I thought about doing BS/MD early in high school, then I had an experience senior year that turned me off of medicine for awhile, so I decided not to. When I decided to do medicine again during my freshman year of college, and when I got a little burnt out on my major during my senior year of college (after I got in to med school I was like WHEN CAN I START), I did regret that decision a bit. However, I do not regret it at all now. Just adding to the OP and other posts:
1. I was able to take advantage of opportunities BS/MD students often don't get, like studying abroad for a semester. While you can always do an international rotation, do medical missions, or travel after med school, doing a study abroad program through college is relatively easy to pursue (already organized and some are funded through your tuition so you only have to pay airfare) and it was something that was HUGE to me in terms of growing as a person (diversity, becoming more independent, seeing sights/important places, learning history of a new place, etc.) and that I honestly would not trade for anything. The two extra years were worth it just for that one semester.
2. I learned about something completely outside of medicine, that was both fun and helped me grow as a person. I majored in English, and not only was it something I enjoyed, but I was able to improve my critical thinking and writing skills (both will be/have been useful to me in life and on the job) and learn a lot about the diversity of human experience at the same time too. I see the last one as very important to my practice, as by reading works by diverse authors and learning how to analyze them through the lenses of racism, classism, feminism, etc. literary theories, I've become better able to understand others' experiences and the interplay of the "isms" in real life, and hopefully be more respectful and open to my patients' unique lives. Also, having the "fun" four years, and now being able to kind-of apply it as a hobby if I want to (creative writing, writing criticism/reviews of books), gives me something to look back on and look forward to pursuing more when I have more time. Is the specific skill set necessary to my practice? No, but I'm definitely using it in other ways, and in my case I felt like it really expanded my life outside of medicine too, which is important to me. I'd make the case that if you go BS/MD and have any elective time at all (not sure if you ever do?), you should spend it on something totally unrelated to medicine or science.
3. I'm glad I had my summers free before medical school. Yeah, it's extra time, but I think I would've burnt out earlier if I had to do summer classes to complete the BS part. I did one summer of summer classes in college and I really enjoyed having my other summers off to do other things (research, volunteer, work and save $, etc).
4. I'm glad I had more medical school options (though you can always drop out of the BS/MD program and apply elsewhere).
5. I'm glad I had 2 more years of life experience/maturity under my belt as a third year. People always told me I was "mature" for my age, but I know I would've been a lot more awkward and self-conscious 2 or 3 years ago. I know a lot of this character growth had to do with the rigor of going through med school itself, but also to do with the experiences I outlined above, and just getting older and accumulating more life experience in general in my personal life.
6. Echoing 22031 Alum - the summer I did take summer classes, I happened to do it with mostly BS/MD students in the class. (I went to a different college regularly than the one I was taking summer classes at, b/c it was cheaper to take the extra classes at a state school closer to home.) Maybe it was just because it was their first semester and it was the summer but a lot of them were very immature, like people were literally throwing things in class. My friend who went there also said they were always really awkward during the year. I don't want to generalize, could just be this school, etc. (and I had some friends in the program too so it wasn't everyone there, either) and I know most other countries do medicine like this so clearly there have to be some mature, socialized people who go into medicine at a younger age! That just turned me off to the program.
7. I am one of those people who has always known what I want to do, and I would've been fine in a BS/MD program. I think this is rare, though. Even I had doubts (right around college decision time), so in the end it worked out that I was able to have that flexibility and not be locked in either way until I came back around to medicine. All of my friends in med school have doubted their decision at one point or another. Committing at 18 is huge, though it does work for some.
