research at T50 University (400 hrs)
• Research: Medical research with professor at another T50 University (250 hrs)

Applied to the following BS/MD Programs:

1. U of S. Carolina - ACCEPTED BSMD w/scholarship
2. PennState / Jefferson - Rejected - Pre interview
3. Stony Brook - Rejected - Pre interview
4. Drexel/Drexel - interviewed - ACCEPTED w/scholarship
5. Hofstra, UPitt GAP, CaseWestern, URochester, Stony Brook, Arizona-Tucson, Syracuse, NJMS/NJIT, VCU- rejected pre-interview (accepted undergrad with scholarships)
6. Baylor- rejected after 2nd rd
7. RPI/AMC - Waitlisted BSMD
8. Brown, Tulane: Rejected
   9: Texas A&M BSMD, U of Houston: Rejected (accepted ug)

Applied to the following undergraduates:
Rice, Emory: Waitlisted. UT-Austin: accepted

DECISION: S. Carolina or Drexel

Reflection:

The number of applications for BSMD programs has been increasing over the years, as more and more people are becoming aware of this route and with some programs being eliminated, it is becoming increasingly competitive.We applied to 19 BSMD programs, these were programs that she was sure she would go to if accepted. We consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to have a choice of 2 programs to choose from.

We had the support of a wonderful BSMD counselor who worked with my daughter over the last 2.5 years. His guidance was really helpful, We wouldn’t have been able to get this far without his help. I am a huge advocate for getting help here, do not try to navigate this on your own. In this cycle, I have seen many students on reddit with better stats than hers crash and burn. I am sure if they were only able to put together a more coherent package with the help of a specialist, they would have had better results.

The CC BSMD threads have been very helpful, thanks to everyone who has posted, I have diligently followed every single post for the last 3-4 years, glad we are done with it for now.

[bf98]

hi there. Just want to confirm that all the details in the sample post are fictional? Am astounded at the amount of details provided. Thx

[NoviceDad]

The sample post is of a past BS/MD student. It is not a fictional post.

[bf98]

Noted. Thx

[S_Nitt]

Hello … thanks so much for the post. We are in the similar boat … boy in the 9th grade and likes cricket type. He plays basketball though and is interested in bs md program.

[momofboiler1]

Reminder that CC is not a referral service and posts either providing or asking for specific recommendations will be deleted.

[S_Nitt]

Thank you. Is there a way to privately DM the poster in this forum ?

[thumper1]

Click on their avatar. You should see a box that says “send message”. Hit that and the dialogue box will come up IF that poster is accepting private messages.