New BS/MD program?

[MAGABLM]

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" Students in the program will spend three years at FSU and three years at Meharry Medical College before returning to Cumberland County for three years of residency at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center."

Fayetteville State partners with Nashville school to offer new medical degree program

Leaders at Fayetteville State University have introduced a new medical degree program to create more doctors and dentists in southeastern North Carolina, an area that needs them.

www.wral.com

 

[Deltasidearm]

Wow, what an awful deal if they stranglehold your residency (which wasn't explicit, but implied by their wording).

Personally, I don't think BS/MD programs in general are a good idea for either party. Too many of my undergrad friends started off dead set on medicine but decided otherwise by the end of their degree, and no dreamy eyed premed ever sees themselves in that until it actually happens to them.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

I am also not in favor of BSMD programs but this one seems to be designed to address rural shortage unlike most BSMD programs which became magnets for ORMs who are too scared to go thru traditional path or worried about gap years.

 

[KnightDoc]

I am also not in favor of BSMD programs but this one seems to be designed to address rural shortage unlike most BSMD programs which became magnets for ORM who are too scared to go thru traditional path or worried about gap years.

This^^^^^. This program is so new that nobody really knows anything about it yet, but this appears to be very different from most other programs.

What @Deltasidearm finds so objectionable is exactly what sets it apart. This is not designed to be a backdoor for a high stat HS student looking for a prestigious neurosurgery residency without having to worry about the MCAT or even needing to spend 8 years obtaining a BS and a MD. This will be attractive to URMs who aren't in it for the money and who are paying more than lip service to serving their community as primary care physicians, since that is exactly what they will be locked into doing. Certainly not for everyone, but it is surgically designed to achieve an important objective.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

This^^^^^. This program is so new that nobody really knows anything about it yet, but this appears to be very different from most other programs.

What @Deltasidearm finds so objectionable is exactly what sets it apart. This is not designed to be a backdoor for a high stat HS student looking for a prestigious neurosurgery residency without having to worry about the MCAT or even needing to spend 8 years obtaining a BS and a MD. This will be attractive to URMs who aren't in it for the money and who are paying more than lip service to serving their community as primary care physicians, since that is exactly what they will be locked into doing. Certainly not for everyone, but it is surgically designed to achieve an important objective.

Thanks for converting my 2 lines to a short paragraph. Good practice for secondaries 🙂

 

[Deltasidearm]

This will be attractive to URMs who aren't in it for the money and who are paying more than lip service to serving their community as primary care physicians, since that is exactly what they will be locked into doing. Certainly not for everyone, but it is surgically designed to achieve an important objective.

That may be true. It certainly would generate physicians to address a critical need. However, considering many MD students have a change of heart about their residency and pre-meds probably even more so (just given more time and exposure), this isn't a program I would be looking at attending or recommending. It's one thing for a BS/MD program to commit you to medical school, but it's an entirely different matter to commit you to a particular residency when you may be fresh out of high school.

My main point is: just because you have your heart truly set on family medicine, for example, when you're 18 or 20 or 30 doesn't mean you won't have a genuine change of heart during your medical education journey. Any program which limits your freedom to find what practice of medicine best suits you is not worth the potential cost of happiness and satisfaction in the future, if that freedom ever needs to be exercised and cannot be.

 

[KnightDoc]

That may be true. It certainly would generate physicians to address a critical need. However, considering many MD students have a change of heart about their residency and pre-meds probably even more so (just given more time and exposure), this isn't a program I would be looking at attending or recommending. It's one thing for a BS/MD program to commit you to medical school, but it's an entirely different matter to commit you to a particular residency when you may be fresh out of high school.

My main point is: just because you have your heart truly set on family medicine, for example, when you're 18 or 20 or 30 doesn't mean you won't have a genuine change of heart during your medical education journey. Any program which limits your freedom to find what practice of medicine best suits you is not worth the potential cost of happiness and satisfaction in the future, if that freedom ever needs to be exercised and cannot be.

Agreed 1,000%. This isn't for most of us. This is for URMs who know at 17 that they want to give back to Cumberland County, NC, most likely as a primary care physician. Doesn't mean they can't later change their minds, leave the program before moving onto Meharry, and go work for Facebook, but it does mean they can't use FSU to backdoor into a MD and then later decide to be a neurosurgeon in Boston. Maybe not for the kid with a 4.0/1600 SAT who wants to keep options open, but it could make med school a reality for a 3.5/1300 kid who can live with the limitations.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Agreed 1,000%. This isn't for most of us. This is for URMs who know at 17 that they want to give back to Cumberland County, NC, most likely as a primary care physician. Doesn't mean they can't later change their minds, leave the program before moving onto Meharry, and go work for Facebook, but it does mean they can't use FSU to backdoor into a MD and then later decide to be a neurosurgeon in Boston. Maybe not for the kid with a 4.0/1600 SAT who wants to keep options open, but it could make med school a reality for a 3.5/1300 kid who can live with the limitations.

I don't think doing 3 year medical school will opens them to neurosurgery residency in Boston. This appears to be similar to NYU-LI primary care program.

 

[KnightDoc]

I don't think doing 3 year medical school will opens them to neurosurgery residency in Boston. This appears to be similar to NYU-LI primary care program.

Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. Once they begin at Meharry (4th year) I am quite sure they are locked in, but before then, they can always complete their bachelors and move on with their lives.