Direct Admit vs. Accelerated vs. Traditional

mcat2
Tue, 04 Dec 2012 15:01:11 +0000

a friend is head of a large hospital department and is over many ivy medical doctors. This friend was a nurse for years but could not get into an American Med school and went to Manilla. Nobody is concerned about the location of her medical school diploma, but she is still the boss and they come to her for advice

Some people just “love” to hear an anecdotal story like this. It is almost like the justice has been served and most people in the room (more people attend a lower tiered school anyway) are happy about this unexpected outcome. (I did not intend to dispute the truth of this story, but you did not mention whether she has been working her tail off to get there.)

Last time I heard about it, the head of UT-SW med school was from either JHU med school or HMS, and Yale College. (It does not mean that one could not get there from a lower tracked school. But for some of the career paths, fair nor not, the name of the school could help.)



IF you are top of med school class the best residencies and fellowships will follow so you don’t want to be paying off your loans until your mid-forties.

I notice you have capitalized the “IF”. This is the key. Only if you happen to be the shining star who not only happens to have a photographic memory but also is the one who is disciplined to be working 13 hours everyday.

I think the majority of top combined programs (e.g., Rice-Baylor, the NW one - is it HPME?) also cost a fortune for most students there after 8 years, just like most traditional 4-year med schools. It is not like going to a combined program would automatically eliminate the financial concern for most students there. If the total out-of-pocket cost is a big concern, going to ANY college which allows you to pay the least amount or even at almost zero cost, whether it is a combined BS/MD program or not. Since you will be destined to be at the top of med school, you would of course be at the top of your premed classes, ace the MCAT and do great on ECs, no matter what college you choose to attend.