I graduated from a combined 6 year BS/MD program. Please ask me anything.

[biglurker]

I completed a BS/MD program (6 year total), finished residency, and I am in practice as an attending physician. I'm happy to provide answers to questions or give advice to anyone. If a mod or admin requires it, I can readily submit proof.

This thread would be geared towards freshman, sophomore, junior/rising senior year high schoolers, who still have time to decide to apply to such programs.

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[Cheezin]

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[biglurker]

Hey biglurker,

I am a high school senior and I applied to ~25 bs-ba/MD-DO programs and mostly they are 8 year programs but some are 7. In terms of your 2 years undergrad, how did you feel about that situation? For extracurriculars like sports, clubs (or partying) did you feel like you got to fully experience that or did it not really matter for you. And then entering medschool 2 or 3 years younger than everyone else, how was it for you? Was it more difficult than you expected and would you have preferred 3 or 4 years undergrad?

Furthermore, when applying to residencies and such, did people generally see your youth as an advantage or disadvantage? I feel like it can be taken both ways. I guess I'm just hesitant about going to a 7 year program lol.

I've only gotten into 1 program so far but got 6 more interviews out of the 11 I've heard back from so far... hopefully I get into more and can choose and actually use your advice haha. Thanks for the post btw

It is up to your own personal opinion on whether you would enjoy the college life and prefer more time for 4 years versus 3 or 2 years. For me I didn't care much for the partying lifestyle and was sick of college town life after a year. The advantage of my 6 year program was you can always cut back to 7 year while maintaining the med school spot, and if you really wanted to you could always do 8 year at any time of course. Many people did that in our program.

I felt academically capable to do premed and mcat in 2 years time. I did not feel rushed. I only gave up one summer too, AP credits took care of many prereqs. I had whole semesters of elective courses and plenty of time to do research/pubs during undergrad, if that is your interest.

As for entering med school early, the only drawback was not being 21 for a couple years to join older classmates in drinking at a bar, but otherwise, we were treated as any other student.

When applying for residency, and even for attending jobs, being young was a plus. I suspect program directors feel we are more malleable and easier to train than nontrad older residents; one even said that directly.

Best of luck

 

[Mo_MO]

Hi Biglurker!
I'm currently a Junior in high school and was wondering what your SAT/ACT scores were, as well as your GPA. I know some colleges look at your background and some don't. Also, if you don't mind me asking, which program did you do? I know of colleges such as Sophie Davis and University Missouri, both offer 7 year programs.
Here are my stats so you can better help me:
SAT: 1260/1600 (retaking it in March)
ACT: Taking it in July but I'm getting 30-32 on practice.
GPA: 3.6/4.0 (unweighted)
Could you let me know what my chances are of applying to and getting accepted to a B.S./M.D program are?
Thanks!

 

[biglurker]

Hi Biglurker!
I'm currently a Junior in high school and was wondering what your SAT/ACT scores were, as well as your GPA. I know some colleges look at your background and some don't. Also, if you don't mind me asking, which program did you do? I know of colleges such as Sophie Davis and University Missouri, both offer 7 year programs.
Here are my stats so you can better help me:
SAT: 1260/1600 (retaking it in March)
ACT: Taking it in July but I'm getting 30-32 on practice.
GPA: 3.6/4.0 (unweighted)
Could you let me know what my chances are of applying to and getting accepted to a B.S./M.D program are?
Thanks!

Could you clarify what you mean by "some colleges look at your background"?
I went to a 6 year program; there are very few out there, so to preserve anonymity I'll hold off on disclosing the name. The landscape has changed too, there used to be more 6 year programs but many are now 7 year only.

I think if you apply broadly, you have a good chance of getting into at least one BS/MD or BS/DO program based on stats alone (I'm assuming you also have good LORs and enough extracurriculars proving your interest in medicine). This good chance does include you applying to 8 year, 7 year, 6 year and both DO + MD programs across the country, to increase your interview opportunities.
I'd definitely retake the SAT as you are doing, if you get >1500 composite I think your app by numbers alone is very solid.

I don't remember my GPA unweighted or weighted, but looking at my transcript from freshman to junior year, I received 32 As, and 10 Bs total.
I took 5 AP classes junior year, and 2 AP classes sophomore year (7 total before applying).
Obviously senior year no one cares about it, since it's after application, so that's not included in the above count (I did get a couple C's in senior year).

Had to login to collegeboard/ACT websites to dig these up:

SAT with Essay — May 5, 2007
740 Reading
800 Math

ACT April 2007:
Composite Score: 34
English 35
Mathematics 34
Reading 32
Science 34
English/Writing 33

 

[Mo_MO]

Could you clarify what you mean by "some colleges look at your background"?
I went to a 6 year program; there are very few out there, so to preserve anonymity I'll hold off on disclosing the name. The landscape has changed too, there used to be more 6 year programs but many are now 7 year only.

I think if you apply broadly, you have a good chance of getting into at least one BS/MD or BS/DO program based on stats alone (I'm assuming you also have good LORs and enough extracurriculars proving your interest in medicine). This good chance does include you applying to 8 year, 7 year, 6 year and both DO + MD programs across the country, to increase your interview opportunities.
I'd definitely retake the SAT as you are doing, if you get >1500 composite I think your app by numbers alone is very solid.

I don't remember my GPA unweighted or weighted, but looking at my transcript from freshman to junior year, I received 32 As, and 10 Bs total.
I took 5 AP classes junior year, and 2 AP classes sophomore year (7 total before applying).
Obviously senior year no one cares about it, since it's after application, so that's not included in the above count (I did get a couple C's in senior year).

Had to login to collegeboard/ACT websites to dig these up:

SAT with Essay — May 5, 2007
740 Reading
800 Math

ACT April 2007:
Composite Score: 34
English 35
Mathematics 34
Reading 32
Science 34
English/Writing 33

Sorry for not clarifying. I know of a program that really wants minorities who come from underserved areas to join their program. The purpose is to increase the number of primary care physicians in underserved areas as well.

 

[DocWV]

Hello! With the accelerated undergraduate education, did you have to prepare more for the USMLE or were you just as prepared as fellow classmates? I am looking into a BS/MD program that allows you to complete the undergraduate education in three years, waives the MCAT requirement, and pays for the full tuition costs. Also, do you think not taking the MCAT would make a student less prepared for the USMLE?

Thanks for any help!

 

[biglurker]

Hello! With the accelerated undergraduate education, did you have to prepare more for the USMLE or were you just as prepared as fellow classmates? I am looking into a BS/MD program that allows you to complete the undergraduate education in three years, waives the MCAT requirement, and pays for the full tuition costs. Also, do you think not taking the MCAT would make a student less prepared for the USMLE?

Thanks for any help!

I don’t think the shortened undergrad experience had any impact on USMLE step 1 scores. I believe we have to study as hard and as much as the typical traditional path med students during M2.

 

[Opticalfuture]

I completed a BS/MD program (6 year total), finished residency, and I am in practice as an attending physician. I'm happy to provide answers to questions or give advice to anyone. If a mod or admin requires it, I can readily submit proof.

This thread would be geared towards freshman, sophomore, junior/rising senior year high schoolers, who still have time to decide to apply to such programs.

How old are you, assuming that finished at a young age

 

[Opticalfuture]

Hey biglurker,

I am a high school senior and I applied to ~25 bs-ba/MD-DO programs and mostly they are 8 year programs but some are 7. In terms of your 2 years undergrad, how did you feel about that situation? For extracurriculars like sports, clubs (or partying) did you feel like you got to fully experience that or did it not really matter for you. And then entering medschool 2 or 3 years younger than everyone else, how was it for you? Was it more difficult than you expected and would you have preferred 3 or 4 years undergrad?

Furthermore, when applying to residencies and such, did people generally see your youth as an advantage or disadvantage? I feel like it can be taken both ways. I guess I'm just hesitant about going to a 7 year program lol.

I've only gotten into 1 program so far but got 6 more interviews out of the 11 I've heard back from so far... hopefully I get into more and can choose and actually use your advice haha. Thanks for the post btw

congrats to your acceptance. One is better than none!

 

[biglurker]

How old are you, assuming that finished at a young age

I am 28 years old. I am in my second year as an attending physician. I did my residency in internal medicine.