Is a BS/MD Wrong for You?

Hey guys, it’s Eric at Solution Prep and today I want to give you four reasons why a BS/MD program might not be your best path for college. BS/MD stands for Bachelor of Science Medical Degree. And it’s something you can apply to in high school at select colleges that offer it where, if you’re accepted, you’re not only accepted for your four-year bachelor’s degree, you’re also accepted for your medical studies as well. And a lot of students who are very confident that they want to be doctors someday see that as the best, or maybe even the only, path for them. So they research which colleges offer BS/MD programs and that becomes their whole list of colleges they apply to. But there are four reasons why that might not be your best path.

Number one is that if you go to a BS/MD program, you are locked into that field of study. And right now you may be thinking, “Yeah, no problem. That’s what I want. I want to lock in on that.” And I’ve had plenty of students over the years who were so confident that they wanted to be doctors. And you know what? They went on to be doctors. But I’ve had just as many students who were as confident, who once they got to college and took other classes, discovered, you know, maybe I want to be pre-law, maybe I want to major in computer science. And I always tell my students, run in the direction of your passions, but be flexible enough to discover new things and change. And if you’re locked into a BS/MD program, you don’t have that flexibility. And you know, I don’t want to be condescending to you, but if you want to have your whole life planned out at 17 years old, you might wake up someday as an adult realizing you’re living a life planned out by a teenager.

Second is you’re locked into that college. And you know, when you go visit a college and see if you’d be happy there, are you going to be happy there for seven years? That’s a lot of the same. And you may be good there when you’re 18, 19. Are you going to be as good there when you’re 23, 24? And also understand that some of these BS/MD programs, the BS is at one college, but then the MD is somewhere else, maybe somewhere in a different state, maybe somewhere on some island in the Caribbean, and you should put as much work into visiting that college if you’re going to be committing to it before you sign on that dotted line.

Understand that in your career, it is the pedigree, it is the prestige of your last institution that matters the most. So rather than choosing any old college that will give you a yes for a BS/MD program that without that program you would never think of going there, maybe consider going to a 4-year college that is more prestigious without the BS/MD that can then do a better job of helping you get admitted to a more prestigious medical school later where that degree from that institution will serve you well throughout your career.

Reason number three is that a BS/MD application is as competitive, if not more, as trying to get into an Ivy League college. Some of these schools only have 10 or 20 slots. They may require a 1520 or 1530 SAT or higher, a 35 ACT or higher. And if you don’t have those scores, you’re wasting your time even applying. And I’ve seen so many students just kill themselves trying to get those scores when there are so many other paths other than BS/MD. It’s not like, you know, the sun rises and sets on this one kind of program. Trust me, if you think that a BS/MD program, also called a seven-year med program, is the easy way out. I assure you, it is the hardest way to become a doctor. It is the harder path forward.

And fourth is it may not be the guarantee that so many people think it is. They think at 17, okay, I’m accepted. That’s the next seven years, it’s a lock. It’s done. But the fact is that many of these medical schools may still require you to take and do well on the MCAT. May still require an interview. In fact, some of these BS/MD programs, all they guarantee is that you will get an interview. And I don’t think that’s a reason to choose a college for your undergraduate studies on that little of a promise. The best that a BS/MD program is doing for you is it’s helping you graduate college a year sooner. But they’re not taking a year off of med school, they’re taking a year off of your bachelor’s degree. So instead of a four-year bachelor’s degree and four years of medical studies, it’s three years of bachelor’s and four years of medical studies. And many of my students due to AP, IB, or dual enrollment credits, may already have a year’s worth of credits they’re bringing in. So, they may already be graduating college in three years, at which point the BS/MD isn’t doing you so many favors.

What I want you to understand is that there are so many paths forward to become a medical professional and so many different kinds of medical professionals to be that you don’t need to get tunnel vision just on this one. And don’t trust me. Ask your doctor. Talk to your pediatrician. Ask them, did they get to become a doctor by going through a BS/MD program? Do they know any doctors who did? Is that the norm in their field? ‘Cause it’s not. They’ll back me up on it. I feel confident. So consider all these things. Really do your research well.

And if you have questions, call us at 732-556-8220. We are here to help.