Is the MBS program difficult to maintain A's and B's? How is it going for you? And have you been accepted into CMS? (I don't remember if I read that you were accepted sorry)
In my opinion the beginning of the year is the most difficult part to BMS. When I spoke to the program head over the phone during the summer prior to my BMS year, he basically said that "We will put your BMS group through a few days of orientation, and then we are throwing you into the deep end." This is not to say that the advisors/various resources at RFUMS abandoned us, because that is definitely not the case. Everyone was super helpful and wants the BMS students to succeed, but it's just a really difficult transition for many people coming from a semi-laid back undergrad experience, to a difficult medical school curriculum. I've maintained all B's in my medical school courses, and A's in every other course (health administration track courses, and topics in physiology). This has been difficult in my opinion, because i went from studying for around 3/4 hours a day in undergrad, to 14 hours a day in BMS. And it's not just about the amount of time you put in, it's about how you study. Luckily, there are plenty of people here at RFU that will teach you "how to learn." You'll be fine, you just need to be able to adapt to the situation, and put forth 110% effort for one year.
That is very reassuring
If we get in, is this kind of like a "clean slate"? I talked to admissions a while ago and she said they look at everything, not sure if she new what she was talking about but she seemed shocked at the rumor of "clean slate". I was reading around and basically if you rock the masters and the interview you should be golden, but she thought otherwise.
Speaking from my BMS cohort, BMS is sort of a clean slate...for your grades/MCAT. If you committed like 4 felonies or something, then you are kind of screwed. You need the basic premed stuff, like shadowing and volunteering and such, and good LOR's. Also it's not a clean slate if you don't get into CMS obviously, since if you apply to any other med school after rejection from CMS, all your grades will follow you.
How does the program factor in more than 1 MCAT score? My first score was 504, second one went down to 500? I know many med schools specifically look at the most recent score, but not sure how the MBS looks at it.
I don't think they will care about your MCAT score going down from a 504 to a 500 too much. This is just my opinion, but if you got a 504, that means you obviously have the capability of succeeding on a difficult test, and that should speak to the BMS admissions committee. And once you are in BMS, your MCAT isn't going to matter to the CMS adcoms. As i've said earlier in the thread, i've been conditionally accepted with a 497 MCAT.
Any scholarship opportunities available for CMS/BMS students?
I don't think there are any scholarships for BMS students, but there are definitely scholarships for CMS students. If you would like an alternative to the BMS program, look into the PMP or Pre-Matriculation program. I believe this program is designed for students with below average grades, from low income/under-represented areas that would like to take medical school classes for possible admission into CMS. The program is free, but it is quite different from BMS, and I really have no idea how it will be structured next year. Plenty of information about the program is on the RFUMS website. Some of my friends who are in BMS right now applied to PMP first, and they were rejected from PMP during the first few days of orientation for BMS.
Hi all!
Does anyone know if RFU has a regional preference for their applicants? For instance, do they prefer IL applicants over out-of-state applicants? I'm very interested in this program, and I'm working on my application now. I'm from VA. Where's everyone else applying from?
I don't think RFU has any preference for in state/out of states, but they do manage to keep a 50/50 in state/out of state ratio of students for BMS. In my opinion, they probably accept all of the strong applicants, and put the "in-between" applicants on a waitlist. Then once they start pulling off the waitlist they'll attempt to reach the 50/50 out of state/in state mark. That's just speculation though. The 50/50 could have just been achieved by chance!
And for CMS, I don't think they have any preference, considering around 30% of this year's M1 class is in state.
