Tutor thru non-profit: ~300hrs; started local chapter w/ 10+ ppl;taught foundational math + reading skills
Tennis: Varsity 4 years, captain 3; no major tourney wins or similar tho
Dance: ~12yrs; taught younger students; help manage performances thru emceeing, backstage stuff; currently preparing for major dance performance (almost debut)
Math Teacher(paid): for middle school + HS students; 1yr; organized curriculum for some geometry chapters
Autonomous Vehicle Comp. club @ school: began it; competed & got 4th place 2 years in a row; was captain + lead builder; worked w/ 3D
Essays/LORs/Other
*just estimates for LORs
1st LOR from freshman bio + anatomy teacher (8/10?): we have a good relationship, but nothing too deep. She seems to like me, and has positively commented on my curiousity to learn before
2nd LOR from Spanish (8/10?): good relationship, again not too deep, but she def likes me bc I asked questions + met w/ her outside school; said she will talk about importance of cultural {Ig like being open minded} in connection with the class and my dance?
Resident(now attending) from shadowing exp (7/10?): only knew me for a week but offered to write LOR; has mentioned my observational skills + interest in med
Common App Prompt: Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
Discussed how I learned to stay present through half-marathon and tennis match; used books as overarching metaphor
Why Medicine: basically story of my med journey (not exactly in these terms); grandmother passed and I saw impact on family → transition to interest in hospital → transition to exp as CNA + phlebotomist → realized I couldn’t provide reassurance about everything the way I wanted to → shadowing experience showed me doctors could and essentially motivation for becoming physician is desire to do something with my own hands to treat the whole person with scope + knowledge
Can you afford oos coa for premed? Can you explain your rationale in your premed list, like why do you have e.g. Wisconsin on your list considering how expensive it would be oos?
For the premed list, I would recommend you look at universities with Early Assurance Programs: Early Assurance Programs — Fast Track to MD . The University of Miami not only has both a 7 and 8 year EAP, but their med school also offers a 3 year MD / 4 year dual degree (MD/MPH or MD/MBA).
Do you have budget constraints? If so, what is your annual budget and will you qualify for need based aid? As a possible med student, you do need to plan for 7-8 years of costs, which for many students means minimizing undergrad costs.
All the BS/MD programs are reaches. As for the non-BS/MD programs, I expect you will get into USF, Loyola, and UIUC. What first and second choice major are you applying for at UIUC?
Make sure to get all apps in by the EA deadline for schools that offer that. Have you submitted any apps yet?
Getting an LoR from a 9th year teacher is less than ideal, and may be an issue at some schools. What year was the Spanish class? Can you get LoRs from junior year teachers?
The Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME) is an eight-year continuum that allows students to combine both their undergraduate studies and medical education at Brown University.
I would consider applying to the PLME Program. There are also over 40 universities offering similar types of programs.
As noted, all of the BS Md programs on your list should be considered reaches…even though you are a very strong student. These programs have extremely low acceptance rates. Also, you need to read the fine print on all. Some don’t guarantee acceptance, they guarantee an interview. Some allow you to apply out to other MD schools and some don’t. @WayOutWestMom
The rest of your list looks balanced to me, and you seem to have a good chance of acceptance to schools on the rest of your list.
One thing to keep in mind…if you go the regular medical school route, the “activities” you did in high school won’t matter unless they are continued while you are in college.
Budget first - for some on your list you’ll need $850K.
Given your #s, there are others you can start at $20K.
Where you go for undergrad likely means little to getting into med school. Here are two med schools that publish where kids came from.
So your budget should be first and foremost over school name. But if you can’t afford the full 8 years, your accomplishments will qualify you for significant merit at fine schools.
So I’m putting 3 things - a UTK and UK colleges attended and a top school (Vandy’s) apps - so you can see, even from a top school, applying to med school is no picnic. But I think top school doesn’t matter. What you do at school as a student is what matters.
Tell us about budget and good luck.
As for chancing, I can’t on the BS/MD or guaranteed admission - but you can do a LECOM school like Rhodes and others for that for that or Nova SE but for undergrad - you could get into all you list with obviously NU, JHU and Wash U being schools that can go either way although I would lean yes into Wash U. But your profile is strong. But in your case, you should base a decision on $$ - so for example, 1500 kids from your state go to Alabama. Why?? For smart kids it’s low 20s and they have the McCullough Pre Medical Studies program. So think $850K if you go to Wash U and don’t have need - and ask your parents - can they pay?? If not, the time to chip away at the budget is now!!! You don’t want to be straddled with hundreds of thousands in med school loans if they can be avoided. Med school won’t care if you go to WVU or UIUC or Wash U, etc.
My freshman year bio teacher is the same teacher I had for anatomy jr year so I’ve had her twice! And my Spanish teacher is from jr year as well!
First major choice @ UIUC is Molecular & Cellular Bio + Data Science. I haven’t decided on a second choice but am leaning heavily to integrative biology.
I will not qualify for need based aid, and in terms of budget constraints I’m hoping for instate tuition (hoping for UIC GPPA), or a good amount of scholarships.
I’ve submitted Penn State’s bs/md and a couple others for undergrad (IU, Rutgers, UPitt, Loyola, USF).
I am planning to apply to PLME, but don’t have high hopes for the school because of its selectivity. Hoping for a bs/md closer to home like UIC GPPA, DePaul, or IU Indianapolis.
All them are reaches since the acceptance rates are in the low single digits.
For OOS public BS/MDs, check the individual school’s rules about if you may be able to qualify for in-state tuition for the professional (MD) portion of your program. Otherwise you’ll be committing yourself to pay high OOS tuition for 4 years of med school.
The biggest issue is the cost. Med school is pretty much in the $100K/year price range right now. It will be MORE expensive 5 years from now. You will only be able to borrow $200K lifetime in federal students loans and will need to borrow the rest in private loans at a higher interest rate and with less favorable repayment options.
Scholarships for med school are extremely limited and you should assume you won’t receive any. Can you/your family afford 4 years of OOS tuition plus 4 years of med school tuition?
Public OOS undergrads will not offer you scholarships because public universities simply don’t have then funds to do so.
Actually, they can cash in on public merit. But they have to be flexible - schools like Alabama, Ole Miss, KU, Texas Tech, WVU and many more of different sizes and geographies will be $30k or less. There’s others - like SUNYs, Florida schools, Purdue and more that will be under $50K and under $40k depending on the name - even full price.
Many Illinois students go to out of state schools for savings.
But they have to be flexible in geography and name, which for a true med school applicant, won’t cause any harm and would save them a lot of $$$.
UMiami has merit scholarships for up to full ride as well as a few more for up to full tuition, in addition to having an EAP.
Some of the Neomed EAP partner schools also have full tuition merit scholarships (Kent state, Akron, Walsh), with Miami Ohio having a super competitive full ride but no full tuition scholarships for oos students.
Also if you’re okay with going DO, consider applying to the BSDO at NSU, it might be a better fit given your lack of research. (But maybe stick to the MD if surgery interests you; NSU MD is significantly better through their agreement with HCA east florida). LECOM offers programs ranging from an EAP when in a partner college to 4+4, 3+4, and 2+4 BSDO programs you apply to in high school. If you’re interested, LECOM has rolling admissions so you can wait till you’re done with all your applications due Nov 1st.
But there are BSDO programs for better DO schools than LECOM, like MSU, KCU, NYIT, and PCOM
