The biggest benefit of getting accepted at a BS/MD program is having a seat guaranteed at a medical school. But what does that word “guaranteed” mean?
A seat is guaranteed if you follow all of the requirements of the program. The requirements vary from program to program but often include having, during college, a minimum GPA, a minimum MCAT score, involvement in research, health care volunteering and doctor shadowing. Yes, those are the same basic things you need to apply to the program in the first place. But the requirements for GPA and MCAT, once in the program, are typically lower than what you would need if applying to medical school through the traditional route.
If you think that guaranteed means you don’t need to do anything further until medical school, you will be disappointed. This may seem obvious but every year there are some students that are kicked out of these programs because they didn’t feel the need to keep working.
The term “guaranteed” can also cause problems if you talk to some of the programs. When I first started helping students with BS/MD programs, over 15 years ago, I would sometimes ask a college about their guaranteed medical program only to be told that their program was NOT guaranteed. Upon asking further questions, they would talk about the requirements needed to stay in the program like health care volunteering or quarterly meetings with the other BS/MD students.
If you are wondering what programs are “guaranteed”, you can look at the appendix of our book, where all of the programs are listed.
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