Curious if you have thoughts on why most have ended this program—and why Brown has not?
I’m curious about this too! I’m also curious about Case Western because they seem like a top (although not as high as Brown) school for both undergrad and medical school.
I didn’t apply to Brown, because they only give need based aid, and without that aid the program is over $800K.
I did apply to Case Western, because they do give merit aid, but I haven’t been invited for an interview, so I am assuming getting into the combined program with enough merit for it to make sense is very very unlikely.
My two cents, some schools have ended these combined programs because the programs attracted a disproportionate share of affluent students. Northwestern said exactly that when they ended their BSMD program.
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I was so confused by this comment. I kept thinking “how would being an RA help you get research”. I just realized that RA also stands for Research Assistant. i would very much like to do research, and the opportunity to do research is something I will be weighing when I make my choice. But here I actually meant Resident Assistant, the person who lives in the dorm and helps with things like roommate issues, and if you get locked out. My understanding is that this often comes with a free room, so if I loved living on campus it might be something to pursue. Of course I realize it’s probably a competitive position too!
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It’s too bad they didn’t address this issue by offering some kind of guaranteed aid for the MD part for students who qualify for significant aid in undergrad.
It wouldn’t help me, but I would think that a school like NU that is committed to meeting full need in undergrad could find the funding to help a small number of students through medical school.
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You can do research at most colleges - it’s overhyped as an advantage at some. At many large publics, they can’t find enough kids. My daughter’s college did not have a med school and yet many do research at the med school down the street. Many others do research in summer at the programs out there - schools like UAB, etc. .
But I can’t imagine using research as a differentiator because it seems like more proF’s seek kids - at least at the large publics, than the available supply.
There are, of course, some ‘enrichment type’ programs at many schools that might build research into them, making it easier.
It’s nice except for the fact colleges are businesses. They need revenues to exceed expenses. Often grad programs are such. That they support undergrads is nice but one can’t expect private entities on society to support them through the entire journey. At least people know up front.
That does seem reasonable 
But…as tsbna said colleges are businesses and why give something away for free/lower price when people are literally lining up to pay full price?
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They do that for undergrad. If I went to NU or Brown, I’d be paying much more than my friends from low income families. IMO that’s how it should be, even though it meant that I didn’t apply to NU or Brown.
I’m sure they appreciate you spending their money 
When you are older and financially secure, you can endow a scholarship, which would be a very nice thing for you to do.
OOps. I forgot that RA also stands for resident assistant. We did indeed have one of these in my dorm way back when I was in university. That was a long time ago. More recently a daughter was paid a little bit for doing research while in university, although the experience was way more important than the small amount that she was paid. This experience helped her get her first (research) job after graduating, which in turn was critical for getting accepted to the biomedical PhD program where she is currently studying. I am not sure to what extent getting to help with research might be more difficult at universities that have large graduate programs, due to the need to compete with graduate students for positions (she was at what was closer to the Canadian equivalent of a liberal arts college, with very few graduate students). It is my understanding that a wide range of universities have quite a bit of research going on.
And yes, whether resident assistant or research assistant getting the opportunity is competitive and is not something that you should be relying on to support your education in terms of earning much money.
One thing to keep in mind about research assistant positions—they’re becoming more rare because of the major funding cuts to the NIH and NSF.
Professors don’t have grant money to support keeping their labs open and running. I know several who have shut down their lab or severely restricted the number and scope of their projects simply because they don’t have the funding to keep things going.
It’s an issue that’s not just impacting graduate students; it’s impacting undergrads as well.
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@DCDC
Medical schools are hurting right now. (Even Harvard, which probably has the largest endowment of all med schools. See: At Grim Town Hall, Harvard Medical School Leaders Tell Staff to Expect Layoffs and Far-Reaching Cuts | News | The Harvard Crimson ) Not only is their direct grant funding drying up, but the med school’s income from “overhead” in grants is disappearing. Endowed funds that a med school may have come with major restrictions on how they may be used. And other sources of funding (philanthropy or corporate investment) are increasingly hard to come by and do not fill the hole left by the loss of government funding.
The cost of educating a med student far exceeds the amount of tuition a med school collects per student. (Back when my elder D was a med student—so 10-12 years ago—the Dean of the Medical School told the students that it cost the school over $120,000 per student per year to educate them. Since the students were paying only a faction of that price, the state was making a HUGE investment in their education and the Dean expressed his hope that students would remember that after graduation and return to serve as physicians in their home state which generously underwrote their education. ) The costs of educating medical students have definitely not gone down in the last 10 years so med schools are being squeezed hard on many fronts. Costs are up and revenues are down. I’m afraid that unless a very generous donor steps up to endow permanent funding for the purpose of offering scholarships for free or low-cost tuition for med students, what you’re suggesting just isn’t going to happen.
Michael Bloomberg gave JHU $1 BILLION dollars so JHU SOM could offer free tuition to its med students. Ruth Gottesman gave Mt Sinai SOM $1 BILLION so its students now get free tuition. Ken Langone led a massive fund raising campaign for NYU SOM that raised over $1BILLION which allows NYU to offer free tuition to its students.
But there just aren’t that many multi-billionaires and there are apparently even fewer of those billionaires who are interested in endowing med school scholarships.
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If I have an offer that guarantees a research opportunity, should that impact my decision, if I’m on the fence between schools?
It depends…..
Research is like the cherry on the top of your other pre-med ECs.
Some research experience is nice to have; but it’s nor crucial for a med school admission. (Unless you’re gunning for a research intensive med schools like Stanford, JHU, Penn, Harvard, WashU…)
OTOH, if you think you might be more attracted to a PhD track research career in a pure or applied science field, then getting some in-depth research lab experience is crucial.
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wrong thread!
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I’d like to try some research, but I don’t think it’s what I want for a career.
I don’t see a clear cut answer.
Not sure if this is a silly question, but I would want to know if the guaranteed research included my areas of interest.
I ask because at one of the colleges that is still in the running, I got into an honors program that guarantees a research opportunity. They have you rank your top 3 choices, and it seems as though almost everyone gets into one of their three. About half of the options on the list (it’s a long list) are related to medicine.
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You obviously are well researched/ prepared.
Hopefully you have a rock bottom price school on your list to maximize options.
Either way, best of luck. You’re a planner it seems so I’m sure you’ll find something that works.
Re: research. Your interests could very well change. And understand that undergrads at just about every research lab start by doing things like feeding animals, cleaning cages, maybe doing some filing, running errands. You won’t be doing the knee deep research right away. And by the time you do, you might not be interested in doing research at all.
You don’t need a research resume to apply to most medical schools. As noted above, there are a few that are research oriented, but they are also tough admits.
I think you are already doing this…but you need to concentrate on finding an undergrad school where you can see yourself happy and thriving for four years. The whole medical school decision really can wait.