Can you bribe your way to medical school?

[premed2013]

How much money do you think one will need to pay to get accepted into medical school?

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[SilverCat]

Being related to say, Michael Bloomberg, might be a mark in your favor.

 

[Jennyfishy]

One billion dollars + walking all the AdCom's dogs for a week

 

[AxiomaticTruth]

Of course. Remember that Florida guy who got in because he schmoozed with politicians?

http://chronicle.com/article/Florida-Medical-Dean-Overrules/40749

 

[Jennyfishy]

I think there was some kind of scandal at my school a while ago regarding the chancellor helping a well connected family's daughter gain acceptance to a school though. Who you know is important, but being from a wealthy family doesn't hurt either.. haha

 

[Doctor Strange]

I think the more relevant question is how many adcoms you have to sleep with...

 

[Barcu]

Yale could use an international airport.

 

[dbeast]

The amount of money it would take is high enough that you'd be stupid to go into medicine instead of just retire and play golf.

 

[MVP]

I hear that for Stanford undergrad a couple million is not enough but if you donate 8 figures it can often get you in. For med school it might be the same but you still have to be a minimally competent applicant

 

[HopefulSlav]

Use the CIA's acronym of MICE. Works every time.

 

[Arkangeloid]

There's no problem in this world that money can't solve.

If you're an exceptionally beautiful woman, you can also leverage your sexuality to get in after you get to the interview.

 

[Mr Avante]

45 Million dollars per student that will go straight to biomedical research. You didn't hear it from me.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

You can probably bribe you way in, yes, but there would be little incentive to do so. The amount it would take would surpass what you would make as a physician, making it economically pointless. It's not like bribing to get your kid into an ivy business school so they can go on to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 and earn back what you spent on the bribe in a year.

That said, knowing people helps. Someone already pointed out the Florida scandal. And having worked at a med school at which I was privy to faculty gossip, it was known that there were a few (abysmally under-performing) students who had only gotten in because they were the kids of bigshot alumni, bigshot doctors in the area, or had parents who were high up in the med school.

Which brings up another point: If you have to bribe your in, you're probably going to regret it.

 

[sazerac]

Odd how you would literally have to donate tens of millions directly to the school, yet spending 5 figures on a politician would give you the connections necessary to have pull at a school. Seems more efficient that way.

 

[SunsFun]

You can probably bribe you way in, yes, but there would be little incentive to do so. The amount it would take would surpass what you would make as a physician, making it economically pointless. It's not like bribing to get your kid into an ivy business school so they can go on to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 and earn back what you spent on the bribe in a year.

That said, knowing people helps. Someone already pointed out the Florida scandal. And having worked at a med school at which I was privy to faculty gossip, it was known that there were a few (abysmally under-performing) students who had only gotten in because they were the kids of bigshot alumni, bigshot doctors in the area, or had parents who were high up in the med school.

Which brings up another point: If you have to bribe your in, you're probably going to regret it.

Wouldn't they also get some sort of "preferential treatment" with residency placements?

 

[amazing tekkers]

The adcoms might be lonely, maybe if you spent the night...

 

[558363]

Chances are you would probably need to donate a lot of money. And if you're that loaded to begin with, you probably don't even need a job to live out the rest of your days relatively comfortably.

Honestly, if I got tens of millions of dollars from a lottery, I would probably save the majority of it, and budget to live off like 500k a year.

I feel if I had that much money, I wouldn't be so pressured to get things done quickly. I might take another year at Michigan, and consider doing an MBA/MD sorta thing. And take plenty of breaks to volunteer/work at many places across the world.

 

[muddyduck7]

Yale could use an international airport.

👍

 

[subtlepenguin]

Of course. Remember that Florida guy who got in because he schmoozed with politicians?

http://chronicle.com/article/Florida-Medical-Dean-Overrules/40749

Wow dude didn't even take the mcat http://www.gainesville.com/article/20080410/NEWS/804100319?p=1&tc=pg

 

[Travex]

Wow dude didn't even take the mcat http://www.gainesville.com/article/20080410/NEWS/804100319?p=1&tc=pg

"The accelerated program to which Mendelsohn applied in 2007, which combines bachelor's and medical degrees over seven years, is known as the Junior Honors Program. That program does not require an MCAT, but Mendelsohn was approved this year for regular admission - not Junior Honors admission, according to a search committee member."

How did he apply to the accelerated 7 year bachelors/MD program in 2007 but then later reapplied and got accepted into the regular admission in 2008 (story is from April 2008, I assumed he matriculated fall 2008)? When did he get his bachelors?