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Some people are looking at these and my opinion is to not look at 6-year programs. Most combined BA/MD programs now are at least 7 years if not eight years. The reason is you only go to college once in your life and if you cram it all into just 2 years you may feel shortchanged once you are older. You also won't have the chance to fully develop or more importantly, to see if medicine is truly for you. I recommend 7 or 8 year programs and ones that allow you to apply to other medical schools or decide not to enter medical school at all, and still earn your BA without any complications.

The Brown University PLME program, Northwestern University HPME program, and the UC-San Diego Medical Scholars program are eight year BA/MD progams that fit this criteria. They are among the best programs but the most difficult ones to get into. You can get a full list of BA/MD programs from

http://www.aamc.org/students/applying/programs/collegemd.htm

Good luck!

By Dadster on Wednesday, August 07, 2002 - 11:44 pm: Edit

or decide not to enter medical school

Good point, med. Many, many undergrads decide to change majors. I'm not even a big fan of enrolling as a pre-med major, which some colleges allow. I'd prefer to see a kid major in something else, and pick up the premed requirements along the way.