Everything You Need to Know About Accelerated Programs
- Writer
- Apr 4, 2023
- 11 min read
Updated: Apr 5, 2023
What is a BS/MD Program?
A BS/MD program is a combined undergraduate and medical school program that allows students to complete both degrees in a shorter period of time than would be required if the degrees were pursued separately. The program typically lasts between 6 to 8 years and allows students to earn both a Bachelor's degree and a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree.
In a BS/MD program, students generally complete their undergraduate coursework in the first 2-4 years of the program and then transition into medical school without needing to take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) or apply to medical school separately.
BS/MD programs are highly competitive and often require applicants to meet certain academic criteria and participate in interviews as part of the application process as a high school student. (Our company keeps a FULL list of most up-to-date BS/MD schools and requirements! Contact us for information.)
Forbes reported that getting into a BS/MD program is harder than getting accepted into some of the Ivy League schools. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristenmoon/2021/06/10/bsmd-admission-insights-from-the-2020-2021-cycle/?sh=48e691879500)
According to this article, Harvard University and Columbia University had acceptance rates of 3.4% and 3.7%, and Rice/Baylor BS/MD program had 1,600 students apply for only 6 seats: 0.375%. The article says that Case Western BS/MD program also reported on having less than 1% acceptance rate, and other programs have similarly low acceptance rates.
BS/MD Programs are gaining more and more popularity, as it is getting only harder to get accepted into medical school. Brown University's BS/MD program reported 45% higher volume of applicants and Case Western's BS/MD program reported 20% increase in the 2020-2021 application cycle.
Why BS/MD Program?
If getting into a BS/MD program is so hard, why should students consider BS/MD program?
Here are our 5 reasons why:
1. BS/MD is your easiest ticket into medical school.
"Didn't you just said that getting into a BS/MD program is harder than getting into Harvard?"
Yes, we did but...
We believe that getting into a BS/MD program is the most certain, and also the easiest way to get into a medical school both speaking from personal and anecdotal experience.
We understand that this is a bold statement to make, but we have done the research and evidences to support our claim.
Follow me through this logic:
Above is the data from Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), which is basically the College Board of medical school application. (All data related to this research can be found here: https://www.aamc.org/data-reports/students-residents/data/2022-facts-applicants-and-matriculants-data)
On this data, 62,443 applicants applied to medical school and 22,666 students got accepted in 2021-2022 cycle, which has an acceptance rate of 36.3%.
That doesn't seem harder than 0.375% mentioned above for Rice/Baylor BS/MD program, let alone Harvard University of 3.4%... so why apply to BS/MD programs?
Above data shows that 1,298 students from UCLA, which has the highest applicants for medical school, has applied to medical school.
Let's break down UCLA a little further, which is considered one of the "best" Pre-Med school.
In 2021, UCLA had 31,600 students, of which 9,248 students were potential pre-med majors.
Not all 9,248 students are probably not trying to become a doctor, but it is also obvious that there wasn't ONLY 1,298 students out of 9,248 students who wanted to apply to medical school and ALL of them got to apply.
The point we are trying to make is that there is some competitive "weeding" process that occurs at the undergraduate level that makes a lot of Pre-Med students drop out of the medical school application process even before the actual application process.
Even then, only 568 out of 1,298 student who made it through the 4 years of competition at the undergraduate level gets accepted to a medical school. (https://sairo.ucla.edu/amcas)
This competition process is not easy. Students have to compete with their classmates to rank highest possible in their science classes to obtain research or internship positions with their professors to get a good letters of recommendation, all while maintaining good GPA, have outstanding extracurriculars in the making, preparing for the Medical College Admission Test "MCAT" (more on this later), as much community service hours as they can get to boost their resume, etc...
This can be reduced to maintaining a certain GPA requirements (maybe certain service hours for some schools), which takes away the potentially "toxic" competition in the undergrad, also allowing you to take elective classes or even majoring in majors and having minors that interest you instead of taking classes and having a majors that just checks out the AAMC's requirements to medical school.
Most of our team agrees that this is freedom in undergrad to explore our interest was the greatest perk of being a BS/MD student.
2. BS/MD is your cheapest way into medical school.
So what happens to the students who didn't get accepted? They take 1-2 years of gap year to have another shot into getting into medical school again. (More on them later in reason 4)
The data above shows that the average age of getting into a medical school is 23-24, so it is expected that people take 1-2 years of gap year assuming the student graduates high school when 18 years old and takes 4 years to graduate from college.
Getting accepted into a BS/MD program saves the students from this potentially unnecessary gap years, in which each year carries a value of $252,480 worth of opportunity cost lost if not accepted into a medical school (Source for average physician salary in 2021: https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/physician/salary).
Even if the student is accepted to the medical school straight out of undergrad, the student still has to take the MCAT and has to apply to multiple schools which are very costly.
Let's breakdown this cost as well.
According to AAMC, the application fee for 2023 medical school application is $170 for the first school and $43 after each schools. Now, going back to the very first data table we have seen above, it says that 62,443 students on average apply to 18 different programs and only 36.3% gets accepted. That would mean that on average, medical student applicants pay $170+$43(17)=$901 just for PRIMARY application purposes. AAMC reported that MOST medical schools have secondary application, which also has separate fees, and undergrads charge fee for sending your transcript to each of the medical school you apply to as well, so the price of application only gets higher from there.
Even if the student gets past the primary and secondary application to get an interview, medical schools do not pay for the cost of travel, which can be very high if the students have to attend multiple interviews.
In addition to all this, MCAT prep is unfortunately very expensive as well. MCAT is a 7 hour 15 minute exam, which costs $315 for initial registration, so it is NOT an exam student wants to take without sufficient preparation... except these preps are very expensive as well.
The links above are MCAT prep options from Kaplan and Princeton review (which I assume most high school students reading this far would be familiar with from SAT or AP prep). They offer MCAT prep online modules from about $2,000~$7000. (More on MCAT in reason 3)
So, combining all the lost opportunity cost of 1~2 years of physician salary of about $252,480 per year, cost of primary application fees to average of 18 medical schools of about $901 plus secondary supplemental fees and college transcript fees to each school, travel cost of attending interviews for thousands of dollars, MCAT registration fe of $315 and the prep fee necessary to prepare..
WHY wait if you are a student who can qualify to be accepted into a BS/MD program for much, much less?
3. MCAT is largely useless after the application.
MCAT, as previously explained, is very expensive, but it is notoriously difficult to do well. But here is the hard truth... It is only important for you to get accepted.
Although there has been statistic that shows correlation of MCAT score and Step 1 score, the materials do NOT overlap and the materials that shows up in the MCAT, such as organic chemistry, never comes back in that depth in medical school curriculum. This correlation can be explained because high performing students in one subject area will also be high performing in other areas of study as well. After all, correlation does not indicate causation. Our team is composed of full BS/MD medical students who got into medical school without taking the MCAT, and they are thriving in medical school getting 100% on certain sections of the exam as well.
The fact that top-tier BS/MD programs such as Brown University's PLME BS/MD program having their students exempt from taking the MCAT explains this. If you are competitive enough to get into a BS/MD program, medical school believes that you are qualified enough to succeed in medical school without proving your competence through MCAT, thus granting you an exemption.
Let's go back to the perspective of a non-BS/MD (or "traditional" applicant to medical school).
The data is from AAMC showing the average MCAT score and the distribution of MCAT scores for the students. The average MCAT score is 501.5.
The above two tables compare the MCAT score average of applicants and matriculants (who ended up going to medical school).
Looking at the most recent data (2022-2023), most applicants had an average MCAT score of 506.5, which falls in about top 30% of the total MCAT percentile. The average of matriculants, however, is around 511.9, which falls in about top 16%~19% of the total MCAT percentile.
Keep in mind that the standard is even higher for overrepresented minorities like Asians.
514.4 is the Asian matriculants' average MCAT, which is about top 10%~12% of the total MCAT takers.
Also keep in mind that having the average MCAT score and GPA does NOT guarantee you an acceptance to a medical school or is nearly deemed "enough", just like having the average SAT score and GPA for Harvard University is enough to get you an acceptance to Harvard University.
A lot of other factors come into play such as extracurriculars, but as an overrepresented minority, we can agree that many things act against our favor.
Here is another scary, fun fact about the MCAT to finish this section of the discussion: Medical school will see ALL of your MCAT score. Gone are the days of super score, choosing to send SAT scores that you performed well in Senior year with 1520 and not the one you took in Freshman year with 1230.
Every attempt at MCAT is sent to the medical school.
This only adds more pressure to do well, and often works as the factor that delays student's entry to medical school as they want to perform well on the first try, leading to longer gap years.
We can be honest about this because we are not trying to sell you MCAT prep materials.
If it can be avoided, we believe that it should be.
4. Second chance to medical school? They, unfortunately, will label you a previous reject.
Did you know that if you are reapplying to a medical school, that school will know that you got rejected previously and is reapplying?
Many of the medical school consulting companies argue that this is not that bad as long as the applicant can reapply couple of years later and rebuild a stronger resume with better MCAT scores and extracurricular.
This is true, and I am not here to discourage anyone from reapplying and have respect to those who are constantly trying to get into medical school.
However, this process is expensive because the lost opportunity cost, application fees for primary, secondary, and other supplementary, traveling again for interviews, more MCAT prep... paying for everything twice... BUT you are also labeled as a re-applicant.
We believe this is unfortunate and not all that fair, but this is how the medical schools and AAMC does things, and here to tell you that if you are a high school student with a good academic profile, this hassle can all be avoided if accepted into a BS/MD program.
5. BS/MD programs make you a community of friendship, support group, cohort that will guide you through undergrad and medical school.
In addition to all the perks mentioned above, BS/MD program commits you and other students of similar caliber to the same undergrad and medical school.
We have made friendships that lasted through all undergrad and into medical school, and hopefully beyond into residency too!
This cohort takes away the fear of going to medical school alone, because you will be accompanied by the friends who took classes with you in undergrad that you worked together in group projects, had fun together, and encouraged each other to do well during the undergrad. This support group has been the greatest help for those of us in medical school.
This is the perspective we can most strongly advocate that other BS/MD consulting companies cannot, because we are a team fully composed of BS/MD medical students, and have experienced this companionship that we can speak about.
Cons of BS/MD Program?
We are only here to help, so we are not going to shy away from the fact that BS/MD program might not be for everyone.
There can be many reasons why BS/MD program might not be for you:
1. If you are not 100% sure that you want to be a physician.
If you are not certain that you want to be a physician, committing to a program that binds you to 6~8 years of schooling is a risky commitment to make.
Our company offers career counseling in healthcare, using the network of nurse, dental student, DO student, MD students, and more to offer students wanting to explore and learn more about the careers in healthcare and what it means to be a healthcare provider for different healthcare professionals.
Contact us for more information about our Healthcare Career Counseling!
2. Limitation on undergrad and medical school options.
If after reading all the factors to consider about the BS/MD program and traditional medical school application process and still believes that you are willing to take the traditional route, then by all means go for it.
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Stanford does not have a BS/MD program, as well as a lot of the U.S. News top 50 schools. (But there is Brown University's PLME and a lot more that still makes the list!)
So if a high school student believes and wants to get into Harvard undergrad and go to Harvard medical school, the journey would be hard but it definitely is possible and we would like to wish you well and all the best of luck.
If a student does not like the list of schools that offer BS/MD program, then of course, then it definitely would not be ideal for the student to spend 6~8 years at the program that they are not going to be happy with.
We advice that students should consider all the options and make the decision that they believe will be the happiest.
Contact us for more information about our full list of schools offering BS/MD programs and admissions help consulting!
3. It is too stressful to apply to BS/MD program.
Applying and getting accepted into a BS/MD program means that you are applying and getting accepted into both the undergrad and medical school at the same time. This can come off stressful to high school students and comes with the extra cost if the student is called for in-person interview at medical schools. However, we believe that this stress and cost is not comparable to that of other Pre-Meds in undergrads are going through to get into medical school the traditional way.
Contact us for more information about the process of applying to BS/MD programs and get personal quotes on making your application even better! It is NEVER too late to start, and we have a program for you regardless of your journey in your high school stage!
Why Brighter Future Consulting?
I hope this post helped you know what BS/MD program is if you did not know what it was already, or helped you set your mind on applying to BS/MD program if you were considering.
Comparing all the pros and cons of BS/MD program, we believe that a BS/MD program is the path you should take if you are sure that you want to be a doctor and has the appropriate qualifications.
We are here to help you.
We offer a 100% refund for our most intensive care program, if the student applies with us and does not get at least 1 interview from a BS/MD medical school.
Contact us for more information about our guaranteed interview and acceptance programs and the refund policy, and other programs we offer with pride that will make you the best BS/MD candidate you can possibly be.
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