H.S. to Med. School Guides

oreo45
Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:11:11 +0000

bluewind, try Amazon.

MD2B2012- thank you for putting all that on the table.

I believe that the reason programs are canceled is because the med schools find they can get better quality candidates from the 4+4 applicant pool. Also, programs can be a huge hassle to run.

The bs/md applicants are generally high achievers who will do well anyway. Some of the lower level med schools/programs can get these top students by having a guaranteed med program, med schools that would not likely attract such high caliber in the 4+4.

It is still difficult to get in to a US medical school these days for most 4+4 people, especially if they really don’t want to go outside of the states and deal with being an FMG. That is where ‘any med school in the US is good’ comes from. For top HS bs/md applicants this is unlikely to be their result were they to do 4+4.

Some believe the lower tier med schools take advantage of the insecurity that top bs/md applicants have in wanting a guaranteed spot in med school. It is to their advantage to have these programs. Most top med schools attract plenty of top applicants in the 4+4 so they do not need to attract them this way.

There are top med school bs/md programs, so all programs are not equal. Always check the match list for a medical school you are considering to see if graduates get the top residency programs or even into the current competitive fields like derm, radiology,optho and a few others.

It is difficult to get into most bs/md programs even if you are a top candidate and the programs/med schools aren’t. Even programs with high MCAT and GPA reqs are extemely competitive. Keep the cost in mind as some OOS med schools can charge you ~$55-60k per year.