HS Student Looking for advice.

[makshim]

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[mikejames]

Goo with the combined BS/MD program

 

[Sunshine1025]

Holy BS/MD Questions. Seriously.. do what you want, because that's whose decision it is in the end and you'll be just as confused after asking everyone as when you started.

Once again, I'm in a BS/MD program but I can apply out after 3 or 4 years so I'm freeeeeee.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I don't often recommend BS/MD but you would have to work very hard and do very well at those undergrad institutions to get into any of the med schools associated with the CCNY program.

If you've done your homework and know that medicine is what you want to do for the rest of your life, I'd take the BS/MD. If you excel, you could get an NYU or Dartmouth MD, which would be hard to top even with similar success at the other undergrad institutions you list.

 

[physicsnerd42]

Sophie Davis- I know how everyone here feels about combined programs but I still want your advice. This will cost me 200k in the end. After doing undergad at CCNY for five years I go onto one of six medical schools for the last two years. I am virtually guaranteed admission. I cannot apply out. The six medical schools that I can get into are AMC, SUNY Downstate, Stony Brook SOM, NYMC, NYU and Darmouth. Obviously very few place into NYU and Dartmouth.


Your thoughts?

Hi. I'm a first year at Dartmouth and I actually met all of the Sophie Davis kids when they came to interview this year for spots at Dartmouth. Honestly, I would tell you to stay away from this program. The reason I call the Sophie Davis students "kids" is that they are (pretty much without exception, from what I could tell) rather inexperienced in life (I had a hard time finding one who had ever lived outside of NYC) and immature. Yeah, they're getting their MDs at warp speed, but they are missing out on so much of life. They don't really have any time to take elective classes outside of the sciences. Many of them are TOO focused on medicine, to the detriment of their personalities and outside interests. This judgment sounds very harsh, and it only comes from spending a couple of hours with these kids, but I was definitely not very impressed with the applicants and I wasn't looking forward to being with some of them on the wards in third year. I would suggest going to an undergrad you like and then applying to med school so that you get a little more chance to experience life and see if medicine is what you want to do. I'm not a big fan of joint BS/MD programs in general and I'm even less of a fan of SD.

 

[scrubswannabe]

Hey. I'm a freshman at college and I went through last year basically what you're going through now. Okay I think you should cross Binghamton and Stevens Institute of Technology off your list. You're decision is basically between Stony Brook and Sophie Davis. Stony Brook will be cheaper than the other two and a lot better if you want to go into medicine. Plus, I have tons of friends at both Binghamton and Stony Brook, and the ones at Stony Brook are having a much better time in terms of grades and social aspects.

Now should you go to Stony Brook or Sophie Davis. It's really a difficult decision and I think you can be a great doctor from either place. Don't take the fact that Sophie is 7 years into consideration at all. It's really not a big deal. It's really hard to turn down Sophie's guaranteed admission to medical school but I want you to do some more research into the program. I know they accept around 70-80 kids a year. But what you need to be concerned with is how many actually graduate from the program and end up going to medical school. If this is a low number, it will show you that the program is quite weak and maybe you will be better off going to Stony Brook. I know Sophie Davis offers a lot of different medical schools to go to but do a lot of research on the program and its requirements and what not. I know they try to get you to sign a contract that says you have to work in a primary care setting in like an urban, poor area when you become a doctor. I think that's not that good because what if you want to specialize in the future. It is too early now to know whether or not you would want to.

Bottom line is basically you should go with either Sophie Davis or Stony Brook. Look into Sophie carefully, there are a lot of people that don't think highly of this program and there should be some reasons why. I hope that helped.

 

[User of Needles]

Stony Brook looks the best here. Any other choices?

 

[makshim]

Around 65 of the 75 kids graduate. Yeah the intent of the program is to funnel kids into primary care and under priveleged areas. If you don't do both it's a 75k fine which I counted in the 200k. No, I don't have any other schools to choose from, didn't apply anywhere that competitive. Hate myself for it. At the moment I'm really leaning towards Sophie Davis. Hard to beat a guarantee.

 

[therealdeal555]

Hi. I'm a first year at Dartmouth and I actually met all of the Sophie Davis kids when they came to interview this year for spots at Dartmouth. Honestly, I would tell you to stay away from this program. The reason I call the Sophie Davis students "kids" is that they are (pretty much without exception, from what I could tell) rather inexperienced in life (I had a hard time finding one who had ever lived outside of NYC) and immature. Yeah, they're getting their MDs at warp speed, but they are missing out on so much of life. They don't really have any time to take elective classes outside of the sciences. Many of them are TOO focused on medicine, to the detriment of their personalities and outside interests. This judgment sounds very harsh, and it only comes from spending a couple of hours with these kids, but I was definitely not very impressed with the applicants and I wasn't looking forward to being with some of them on the wards in third year. I would suggest going to an undergrad you like and then applying to med school so that you get a little more chance to experience life and see if medicine is what you want to do. I'm not a big fan of joint BS/MD programs in general and I'm even less of a fan of SD.

With all due respect, I think you're overgeneralizing students from the SD program. Being from another of the schools which they can attend, I know the ones I've met have had "personalities" and "outside interests". I do understand the argument that you should really evaluate if medicine is what you'd like to do, and I definitely agree with the earlier post from scrubswannabe regarding the weird stipulations of the SD program. But I don't think you're being fair to the group of them, based on your few hours of experience with them.

 

[lina123321]

props on finding out this info in highschool..my HS guidance counselor never told me about bs/md programs; my present state of mind would have been hella less stressed had i known this back then.

 

[NN11]

Way to go. Props to a high school student that can actually write comprehensible English, contrary to other HS and Jr HS students that have been posting in this forum lately.

 

[Meatwad]

I go to Stony Brook (not in the BS/MD program, however).

I think a poster said something about Stony Brook social life being better than other schools? Well, SB has been criticized by a lot of students for being a commuter school with basically no social scene. The campus is pretty dead on weekends. Binghamton, however, has a lot more people that live on campus and I have a friend up there who loves it.

Overall, SB is a great school for academics. You will learn a lot, and you will have to work hard for your grades (in science classes, at least). It's a good school, and I would reccomend you visit. It's an ugly campus and you may not want to be here for a few years. You also may come here and realize you love it. I personally enjoy it, but I commute so I'm not stuck there on the weekends. Good luck.

 

[PhotoMD]

I had a conversation with a friend the other day about BS/MD programs, and we sort of resolved that there's something to be gained in going through the MD application process. Also, there's something to be lost from committing to the rest of your life before your 18th birthday. I would go to college, develop your interests, and apply for medical school if you really want to do it.

 

[MonkeyNuts!]

i vote stony as well. good opportunities for academic research

 

[makshim]

Well I'll be going to an open house for SD next Monday. I'll post about how it goes, not that anybody cares, haha. It could be help for a future student .

 

[sirus_virus]

I vote go into dentistry.

 

[Towelie]

Around 65 of the 75 kids graduate. Yeah the intent of the program is to funnel kids into primary care and under priveleged areas. If you don't do both it's a 75k fine which I counted in the 200k. No, I don't have any other schools to choose from, didn't apply anywhere that competitive. Hate myself for it. At the moment I'm really leaning towards Sophie Davis. Hard to beat a guarantee.

You might be able to use a loophole to get out of the whole "underprivileged" thing; virtually every county is an HPSA (health professions shortage area), so as long as you're not working in the OC you'll probably be ok.

 

[makshim]

Well I don't really see me having a conflict with working in an "underpriveleged area", ideally I would stay in NYC anyways. I see a good chance of me breaking the contract and specializing but I don't see the 75k as that big a deal as it is less than I would pay any other route anyways, and it will only begin to accrue interest after the seventh year.

 

[makshim]

a

 

[Dr JPH]

Your thoughts?

Go to law school.

- Your friendly neighborhood intern

 

[DoctaJay]

Reimbursement is steadily decreasing every year. By the time you have money to repay all those loans, it will be much harder to pay them off quickly. Go with the route that dually makes you happy and will cost you the less in the end.

 

[Law2Doc]

Also, there's something to be lost from committing to the rest of your life before your 18th birthday. I would go to college, develop your interests, and apply for medical school if you really want to do it.

Amen. Go to a 4 year college, take lots of different kinds of courses, use that time to figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life, meet interesting people, and enjoy yourself. This is the time for you to come of age and learn something about yourself in an environment with no real responsibility and not being under the thumb of your parents. I promise you that you will not be the same person at 20 as you were at 17, so best not to pull the trigger on longterm career choices at that time. While it may sound appealing to circumvent the admissions process, MCAT etc early on, bear in mind that this is a long and hard career, with numerous standardized tests and application processes, and this first set in retrospect will be looked back upon as the least difficult. If you are put off by having to take tests, be in difficult career implicating situations and that sort of thing you are going to be miserable on this path. Just do college the normal way -- enjoy your teens/early twenties as much as you can. This is not a race and the light at the end of the tunnel you are rushing toward is most definitely a train.

 

[gujuDoc]

I had a conversation with a friend the other day about BS/MD programs, and we sort of resolved that there's something to be gained in going through the MD application process. Also, there's something to be lost from committing to the rest of your life before your 18th birthday. I would go to college, develop your interests, and apply for medical school if you really want to do it.

I agree with this post. I have a good friend who started out as a 7 year BS/MD student. When the MCAT didn't work out the first couple of times, she was still guaranteed her seat but it would be extended to being a 4+4 program where she wouldn't do her first year as last year of undergrad but instead she'd do it as another undergrad year and then start. So at first she was going to do that but then she got a much higher score then she was expecting.

At any rate, she was allowed to apply out and did so and has no regrets about going through the process. She also never settled to do the minimum req. ECs and kept herself involved with different sorts of teaching, volunteering, and research positions throughout her 4 years amongst other activities while still maintaining time for friends and family.

She says that she doesn't regret having this last year of undergrad at all because she learned a lot of useful stuff in classes related to medicine like histology and what not as well as having time to take fun classes like modern dance and art.

In the meanwhile, she also had the opportunity to interview at various cities outside of Fl. and around Fl. to see different programs and explore her options. She has no regrets about it at all and now she's going to a different program then the one she would have gone through for the BS/MD program.

Another friend of mine stayed in the BS/MD program but opted to do the 4+4 option instead of 3+4 option. He told me that he has no regret about getting his undergrad degree first and then starting med school rather then rushing to start a year earlier. He says that last year of undergrad was a real growth curve for him. Having known him for the past 5 years, I'd agree that it was his last year of undergrad that really was his growth period when he finally had his first crush on a girl, started doing things outside of his school activities, and really just getting a social life in a sense he didn't have before while having fun because he no longer had a lot of hard classes he needed for undergrad.

Enjoy your days in undergrad and try to be a well rounded person.

If you do apply to a BS/MD program then try to get in one where you have the option to apply out if you decide later on you'd rather try your best for a top tier school or other more interesting school.

Participate in activities that interest you instead of being one of those kids who only does the bare minimum req. by BS/MD programs, so if you decide to apply out you'll have a good profile.

 

[lord_jeebus]

Lots of advice for someone who's already made a decision

 

[Law2Doc]

Lots of advice for someone who's already made a decision

Maybe he can still get out of it.

 

[gujuDoc]

Lots of advice for someone who's already made a decision

Yeah I didn't realize that as I hadn't read the whole thread. Nor did I realize it was an old thread.

 

[littlealex]

I vote Columbia.