There is a lot of misinformation and, frankly, bad information out there about BS/MD programs. One of the common comments I see people make is that residency programs have a prejudice against students coming from a BS/MD program.
This is not true.
Does anyone believe that students graduating from the University Scholars Program in Medicine at Washington University, HPME at Northwestern, PLME at Brown or the Medical Scholars Program at Rice/Baylor are prejudiced in their residency placement? Of course not. If you have questions, look at their residency placements.
Residency programs do look at things like the strength of the medical school you attended, your grades in medical school and your USMLE scores.
Some of the BS/MD programs are at medical schools that are not as strong academically. Some students graduating from those medical schools may not be as competitive as some students graduating from stronger medical schools.
Students in the top 10% of their medical school class from a very strong medical school will most likely have more options than a student in the top 10% of a weaker medical school. But students in the top 10% of a weaker medical school are still more likely to have more options than students near the bottom of even the best medical schools.
There is one qualifier to this. The vast majority of physicians, including those making decisions on residency placement, went through the traditional 8 year training. Some that I have talked with have a bias against the 6 year programs. The concern is that the student with a shortened college experience will be less able to relate to their patients. While that may be true for some students in 6 year programs, it is also very true for many students that went through the full 8 years.
Whether you are looking at a BS/MD program at one of the top medical schools, or a program at a less competitive medical school, it is more about how you do in school than how you got there. Being in a 7 or 8 year BS/MD program is not a disadvantage. Those in a 6 year program might want to consider the possibility that there may be some bias against them in some cases.
Does the state you reside is considered a factor in admission to BS/MD programs. For example do the school have criteria like they have to take so many students from out of state. If we live in a state were only 2 people are applying to a program vs 10 people from next state then will the 2 people have more chance of acceptance vs 10 if both are out of state .
Srilata,
Generally the BS/MD programs at private colleges don’t care where a student is from. They want the strongest students. I regularly have multiple students from a single high school get into the same BS/MD program. If it is a BS/MD program at a public college, some of those programs are for instate residents only while most of them prefer in state students to out state students. In your example, the programs will not typically care about your state or residence as much as wanting the strongest student from whatever state.