California Northstate University 3+4 year Pre-Med to MD program (2016-2017)

[msyato]

I recently received an invitation for an interview from this school. Although I am quite thrilled because it gets me one step closer to medical school, I really want to hear some insight from students in the program. Some followup questions I have are:
- If I am a student for this particular program, can I still apply to other medical schools once I complete my undergrad?
- If the answer to the previous question was yes, then what are my chances of getting accepted to a medical school from this particular school? I do hear that med-school looks at mainly MCAT scores and GPA, if that's the case, then with set standards, I should do fine, right?

Even if you are not part of the program, I'd still like to hear what you have to say about the school (if you attend the College of Health Sciences as an undergrad)! I've already read threads about "shady" business there, etc... so I would like it if we refrain from posting related issues. Thank you.

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[ty3799]

First off Congratulations! I don't think you'll be able to apply to another medical school after completing the undergraduate degree but you might be able to transfer after the first year.


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[mcloaf]

Generally combined programs like this are discouraged by SDN (myself included), and I'd be especially wary given that the program is at CNU.

In regards to your other questions it looks like it could be tricky if you were interested in applying to other medical schools from this program (I'd imagine this is by CNU's design). The program brochure states they don't award you the bachelor's degree until you complete your first year of medical school. Many medical schools require you to have obtained an undergrad degree by the time you matriculate or a similar amount of credit hours. Most (all?) medical schools would not take an applicant who is already enrolled in another medical school unless you were applying as a transfer, and given the reputation of CNU I wouldn't count on being able to do so (honestly it wouldn't be easy to transfer regardless of where you were in medical school). Basically from reading the brochure it seems that the program is set up to lock you into their medical school program since you won't have obtained what you need to apply elsewhere until you're already in medical school there. @gyngyn can no doubt offer better insight than I can, but I wouldn't enroll in this program unless you fully plan on completing your medical degree there. You could also call them anonymously and ask.

 

[gyngyn]

Holding a Bachelor's degree hostage is not the hallmark of a real university.

 

[Goro]

WASC lets them get away with this?????

Holding a Bachelor's degree hostage is not the hallmark of a real university.

 

[MD26]

I was recently accepted to their 3+4 program and am confused on what to do. They have some sort of enrollment agreement that they would like for me to return by January 3rd in order to reserve my spot. One question that i had was if i meet the minimum requirements of the program to get in to the medical school like the 3.5 GPA and 510 MCAT score, am I guaranteed a spot? Also is this a better option than going to a UC (putting aside all financial matters) and going to the Caribbean? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

 

[gyngyn]

I was recently accepted to their 3+4 program and am confused on what to do. They have some sort of enrollment agreement that they would like for me to return by January 3rd in order to reserve my spot. One question that i had was if i meet the minimum requirements of the program to get in to the medical school like the 3.5 GPA and 510 MCAT score, am I guaranteed a spot? Also is this a better option than going to a UC (putting aside all financial matters) and going to the Caribbean? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

The University of California is the pride of our state. They are the finest public universities in the nation and the some of the best medical schools in the world. An opportunity to attend any of the schools in this cadre is an honor. In contrast, CN"U" is a for-profit school (no better than DeVry or "University" of Phoenix). There is simply no comparison in quality or opportunity between an undergraduate education at a UC and this bunch of opportunists, excuse me, investors.

 

[efle]

I was recently accepted to their 3+4 program and am confused on what to do. They have some sort of enrollment agreement that they would like for me to return by January 3rd in order to reserve my spot. One question that i had was if i meet the minimum requirements of the program to get in to the medical school like the 3.5 GPA and 510 MCAT score, am I guaranteed a spot? Also is this a better option than going to a UC (putting aside all financial matters) and going to the Caribbean? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

UC >> CNU >> Caribbean

Generally, students strong enough to get into BS/MD programs should be staying very far away from the likes of CNU and Carib.

 

[Med Ed]

I was recently accepted to their 3+4 program and am confused on what to do. They have some sort of enrollment agreement that they would like for me to return by January 3rd in order to reserve my spot. One question that i had was if i meet the minimum requirements of the program to get in to the medical school like the 3.5 GPA and 510 MCAT score, am I guaranteed a spot? Also is this a better option than going to a UC (putting aside all financial matters) and going to the Caribbean? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

I would be hesitant to enroll in a 3+4 program when the school does not even yet have provisional accreditation. Guaranteed admission programs have been developed for a variety of goals, those like CNU's exist for one purpose: to pad the GPA/SAT/ACT numbers in their undergraduate program. Enrollment will be heavily ORM, with half the students wanting to pursue medicine and all of them having parents who want them to pursue medicine.

 

[efle]

I would be hesitant to enroll in a 3+4 program when the school does not even yet have provisional accreditation. Guaranteed admission programs have been developed for a variety of goals, those like CNU's exist for one purpose: to pad the GPA/SAT/ACT numbers in their undergraduate program. Enrollment will be heavily ORM, with half the students wanting to pursue medicine and all of them having parents who want them to pursue medicine.

What other motives have there been for BS/MD programs, other than wanting to capture superstars that they'd likely miss out on if they weren't grabbing them so early? I can't think of any other benefits to the university!

 

[Med Ed]

What other motives have there been for BS/MD programs, other than wanting to capture superstars that they'd likely miss out on if they weren't grabbing them so early? I can't think of any other benefits to the university!

The motives often overlap, but sometimes the programs mainly benefit the undergraduate side, sometimes they have been geared toward snaring high-performing URM's right out of high school, sometimes they have been built by public universities to keep high scoring kids in-state. Sometimes the programs are really pushed by elements within the undergrad, like a biomedical engineering department. I can think of one example where a huge proponent of a particular program was a state legislator with children in high school.

 

[neoevolution]

I think BS/MD programs were launched decades ago back when there wasn't as much interest in medical school. A lot of them now have closed, gotten smaller, or made themselves longer (very few are 6 years anymore). At least at BU, one track is for BU undergrads who want early acceptance and have performed at the top of their class for the first couple of years; another recruits URM students and transfers them to BU for senior year of undergrad so they can take med school level courses before M1, which I think has made the URM med school graduation rate a lot better

The 7 yr BA/MD track I did is pretty much top 5% high school GPA, 99th percentile SAT, etc. I think most of us could have gotten into an Ivy or some top 20, so it does lock in strong students from early on, but our med school is also pretty competitive so I don't know if it's necessarily a net gain. I do remember interviewing at the UMiami program, and their combined med kids apparently do perform better in med school than their general students