Chance me bsmd

Pre-Med & Medical School Multiple Degree Programs
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Academics & Demographics

I am an Asian female student at a private, college-preparatory high school. I currently hold a 90.23 GPA (equivalent to a 4.0 at my school) and have a projected ACT score of 34.

12 honors 6 APS (projected by end of senior year)

Extracurricular & Professional Involvement

Academic Tutor, School Academic Center

Provided peer tutoring in Biology, Chemistry, Geometry, Geography, Algebra, Spanish I–II, and Computer Science.

Hospital Volunteer, Surgical Department

Completed 300+ hours assisting in a local hospital’s surgical unit.

Special Needs Volunteer at School

Participated in a school organization dedicated to supporting children with special needs.

Community Service Volunteer, Special Spaces

Contributed to projects building customized bedrooms for children with medical and developmental challenges.

Medical Club Leadership

Serving on the Medical Club Board for senior year.

Physician Shadowing

Shadowed physicians across multiple specialties, including EMT surgery, dermatology, and internal medicine.

Careers in STEM Member

Engineering Club Member

Tennis Team

Captain for junior and senior year.

Research Assistant, Outcomes Research Team

Endeavor Health NorthShore

Member of a hospital-based research team working alongside an infectious disease physician on projects involving timely discharge and virtual nursing, with plans to contribute to additional studies.

Director of Events, Dermatology Nonprofit (Chicago-based, nationwide chapters)

Lead event planning and initiatives focused on dermatologic health equity, skin cancer education, fundraising, and donation drives.

Outreach Intern & Patient Stories Team Lead, Chronically Me

Selected as an intern for a global, patient-first platform serving 150,000+ members of the chronic illness community.

Independent App Development Project

Designing and developing a mobile skincare application that uses facial-scanning technology to identify common skin concerns, with the goal of publishing on the App Store.

NHS member at school

Awards

seal of biliteracy

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Colleges may interpret your 90 differently. It looks like you have a lot of medical experience. Congrats.

Apply and see.

But they’ll be reaches. A way to ensure med school is apply via the LECOM program. If you are selected, you have a clear path - and without MCAT.

Best of luck.

LECOM-AFFILIATED-COLLEGES-AND-UNIVERSITIES-9-4-25.pdf

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Congrats on your accomplishments. BS/MD programs are reaches for all students.

The LECOM program mentioned above is for DO (not MD) if that matters to you.

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I want to go into dermatology so I think MD would be my better but BSDO schools seem like my best chance given my low gpa

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Not necessarily. There’s no reason you need to get into a program now vs. in 4 + years from now.

The traditional route is obviously the most common.

Also, you just said your GPA is a 4.0 - so how is that low - and you are at a school that - a 90 might be considered inicredible.

Like anyone, take your shots - but have a balanced and affordable list - and note to save at least another $400K for med school when you budget.

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Or you can go the more traditional route of getting a bachelors and then applying to med school.

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Congratulations on your achievements.

Are you a US citizen/permanent resident?

Just confirming you have all A’s? Any grades lower than A in core courses?

Will you have at least four years in each of the five core subject areas by the time you graduate? What math will you have senior year? Will you have taken physics in HS?

Assuming you are a citizen and nothing lower than A’s, you should be competitive for BSMD/DO programs. But they all have really low acceptance rates. Which programs are you targeting? You are miles away from choosing a specialty so I wouldn’t even consider that right now.

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I have a few b’s and 1 c in core classes I am a us citzen and I am taking physics now I will have AP calc senior year. I would like to get into Penn states program but I am looking at all programs MD and DO

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A few additional comments:

–The guidance counselor at your “private, college-preparatory high school” will be your best source of advice.

-Please thoroughly research any combined program you apply to. Many do not offer assured admissions to the MD part of the program (ex. may require minimum MCAT score, GPA threshold, etc.)

–-Once again, any combined BS/Medical School program will be a reach for ANY applicant, yourself included. Having a few B’s and a C in core classes won’t help. It is fine to apply to some of these programs of course, but focus on finding affordable undergraduate options where you would be excited to earn your BS.

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How do you figure a 4.0 then - at least unweighted ?

But again - take your shots but even if you don’t get in, you have a chance later.

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What is your C in?

Becoming a doctor is a long and difficult path. It requires academic strength. However, just as important, and maybe even more important, it requires a lot of determination and effort. It is also expensive.

I like the fact that you have quite a bit of experience already in a medical environment. This might be the one reason that I might think that admissions to a BS/MD or BS/DO program might be at least possible at all. These programs do not want to admit students who are going to get part way through and just decide that they want to do something completely different.

Although getting to university and deciding that you want to do something completely different is a very reasonable outcome, and a very common outcome for students who start university thinking “premed”.

Another issue is that you are attending a private high school. The issue here is that some private high schools are academically quite challenging and some have grading scales that are slightly different compared to more normal suburban high schools. The admissions staff at universities that you are applying to will know which high school you are at and what the typical grade scales are at your high school. We do not know this, and those of us commenting on CC should not know what school you are at (the word “confidential” does after all show up in the web site’s name). This makes it a bit difficult for us to know how to interpret your grades. This however will not be a problem when you are applying to universities, because they will know how to interpret your grades.

Let’s suppose that you don’t get into any BS/MD program, but instead take the more traditional and way more common approach of first getting a bachelor’s degree, and then applying to medical schools. In this case, there are a huge number of universities and colleges that are very good for premed students, hundreds and hundreds of them. You do have the stats to get into a university that would be very good for a premed student.

Of the hundreds of universities that are very good for a premed student who is taking the more traditional path of first getting a bachelor’s degree and then applying to medical school, Penn State University is indeed one of them and would be a good choice, particularly if you are in-state.

I am not sure exactly what this involves. However, one daughter briefly thought about being premed. She started in university taking classes that might be pretty normal premed classes and getting very high grades (beyond what would be needed for medical school). However she got into lab classes and decided that she wanted to do lab based research instead. Right now she is studying for a PhD in a very good program. This is just one of many, many examples of a student who got to university and decided that medical school was not the right path for them. University will expose you to quite a few opportunities. There is plenty of time to figure this out.

You need to budget for a full 8 years of university, where the first four (bachelor’s degree) are usually easier to find an affordable option compared to the last 4. You need to expect premed classes to be tough. You need to learn how to do well, or at least well enough, in the tough premed classes. However, the high school that you are already at is probably already a very good start in this direction. You will need a lot of medical shadowing experience, but again you already have a very good start in this direction.

I think that you should think of any application to a BS/MD program as a reach, make sure that you are also applying to safeties that would be good for a premed student, keep your 8-year budget in mind, and see how this comes out. To me it looks like you already have a very good start and this should work out well one way or another.

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A ‘few B’s’ and a C will likely impact your chances for these programs. Good ECs can’t compensate for grades/GPA. What is your class rank? If you don’t know approximate it, and/or ask your counselor. Are you in-state for Penn State?

I agree with happy1 that your HS counselor should be your best source of school/program categorization. Of course you can put in some BSMD/DO apps, but as others have said you need non-reaches and at least one affordable, highly likely for admission school. Do you have budget constraints?

There is little reason to accelerate one’s path to med school. The vast majority of MD and DO students do not come through these programs.

Let us know if you would like help with building a college list.

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And it should not be viewed as a slam dunk. But I think the LECOM program might be a good option.

You don’t mention which BS MD programs you are applying for. Which ones?

MD and DO training is very similar now. Not identical…but very very similar. Please don’t discount DO programs in terms of becoming a doctor.

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Couple of suggestions:

1- If medicine is the goal, you need to keep all your options on the table. BSMD, LECOM, just going to college and majoring in history or poli sci or bio or whatever you want while covering off the med school requirements. You do not need to accelerate, and there are zero professional consequences to just going to college and then applying to medical school.

2-If becoming a doctor is indeed the goal- you need to move dermatology to the side. That’s not how doctors are trained. You are years away from picking/matching with a specialty, and such a narrow focus is distracting. My nephew was a fellow at one of the premier teaching hospitals in the country in “early Covid” and repeated the rousing speech that the chief medical officer gave to the entire medical team after the shutdown. “You aren’t cardiologists, and you aren’t psychiatrists and you aren’t pediatricians and you aren’t oncologists” (as he pointed to the groups of doctors assembled in the parking lot as the triage tent was being assembled). “We are all physicians. Period. And we are going to do what we have been trained to do- save lives when we can. Alleviate pain and suffering when we cannot”.

My nephew said that the older doctors in the parking lot were wiping away tears at this speech. The younger ones were too stunned to react. But that was the mantra that kept the staff going for weeks and months. The doctors (and nurses, and phlebotomists and custodians, etc.) who had young kids at home were too scared of bringing Covid home, so many of them just slept, showered, and ate at the hospital for weeks on end.

3- Why did I tell you this? Because in addition to your very fine EC’s and academic success, being a doctor also means working towards being the very best human you can be. Don’t let your focus and ambition cloud your perspective. Figure out your “why” and not just the “how” of getting into a program or getting into a specialty or getting chosen for a fast track with a tiny acceptance rate. And budget is key…. a real budget, not “my parents will do ANYTHING to help me pay for medical school”.

Good luck!

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Please place any medical specialty WAYYY on the back burner for now. You have years and years before you will be looking for residency programs in whatever field of medicine you want. What you do in medical school or the medical school portion of your studies will determine specialty choices at least in part.

@WayOutWestMom

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What grade are you in currently? Looks that some classes and standardized test scores are “projected.”

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The other thing with LECOM is you can still go the traditional route. It’s just another option.

I know Allegheny, not cheap, but has mad merit. St. Joe’s too Indiana U of PA is on the list as is Kutztown, Lockhaven, Millersville, Shippensburg, a few Penn State branches like Erie, Altoona and Lehigh Valley and a few more publics are on the list.

I know, people name focused are - I want PSU and Pitt - but you can get to med school from any of them - and it’s just another potential avenue.

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For LECOM…just make sure the student applies to a couple of the partner schools with LECOM. The student must attend one of these partner schools. The list is pretty varied. So…check that.

At this point, I would be looking for an undergrad college where the student will be happy and will thrive…and is affordable.

As noted above, BS MD programs are not all the same. Some still require a minimum MCAT score. Some only guarantee a med school interview, not a guaranteed spot. Lots of differences.

And if finances are a consideration, remember that any undergrad merit aid, access to federally funded student loans plus the amount allowed limit, and possibly need based aid as well…will not continue for the medical school portion of the studies (so budget accordingly).

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Dermatology is one the MOST competitive specialties.
There 1.7 X as many applicants as there are dermatology residency positions. This means that many highly qualified applicants will NOT match into derm every year.

Derm hopefuls need to have top USMLE scores, top class rank at their med school, AOA membership (honor society equivalent to Phi Beta Kappa for medical students), research and publications in dermatology topics (median number of dermatology publications for a successful applicant is 27. Going into dermatology often requires taking an extra year of med school to do research.), doing several audition rotations in dermatology during MS3-4, plus having the very strongest recommendations from your dermatology mentors from med school.

You can get to dermatology from a DO med school, but it’s harder. You’ll need to take both the USMLE and COMLEX ( COMLEX is required for DO graduation and the licensing of DO physicians). Since DO schools do not have home hospitals or research facilities, you will be on your own to find mentors in dermatology and to find dermatology research opportunities. You will need to arrange your own dermatology rotation(s) since dermatology isn’t a core specialty.

So dermatology isn’t a given for anyone.

If you are thinking of going into medicine, do so for the right reasons and with a humble willingness to serve as primary care provider. (Because, frankly, most physicians-- MD or DO-- will end up doing primary care.)

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Penn State is a BA/MD program hosted at a state-supported medical school.

  • Are you from Pennsylvania?
  • Do you have any significant ties to Pennsylvania?
  • Are you among the top academically strongest students in your school district (not just your private high school)?
  • What’s your actual (not predicted) SAT or ACT score?
  • Your accurate and corrected unweighted GPA. If you don’t know how to calculate your GPA, use this calculator. Use only your core courses: English, social sciences, mathematics, science, foreign languages.

You seem to have some very good ECs, but your descriptions of your actual roles are vague.

What does “supporting children with special needs” actually mean? Are you providing academic tutoring? Assistance with physical needs (like toileting or feeding)? Providing advice or companionship?

Ditto for “contributed to projects…”
How did you contribute?
Fundraising? Actually doing carpentry to make customized furniture? Physically assembling the materials? Doing design work or coming up with design ideas?

You get the idea… you need to be more specific. Otherwise it’s all just buzzwords.

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To sum it up-- BS/MD or BS/DO is a reach for everyone. Acceptance rates for BS/MD/DO are under 5%.

Also BS/MD/DO programs do NOT guarantee a med school admission. All of them have internal requirements you must meet: a certain MCAT; a certain GPA; getting a certain amount of research/community service/clinical exposure during your 3 or 4 years of undergrad; successfully interviewing with the med school faculty. You must “pass” the interview just like the rest of the med school applicants.

Some BS/MD/DOs only guarantee you an interview at the associated med school at the beginning of your senior year and no other special consideration for admission.

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Apply to BS/MD/DO programs if you wish, but you also need find some colleges where you will be happy to attend and are affordable for our family.

Remember any merit for undergrad will end once you begin med school. Merit for med school is rare and hard to get.

Affordability is important. Unless your family can comfortably afford to pay for 8 years of school for you (and the cost of your medical education at either a private or an OOS public med school is in the $100K/year range), then you need to talk with your family about how they and you will pay for college and med school.

Med students are limited to borrowing only $200K in federal student loans over a lifetime (including any undergrad student loans) and no more than $50K/year in med school. You need to consider how you and your family will cover the rest of the cost.

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Great profile ! You seem destined for career in medicine.

Northwestern University ended its BS/MD program in favor of a more mature, in my opinion, approach: