Received merit and scholarship money to both. GWU would be about $10K more expensive a year. GWU location in DC is great but how is the pre-med advising, clinical opportunities, science classes? Does GWU try to weed out students as some of the big state schools do? Rhodes seems to offer a more personal experience and has excellent pre-med advising.
Rhodes has an early selection program to GW Med School. Does that appeal to you? Does GW undergrad offer a similar opportunity?
George Washington SOM has a early selection program with several partner colleges. Only a very limited number of students (<12) in total are admitted through the Early Selection programs
Partner colleges include: Chaminade College (HI), Franklin & Marshall College ( PA), George Mason University (VA), Hampden-Sydney College (VA), Knox College (IL), Morgan State University (MD), Rhodes College (TN), University of Mary Washington (VA), and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.
Students applying for the Early Selection program must be approved by the Health professions committee at their undergrad prior to applying. Students accepted through the Early Selection program must maintain a 3.5 GPA with no C grades AND attain a MCAT score that GWSOM sets. The score changes every year and is dependent upon the median MCAT score of GWSOM matriculants from the previous cycle. Applying to med schools other than GWSOM voids the Early Selection contract and a student’s provisional acceptance will be revoked. Early Selection students must also undergo a final review and approval by the admissions committee before their acceptance is finalized.
IOW, the Early Selection program does not offer a guaranteed admission. It offers a provisional acceptance with lots of strings attached.
I wouldn’t let the presence or absence of the early selection program be a determining factor in making a final decision about which undergrad to attend.
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If the student meets all the provisional requirements, GPA, MCAT, but can still get rejected, what is the advantage of being in the Early Selection Program? Also, it looks like the partner schools have their own requirements in addition to the GWU requirements to even apply to the program. But its looks like if you’re a GWU student, you just have to meet the GWU requirements. Is that correct?
It’s been a while since I looked at the program’s website, but the medical school always has the final decision about whether or not to accept a student.
The student must first meet all of GWU’s requirements. If they do, then their name is forwarded to the med school’s admission committee for further consideration. The student will also fill an AMCAS application for GWU SOM, Once the med school adcomm has both the students AMCAS application AND an endorsement/favorable report forwarded from the undergrad indicating the requirements have been met, then the med school will review the student and make a decision about whether to accept them. I don’t know if an admission interview with the med school is required.
I read through the requirements, and it looks like the advantage is that the applicant’s records and resume is evaluated every semester after acceptance into the program. The student can be dismissed from the program at any point if the program committee feels the student isn’t meeting the expectations of the committee. I guess the hope is that the committee thoroughly evaluates the candidate so that by the time they apply to the med school, the candidate will meet the med school requirements. This was good to know. Thanks.
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