What Does It Take To Get into a BS/MD Program?

(This is an updated version of an article from 2021. See also our webinar transcript, “How to Stand Out as a Pre-Med Applicant”, from 2022.)

For many students, college is simply one step in their academic journey towards medical school and a career in healthcare. This is by no means an easy step, of course. The standard route for a doctor-to-be takes approximately eleven years: four years to get a bachelor’s degree, four years in medical school, and at least three years in residency. Those years are spent pushing through challenging coursework, stressful application and matching processes, and as many pre-med and medical students will attest, countless late nights studying! Every doctor has run the gauntlet and more than deserves the title they’ve earned.

While that is the standard route, there is an alternative (though, importantly, not to be considered a shortcut). Some colleges are home to a B.S./M.D. or B.A./M.D. program, also known as “direct medical programs,” which allows students to apply for acceptance to a reputable college and that college’s medical school at the same time. In other words, successful applicants will be conditionally accepted into medical school right out of high school, contingent on the maintenance of their undergraduate GPA above a threshold (often about 3.5)!

This may sound like an amazing option: students can skip the stress of applying to medical school after college and instead combine their undergraduate and graduate application process! Additionally, this can give students the flexibility to major in a non-science field as an undergraduate student, or even (in certain cases) allow students to finish their undergraduate schooling in only two or three years before launching into their graduate curriculum. While most B.S./M.D. and B.A./M.D. programs require students to push through the traditional eight-year process, they offer copious other advantages, such as internships with clinical experience during their undergraduate years.

However, interested students should know that acceptance rates of B.S./M.D. and B.A./M.D. programs are extremely low, ranging from 1% to 9%—on par with, or even lower than, the undergraduate-only admit rates of the most prestigious institutions in the world. To say that direct medical programs are tremendously competitive, even for the most high-achieving students in the nation, is a severe understatement—a fact that any interested students must keep in mind.

To further hit this point home, take a look at the bare minimum requirements of this handful of B.S./M.D. programs:

Program	GPA	SAT	ACT
Baylor University | Baylor College of Medicine	3.7 (or top 5% of class)	1430	32
Caldwell University | Rutgers’ New Jersey Medical School	3.5 (and top 10% of class)	1470	N/A
Drew University | Rutgers’ New Jersey Medical School	3.8 unweighted	1500	34
Drexel University | Drexel University College of Medicine	3.5 weighted	1420	32
Florida Atlantic University | The Schmidt College of Medicine	4.3 weighted	1490	33
Hofstra University | Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine	3.7 (and top 10% of class)	1410	32
The College of New Jersey | Rutgers’ New Jersey Medical School	3.8 unweighted (and top 5% of class)	1400	34
University of South Florida | Morsani College of Medicine	4.0 weighted	1500	34
University of Pittsburgh | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine	N/A	1490	34
Yeshiva University | Albert Einstein College of Medicine	4.0	1460	32

Not only are these tight requirements that would need to be well exceeded for applicants to stand a good shot at acceptance, but these requirements also do not include the many other factors that admissions committees take into consideration, including the holistic application review process of most college applications, personal interviews, and application essays.

So given the cutthroat selectivity of these B.S./M.D. and B.A./M.D. programs, how can students help their applications stand out?

First and foremost, students will need a stellar GPA, aiming for as close to a 4.0 (unweighted) GPA as possible. Students may be tempted to take less challenging classes, such as those in which most of the grade comes from participation, for easy As; however, the inflated GPA students may gain as a result will most likely lose credibility in the eyes of admissions readers. Admissions teams for B.S./M.D. programs want to see that students can hold their own and excel in the most rigorous science and math classes that their schools offer. If the largest contributors of an applicant’s 4.0 GPA are easy-A courses taken in lieu of challenging ones that risk a B or lower, then it won’t matter to admissions readers that the student had a perfect GPA.

What about standardized tests? To be a competitive applicant to any reputable B.S./M.D. program, students will need to score at least a 1500 on the SAT and a 34 on the ACT. While some schools allow students to superscore their tests to maximize their submitted scores, others require students to submit their score from a single test date, making these high test scores even more difficult to achieve. To succeed, students will need plenty of studying, practice tests upon practice tests, and—possibly—multiple retakes. Students should start taking tests in their junior year, so that if either the SAT or the ACT requires a retake, students can do so early in their senior year before the bulk of senior classes and college application season.

As for extracurriculars, admissions readers for B.S./M.D. programs certainly care about those too! Since direct medical programs offer its students not only acceptance into college, but also conditional acceptance into medical school, admissions readers want to see that applicants are exceptional both inside and outside of the classroom. This is true of regular college applications as well, but in a combined B.S./M.D. program, admissions readers are looking for students to demonstrate a strong interest in health and medicine in particular. Not all of an interested student’s extracurriculars need to be medicine-related—applications are still holistics—but a good chunk of them should be. Some options include volunteering at a hospital, shadowing a doctor, helping a professor with medical research, or getting involved with a summer medical program.

Although B.S./M.D. and B.A./M.D. programs can eliminate a lot of the stress of getting into medical school, they are not without their own share of drawbacks.

For one, the admission requirements are clearly highly challenging, to the point that many students who apply for a B.S./M.D. program could potentially be stronger applicants for a non-combined pre-med track at much more prestigious schools, including Stanford University and Ivy League institutions. In other words, the direct medical programs at even “second-tier” schools are competitive at that high a level!

Furthermore, direct medical programs are by no means the only method to getting into medical school—and neither are they the strongest pathway! Although many top-ranked schools like Stanford and Harvard do not offer B.S./M.D. or B.A./M.D. programs, they do offer an almost guaranteed route from pre-med into med school, and this isn’t limited to only the schools at the top of the rankings, either; for example, Pepperdine University reports that 70% to 80% of its applying students are accepted to medical school after their undergraduate schooling.

Also, it’s important to note that the undergraduate experience and good college fit are both still incredibly important to the growth of a student in their academics, careers, and personhood. While there are quite a number of direct medical programs out there, all offering a variety of options to propel future doctors forward along the road, many more schools do not offer B.S./M.D. or B.A./M.D. programming—again, including Ivy League institutions! Students who restrict themselves to B.S./M.D. options are not only playing a very risky admissions game, but also end up overlooking a wide range of great potential colleges and the experiences that could be gained as a student there.

So: is a B.S./M.D. or B.A./M.D. program really right for your student? If they aren’t certain that they want to go into medicine, or may want the ability to reconsider their options for medical school over the course of their college career, direct medical programs may not be the right choice. However, if your student has their heart set on being a doctor, and they’re enthralled with one of the universities that offers a combined program, then, yes, a B.S./M.D. or B.A./M.D. may be a great option for them! 

If you would like to further discuss whether or not direct medical programs may be a good fit for your student, or if you would like us to help your medical school aspirant put their best foot forward in their college admissions process, please feel free to book a free consultation with us. We look forward to supporting your student in their individual path to success!