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Information Please on Combined Bachelors/M.D. Programs

Written by Sally Rubenstone | April 2, 2003

Question: Which colleges offer accelerated medical school programs that enable students to earn both a bachelor's and M.D. degree without reapplying to med school?

The Web site below is a good place to start.

http://services.aamc.org/currdir/section3/degree2.cfm?data=yes&program=bsmd

It includes many of the current accelerated medical programs, although not all of them. In fact, no resource weâ€™ve encountered is 100 percent complete, so your best bet would be to use more than one. In addition to this site you might also want to order one of these books (available at www.amazon.com ):

The High School Doctor: The Underground Roadmap to 6, 7,

and 8 Year Accelerated/Combined Medical Programs (Ba/Md) in

the United States by Nagendra Sai, Md Koneru, et al; or

From High School to Med. School : The definitive guide to

accelerated medical programs by Ashish Raju, Jason Yanofski;

We've seen the first of the two and find it helpful to the extent that it lists many programs and describes their admission standards. The information about the colleges themselves and the program in particular is a bit sparse, but at least provides a good starting point for further investigation.

Speaking of admission standards, you need to understand that admission to accelerated and/or combined medical programs is extremely competitive. (We say â€œaccelerated and/or combinedâ€ because some institutions offer admission to both undergrad and medical school via one application but their 8-year program is not really accelerated; other colleges compress the undergrad/med studies into 7 or even 6 years and are thus truly accelerated.) Note that even colleges that ordinarily have only so-so admission standards for their other academic areas will raise the bar to the moon when it comes to the combined med offerings, and typically only Ivy League-caliber applicants will be accepted.

You might also check out our discussion forums about Multiple Degree Programs in our Pre-Med and Med School forum.

Sally Rubenstone

Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents' Guide to College Admissions; The Transfer Student's Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student's Guide to Going to College in America. Sally has appeared on NBC's Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential's "Ask the Dean" column. She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades.