Top BS/MD and BA/MD Programs
If you’re a high school student or a college freshman or sophomore with a strong desire to pursue a career in medicine, consider applying to a BS/MD or BA/MD program. BS/MD and BA/MD programs offer admittance to both an undergraduate program and an MD program at an affiliated medical school. Depending on the program, students either apply as high school seniors when they apply to college or as pre-med undergraduate students, after they’ve already completed a year or two of college. The fact that a medical school space is reserved for each student in a BS/MD or BA/MD program is enough to lift the major stress of completing medical school applications.
Keep in mind, though, that these programs never offer unconditional acceptance into medical school upon completion of an undergraduate degree; students must take the requisite pre-med coursework, maintain a high overall and science GPA, and sometimes even take the MCAT.
BS/MD and BA/MD programs are very competitive; students generally need to be in the top 5-10% of their high school graduating class and have extremely high SAT/ACT scores. Some programs are accelerated, condensing the undergraduate and medical degrees into 6 or 7 years instead of the standard 8.
We’ve compiled a list (in no particular order) of some of the best Bachelor’s/MD programs in the United States.
Brown University Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME)
Students participating in the PLME BA/MD program are granted acceptance to Brown University as undergraduate students and conditional acceptance to Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School, provided they fulfill certain requirements while in their undergrad. This is not an accelerated program; the completion of both degrees will take at least 8 years. Students are encouraged to pursue a bachelor’s degree in whatever they want—not just science—, and they have the option of deferring medical school while they pursue other career and educational opportunities. While in medical school students may also pursue a second graduate degree.
This program is open to approximately 50 incoming freshman. Students apply for the PLME program at the same time as applying to the Brown undergraduate program. If you’re not accepted to the PLME program, you will still be considered for admittance to Brown University as an undergraduate student. The average ACT score for matriculants in the last 5 years was 34, the average SAT ERW score was 742, and the average SAT Math score was 770.
Rutgers University BA/MD Programs
Rutgers offers two different BA/MD programs. The first is a 7-year program for incoming undergraduates granting conditional admittance to Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS). Applicants must be ranked in the top 10% of their graduating high school class and have a score of at least at least 1400 on the SAT and/or 32 on the ACT in order to be considered for admittance to the BA/MD program. Students accepted into this program can choose from six undergraduate majors: English, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Psychology, and History.
The second BA/MD program at Rutgers offers pre-med college sophomores conditional admittance to Rutgers’ other medical school, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Also a 7-year program, this program requires that admitted students complete their undergraduate core requirements at an undergraduate institution affiliated with Rutgers New Jersey Medical School by the end of their junior year so they can use their senior year to start first-year medical school curriculum. Students can receive both undergraduate and medical school credit for some of the classes they take in the senior year of their undergrad/first year of medical school.
Case Western Reserve University: Pre-Professional Scholars Program in Medicine
The Pre-Professional Scholars program at Case Western offers conditional admission to CWRU School of Medicine to 15-20 incoming first-year undergraduate students. Students not accepted to the Pre-Professional Scholars Program will still be considered for admittance to CWRU. Students can major in whatever they’d like, but they must take a full four years to complete their degree. If they finish early, they’re required to supplement their undergraduate education with study abroad experiences, internships, and/or extra elective courses. In order to be officially accepted to CWRU Medical School upon completion of their undergraduate requirements, students must have a 3.63 science and overall undergraduate GPA and at least a 94th percentile MCAT score, if they choose to take the MCAT (though it’s not a requirement for CWRU pre-professional scholars).
Baylor^2 Medical Track Program
This 8-year BA/MD program with Baylor College of Medicine is extremely competitive: only 6 incoming college freshmen are accepted each year. To be considered, applicants should be in the top 5% of their high school graduating class or have at least a 3.7 GPA, and have an SAT score of at least 1430 and/or an ACT score of at least 32. Once accepted to the program, students must maintain an overall and science undergraduate GPA of at least 3.5, complete all the traditional pre-med requirements, and score a 501 or higher on the MCAT.
Of the six students admitted to Baylor’s dual degree program, two receive a $40,000 undergraduate scholarship and the other four will receive $12,000 undergraduate scholarships. Upon entrance to medical school, two students receive another scholarship of $40,000.
Virginia Commonwealth University Guaranteed Admission Program: Medicine
The Honors College at VCU offers multiple Guaranteed Admission Programs, all related to health sciences. The Guaranteed Admission Program for Medicine is an eight-year program made up of a four-year bachelor’s degree and a four-year medical degree. In order to maintain Guaranteed Admission status, participants must graduate with university honors, submit an honors dossier, take several prerequisite classes, maintain a 3.5 science and overall GPA, score 505 or higher on the MCAT, complete community and healthcare-related service hours, and engage in a one-semester clinical mentorship with a faculty member from the VCU college of medicine.
Only high school seniors with a minimum SAT score of 1330 or ACT score of 29 and an unweighted GPA of 3.5 or above will be considered for admittance. 30 incoming VCU freshmen were offered admittance to the Guaranteed Admission Program for Medicine in 2019. Students who do not gain admittance as incoming college freshmen, either because they did not apply or because they were not accepted to the program, may apply to the Guaranteed Admission Program for Medicine at the end of their sophomore year at VCU.
List of BA/MD and BS/MD Programs
The number of BA/MD and BS/MD programs changes from year to year. Here’s a list of BA/MD and BS/MD programs existing in the United States in 2019.
Six-Year Programs
California Northstate University
Howard University College of Medicine
University of Missouri - Kansas City
Seven-Year Programs
City College of New York School of Medicine
The College of New Jersey / Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Drew University / Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
George Washington University Columbian College of Arts and Sciences
Georgia Regents University / Medical College of Georgia
Montclair State University / Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
New Jersey Institute of Technology / Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute/Albany Medical College
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Stevens Institute of Technology / Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Eight-Year Programs
Brooklyn College / SUNY-Downstate Medical Center
Caldwell University / American University of Antigua College of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University
Rice University / Baylor College of Medicine
Siena College / Albany Medical College
St. Bonaventure University / George Washington University School of Medicine
Union College / Albany Medical College
University of Southern Indiana
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