B.S./M.D. What It Is, And Top Programs in 2020
Elton Lin
One of the biggest downsides of pursuing an M.D. may be that you won’t be able to really work as a doctor until you’re past thirty. Add up the four years of college, plus four years of medical school – with maybe a gap year in between if you don’t get into med school right away – and you’re well past twenty-five by the time you’re even thinking of starting a residency or fellowship! How can you get around this hurdle – and the hurdle of just getting accepted into a respectable medical school – in the first place?
Enter the B.S./M.D. curriculum that allows you to be accepted into a reputable college and that reputable college’s med school at the same time. This means you can be conditionally accepted into med school right out of high school as long as your grades in the pre-med classes. This is generally much less challenging than the process of applying to med school from outside. However, getting into a B.S./M.D. program in the first place isn’t for everyone – and it’s definitely not easy! In fact, the B.S./M.D. track spots are the most competitive programs in the schools that offer them. For example, Case Western (#4) accepts a mere twenty new students per year onto its B.S./M.D. track, and Boston University (#10) only takes fifteen!
There are quite a number of B.S/M.D. programs out there, all offering a variety of options to propel future doctors forward along the road. Some B.S./M.D. programs are as short as six years (with a mere two years of undergraduate study). Others don’t cut any time off of the traditional eight-year process, but offer copious other advantages, such as internships with clinical experience during undergrad, meaning that you are guaranteed a spot in med school as long as you keep your GPA above a threshold (often around 3.5).
Here is Collegevine’s ranking of the top twelve B.S./M.D. programs currently offered:
Take a quick glance through this list and what do you notice? One thing that might stand out is that half of the top rated programs take a full eight years to complete. In other words, they don’t save you any time. This just clarifies a top point: that the main perk of being in a combined B.S./M.D. program is not shaving a year off of your studies.
Let’s take a look at some of these programs in particular:
Case Western’s Pre-Professional Scholars Program (PPSP) in Medicine
The real advantage of Case Western’s B.S./M.D. program is that the university (Case Western Reserve) is located right next to three major research hospitals: University Hospital, the Cleveland VA, and Cleveland Clinic. This means that students in the PPSP in medicine can get clinical experience right off the bat, even as undergrads!
Boston University’s Seven-Year Liberal Arts/Medical Education program
BU is a school that prizes diversity and a well-rounded curriculum. It’s notable that this isn’t technically a B.S./M.D. course of study; it’s a B.A./M.D. program! BU really wants its future doctors to get a well-rounded liberal education. However, it is a seven year program (not eight) and you do shave off a year of undergrad.
Washington University in St. Louis’s University Scholars’ Program in Medicine (USPM)
This ultra-competitive B.S./M.D. program is worth mentioning because it offers an alternate path into the nation’s most selective medical school: the Washington University School of Medicine. To be granted admission into the medical school, students must maintain above a stringent 3.8 GPA and score at least 516 on the MCAT. It’s not easy, but being in the B.S./M.D. program offers many advantages, such as pre-professional advising and the opportunity to shadow physicians.
The University of Rochester’s Rochester Early Medical Scholars (REMS)
The advantages of REMS over the traditional approach to medical school include students not being required to take the MCAT to get into med school. This leaves you open to pursue a wide variety of different coursework as an undergrad, graduating with either a B.S. or a B.A. It’s not an accelerated program, but this means that no time is taken away from a full undergrad experience. Students in REMS are encouraged to study a wide range of subjects in their four years as undergrads, and even double- or triple-major!
So, is the B.S./M.D. track right for me?
A B.S./M.D. program (or even a B.A./M.D. one) offers a different -- but no less competitive -- route for aspiring doctors to get into medical school At Case Western Reserve University, for example, according to admissions counsellor Thomas Fanning, only twenty students each year are selected for the B.S./M.D. track. It’s not necessarily an easier path into medical school, just a different one.
Whether you’re looking for a more diverse university experience – and to really dabble your toes in other fields, such as philosophy and the arts – or whether you’re looking to get an early step-up into the world of clinical medicine and hard science, there are B.S./M.D. (and B.A./M.D.) programs that can fit your goals. The most important question you have to ask yourself is, “Do I know for sure, straight out of high school, that I want to be a doctor?” If the answer to that question is “yes,” then this route to medical school might be exactly what you’re looking for.
How to get into these ultra-competitive programs, though – that might accept a mere twenty students out of over a thousand applicants? We’ll cover that in another post.