old dug reposts from 2014/2015:
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Hey FlexMedders, gonna post my take now that I'm in...but first here's incredibly useful advice from 2014's thread from someone who also got in..thought I'd repost:
[Purplownz]
After going through the app process and reading the past HuMed threads, I've come to the conclusion that:
a) Avoiding the MCAT should definitely not be your primary goal when applying. I strongly believe that the students who were accepted are so strong academically that they would achieve strong MCAT scores if they were to take the test. It's not the test itself, it's the time commitment that's necessary to do well on it (and thus time that you could be using productively for your other, interesting extracurricular pursuits) that is important.
b) You should be strong academically. I firmly believe that you MUST have the numbers to be accepted to this program, regardless of how amazing your extracurricular activities are (i.e. high stats are necessary but insufficient). This is because the school has only a limited academic history by which to assess you and gauge your future performance in medical school. The adcoms in the third FlexMed informational video essentially say that students with "Bs or Cs" should strongly consider waiting to apply the regular way. With no MCAT and only 1.5 years of college + high school, any slip ups in grades are much more harmful.
**c) I have noticed that UNLIKE with HUMED, elite academic undergraduate pedigree seems to have played a much smaller role for FlexMed admissions. Browsing through this thread reveals a wide array of schools (Ivies, mid-low tier state schools and privates). Don't get me wrong, there are still tons of students from Ivies (I go to Columbia) but many students were accepted without the elite Northeast stamp that seemed to be important for HuMed.
d) Continuing with this idea, UNLIKE with HuMed, having already taken traditional pre med requirements did not seem to be deleterious to one's application for FlexMed. In other words, many students seem to have already taken organic chemistry or physics and/or other advanced science courses, even as humanities majors. This did not appear to be the case with HuMed, where taking traditional pre-med requirements often hurt one's chances for admission.
e) That being said, you CANNOT be a "cookie cutter" pre med student. You MUST stand out with some combination of extracurricular activities, awards/accomplishments, and letters of recommendation. Examples of what accepted FlexMed students are doing this summer include: Howard Hughes Summer Research (hyper prestigious research fellowship), leading a project in a 3rd world country for Engineers Without Boarders, and tons of research projects at Hopkins, CHOP, Sinai, Yale and other top REUs. A number fluently speak foreign languages and are going abroad to several different countries.
f) Therefore, you must think carefully about your interests. Get to know faculty who are involved in your academic area of interest (or project leaders, if you are interested in some social issue). Develop your relationship with them and collaborate on projects during your freshman year. By the time you apply, you will already have a well-supported plan and excellent letters of recommendation. Acceptance to FlexMed will allow you to continue pursuing this interest and hopefully make a significant contribution to your area, as well as gain experiences that will be able to enhance your career in medicine.
Good luck everyone! Congrats to everyone who was accepted. It's clearly an incredible group of people that I am honored to be able to be a part of.
EDIT: Stats are 3.9+ cumulative and science. 2250+ SAT. Double major in chem/English. 1 pub at the time of app w/ 1 more expected this summer."
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I'd echo the same advice. I had a 2250, 3.9, Bioengineering, lots of extracurriculars and internships not related to medicine.
The big question you have to be able to convincingly answer is "Why should they take you now as opposed to 2 years from now?" This is the opposition argument: Waiting 2 years gives them more data on you, more certainty on your quality, less risky to accept you then compared to now....The argument you all have to make is that the 2 years they're giving you are more valuable in terms of personal growth than the certainty they'd get by accepting you later...so the idea is.. simply being more comfortable while you do premed things isn't going to be enough. You have to have dramatic and concrete plans.
If you're "pursuing a healthcare management degree" that's fantastic, but honestly that's super vague compared to someone who is "looking to take [classes] to learn [skills] and use them for [project, extracurricular activity, goal - specifics]"...hopefully that makes sense. Rhetoric is sometimes a good thing, but the committee wants tangibles.
Assuming you've earned it, realize that many people who haven't will be applying with you. If you were FlexMed, realize that after the initial stats-based sifting, the next thing you'd do is throw out all the candidates who are full of fluff but haven't actually done anything. In my interview, for example, we spent like 5 minutes on the issue of "Why Doctor?" and the rest of the time on minute details of my extra-curriculars that seemed rather trivial..."Where in Nicaragua did you go? With who? What was the weather like? What was memorable about the trip?"...questions that I could only answer if I had done those things, questions that, so far as I could tell, were intent upon separating out candidates with big mouths from those who did things. So focusing on tangibles is important.
One more thing - They're looking at limited information, so in this app more than any other, details matter. I'd take any part of the application as an opportunity to showcase something, and make sure you take care to articulate everything clearly and concisely."
