Saint Louis Medical Scholars Program

[spiritedaway]

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone had any information about Saint Louis University's Medical Scholars Program? Apparently, you are accepted before you enroll as a freshman, and during the spring of your sophmore year you must submit an application to the medical school and have an interview. I had a couple of questions for anyone who's been through the program, or knows how the program works:
1) Do you know if they accept internationals?
2) Is admission to the medical school pretty much guaranteed (i.e. most med. scholars are offered admission if they have the minimum GPA), or is the interview process for sophmores still very competitive? Is there a big chance that if I enroll as a medical scholar at SLU, I will be denied guaranteed admission to the medical school even if I meet the minimum GPA requirements, or are the applications & interview basically a formality if you have the requirements?
3) Can I major in anything I want, as long as I take the required courses?
I really need clarification... Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Elpis]

you have to apply to be a med scholar. there's a minimum sat/act and gpa required to get in. i think act minimum is a 30 and sat is probably around 1320, but i'm not sure. gpa/class rank i think you need to be like top 10% or something...i might find the link. with this sat/act and gpa you're pretty guaranteed a deans scholarship ($9000 a year i think) and if your numbers are really good you can apply for the presidential scholarship (full ride). for the presidential scholarship though, you need to have impressive extracurrics, you have to be interviewed, and your SAT/ACT needs to be high to be competitive (like upper 30s/1500s and 3.9-4.0)

1) don't know
2) you need to pull a 3.5 cume and science i believe. then it's pretty much guaranteed. the interview process (from what my friends in the program told me) is not intense or competitive. however, there was a blind med scholar who was denied admission even though she had the necessary gpa. there was a lawsuit and i don't know what happened after that. but for the most part, you meet the GPA, you get accepted. i think this is kind of unfair because there are smart kids that are total jerks getting into the med school. but by and large most billikens are down to earth
3) yep. i know theo majors, english majors, bio majors, chem majors, psych majors, etc

here's the link: http://www.slu.edu/colleges/AS/phs/medScholars.html

oh yeah, you also don't have to take the mcat! but they recommend you do anyway. slu runs their own mcat course which is a joke. don't do it even though it's only 300 dollars

one more thing, the minute you apply to any other medical school, you turn down your guaranteed acceptance to slu

 

[spiritedaway]

Thanks! Another question:
From their website, it says

"To become a medical scholar, you must first receive an invitation from the Director of Preprofessional Health Studies. Invitations are given to students who qualify and are entering premedical studies upon graduation from high school. To qualify, you must have:

an acceptance to the freshman class following completion of your high school diploma. If you have not yet applied for admission to Saint Louis University, contact Undergraduate Admissions.
a composite ACT score of 30 or higher, or
a SAT total of 1320 or higher.
an outstanding high school academic record "

When they say "invitations are given to students who qualify" does that mean if you qualifiy, you are automatically given an invitation? (Assuming you've applied to the program)?

 

[Elpis]

yeah, i'm pretty sure if you qualify you get the automatic invite. you could contact dr. schreiweis (director of preprofessional health studies last i checked) and he could tell you the specifics.

also is your name from hayao miyazaki's spirited away? i liked that film!

i'd be happy to answer any other questions. i'm a slu grad that was considering med school. now i'm not so sure, i'm thinking about going for an mph first. but anyway, i took the premed courses so i can tell you quite a bit about that if you go to slu

also, there are a lot of other guaranteed admissions programs similar to med scholars. there's a lot of these mentioned in the medical school admission requirements book published by the american association of medical colleges. but slu is just such an awesome experience that I'd do it all over again if i could!