Parents are facing the challenge of currently navigating the BS/MD admissions landscape. Incorrect decisions as to when, where and how to turn now results in shipwrecks: immediate rejection of their children after their years of planning. One incorrect extracurricular activity, one negative letter of recommendation, one incorrect sentence in an essay, one incorrect answer in an interview and one incorrect non-verbal cue and or perception will result in a REJECTION! It’s that competitive.
There are continuous fundamental shifts and uncertainty in BS/MD admissions. BS/MD programs are not just about high GPA and test scores, 3-5 page resumes, research and hours of shadowing. It’s now about the interrelated narrative of why you wish to be a doctor and how the student profile stands out, as well how it fits your narrative.
From what I have observed, parents are attempting to game the admissions landscape by using antiquated strategies from outdated books or visiting online communities which provide generic information. Even taking advice from last year’s accepted students can result in rejections!
The COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. economy, healthcare inequity, and student demographics and the number of BS/MD programs have changed the admissions landscape and even enrollment/admissions policies and goals at many schools. Therecent closing of BS/MD programs is a testament to the changing landscape and will affect BS/MD admissions policies and goals.
Query: What’s the new playbook?
Query: With factors such as VOLATILITY, UNCERTAINTY, the UNFORESEEN and the UNEXPECTED what are parents to do?
Query: What are parents to do, after spending considerable years of time and money in attempting to secure a future for their child, when they now face sudden changes in the educational and admissions environment years?
ANSWER: Hire a BS/MD admissions advisor who is an expert! We are the NEW PLAYBOOK
Dr. Paul Reginald Lowe, founder and managing director of Pinnacle Educational Center Admissions Advisors Group, provides comprehensive counseling advice, exclusively for admissions to top private schools; Ivy League and highly-selective colleges/universities; BS/MD programs; graduate and medical schools and top visual and performing arts programs. The admissions affiliate: Ivy League Admissions Advisors specializes in admissions to Ivy League and highly selective colleges. Dr. Lowe also specializes in helping students gain admissions to BS/MD programs:| BS/MD Admissions Guru| BS/MD Admissions Advisors.
I have visited TCNJ several times over the years. I must state that it is an amazing campus! My discussion with students and admissions officers reveal that it is an excellent learning institution!
TCNJ/NJMS is a 7-year direct BS/MD program where students are accepted to both the medical school and TCNJ and to earn both the baccalaureate/BS degree from TCNJ and the MD degree from NJMS in seven years.
It’s a 3+4 program where students spend three years at TCNJ in an approved major (Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, English, Philosophy, Physics, Economics, Biomedical Engineering, Engineering Science (mechanical or electrical emphasis), Math, Spanish or History) and four at NJMS. Upon successful completion of the first year of medical school, the student is granted the BS or BA degree in the chosen undergraduate major from TCNJ. The M.D. degree is then earned at the end of four years at NJMS.
On average 400 students apply each year, and about 40 students are accepted in TCNJ/NJMS. Last year, 2 of our clients were accepted to TCNJ/NJMS.
BS/MD Program Knowledge: Our clients attend BS/MD programs across the United States. We know their academic and extracurricular experiences and WOW factors. This is important because in addition to our personalized strategies to help you, we apply this knowledge to your BS/MD applications, individual college supplemental applications, essays and interviews. We understand the curriculum, culture, and unique opportunities available at each of the universities and therefore, Dr. Lowe and his team can provide their clients with the competitive advantage needed for admissions success!
Our BS/MD Admissions practice is specialized: Dr. Lowe and his team only work with parents who understand that the BS/MD admissions process is competitive, who desire help from an admissions expert and who see the value and investment in paying for expert advice through a detailed and ongoing comprehensive admissions advisory service for their child’s dream of becoming a doctor. He also specializes in helping international students in the BS/MD process. Parents who chose to use our services want to call their son or daughter – “Doctor” when they are seniors in high school
It’s mid-September, and we are currently receiving calls and emails from anxious parent of high school seniors requesting BS/MD Admissions help. Here is the problem for these parents (and students). It’s too late!
Successful admissions – It’s all about timing and time management.
Valuable and trusted BS/MD help starts as early as middle school prior to high school. The optimum time to hire an educational consultant, who specializes in BS/MD admissions, is sophomore or junior year (when you see that the student is committed to being a doctor), they have at least one year of high school grades.
Not surprisingly, when we receive these calls, students sound exactly alike: high SAT/ACT scores, 4.3 and above weighted GPA, shadowing, published research paper (or two), a website indicating that they have helped socio-economically disadvantaged students. Their achievements sound exactly alike; it is as though they have been reading the same books, visiting the same websites and talking with the same people. Although these parents have yet to experience the outcome of this practice, it generally means they have prepared their children to be rejected from BS/MD programs and ivy league and highly selective colleges and universities. By simply procrastinating, their mistakes are irreversible and irrevocable. It is simply too late for our firm to correct their mistakes or make recommendations to enhance their student profiles.
BS/MD admissions is super-competitive. We find ways through our experience and knowledge to help our clients stand out. We know that our clients who have retained us from the sophomore or junior year will look and sound superior to other students. Our acceptance results speak to this!
Only first place wins in admissions!
My team and I prepare our clients to win first place (because there are no second or third place seats in competitive college and BS/MD admissions).
In the admissions race,our clients are winners!Dr. Lowe congratulates parents who support their children’s dreams!“Valuable and trusted advice is needed to avoid mistakes” – Dr. Lowe
Many parents, students, high school counselors and fellow educational consultants ask us: How do you maintain such a high acceptance rate in BS/MD Admissions? What’s your secret sauce? What makes you different? It’s amazing, but how do you do this?
Let’s explain!
While high school counselors provide college counseling, based on our information retrieval and interaction with our clients, high school counselors do not specialize in BS/MD admissions advising, nor do they have the school-specific knowledge of BS/MD programs. Our efforts complement and enhance what high school counselors do so our clients gain a competitive edge in the BS/MD Admissions process.
My team and I perform a Mistakes Assessment Analysis of a student’ s academic profile, resume, extracurricular activities and much more! Mistakes are inevitable during this ever-changing/evolving process. You want to avoid making irrevocable mistakes on your BS/MD program application or even supporting documents! Because mistakes can cost you! We GUARANTEE that we will uncover multiple mistakes on your application and in your student profile that would cause you to be REJECTED
We help to brainstorm and revise the Common Application main essay, COVID essay, school specific supplementary essays and BS/MD application essays. Our team approach allows us to provide an in-depth analysis and revision of essays.
We conduct continuous thought-provoking interview preparation sessions. Interviewers have to like you. They have to want you in their program. It doesn’t matter how brilliant you are. Brilliance and achievements among BS/MD applicants are the norm. We have discovered that even top students do not realize that etiquette, manners and body language matter in college admissions. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it, the etiquette and manners involved, and your personal delivery. Sometimes what you say and how you say it may be misinterpreted. We help our clients with the proper etiquette, manners and body language in college admissions. If you have stellar GPA and test scores and poor interviewing skills, you will be rejected.
BS/MD Knowledge Network: We know exactly what each program is looking for and how they will evaluate a BS/MD applicant. Our clients who are current students at BS/MD programs like Brown PLME, Rice Baylor, Albany Medical College, Drexel, Penn State/Thomas Jefferson, NJIT and more, inform us of up-to-date knowledge that we we can use to give our current clients an admissions edge. Additionally, we know of admissions officers and at many of these institutions.
By understanding our student through multiple continuous consultation sessions, we help you to understand how you can stand out and what you MUST do to stand out.
We can identify what challenges you may face based on your student profile.
We know how to identify elements of your student profile and essentially help you to display what you already have and successfully connect the dots to create your WOW factor.
Diversity Competitive Advantage (DCA): We know and understand difference and unconscious bias. Our boutique admissions advisory firm, being different, helps our clients to stand out and be accepted. No other admissions advisory and educational BS/MD firm, with a culturally, ethnically and racially diverse team,can truly appreciate and understand the meaning and value of standing out and successfully apply it to the competitive admissions process. Our DCA translates to successful admissions and results! The diversity in our firm empowers our clients and gives each of them a competitive admissions edge! See: Dr. Lowe’s blog on diversity.
Color: We add color (Pick your definition; all apply, with the possible exception of its hypothetical application to quarks, including ROYGBIV, vitality, interest, appearance, background information and visual perception.) to your application and essays. “Colorless” applications are boring to admissions officers and can be easily rejected! By adding color, we make your application and student profile more interesting.
International and H4-visa applicants: We understand the challenges that international and H-4 visa BS/MD applicants will face through our partnerships with immigration law firms. Most importantly, we know how BS/MD programs will evaluate international and H-4 visa students.
Dr. Paul Lowe personally discusses multi-level admissions strategies with each client. He personally works with each of his clients face-to-face so that they directly benefit from his expertise, experience, contacts and the collective knowledge of his educational team. Dr. Paul Lowe is a physician-scientist by training who knows how to prepare BS/MD applicants. Dr. Lowe uses the collective intelligence of his diverse team of experts to strategically design and implement haute couture-type admissions plans for clients. Therefore, you know that you will always communicate directly with a leading BS/MD admissions expert.
Public Relations/Personal Branding: Our team collectively focuses on public relations and personal branding within the context of college admissions. Dr. Lowe helps his clients identify and refine their personal image so that they can differentiate themselves from other qualified applicants. Consequently, Dr. Lowe works with a diverse team of image consultants, character education experts, fashion designers, visual and performing artists, musicians, screenwriters, public relations and personal branding consultants and ethnomusicologists.
Each year, my offices receive calls and emails from parents of international students and parents who presently have H1B visas whose high school students have H4 visas who wish to become U.S. medical doctors through BS/MD programs.
As a result, we have developed a specialty helping these students navigate the college admissions and specifically the hypercompetitive BS/MD admissions process.
Based on my professional experience as a BS/MD admissions advisor, and long-term professional relationships with admissions officers and administrators, here is a current list of BS/MD programs that will consider reviewing applications of international and H4 Visa students:
Boston University Seven-Year Liberal Arts/Medical Education Program
Case Western Reserve University Pre-Professional Scholars Program in Medicine
Howard University BS/MD
Pennsylvania State University Accelerated Premedical-Medical Program
Rice/Baylor Medical Scholars Program (MSP)
Rutgers University-Newark BA/MD
SUNY Upstate Accelerated Scholars Program
University of Connecticut Special Program in Medicine
University Rochester – Rochester Early Medical Scholars (REMS)
Working with international and H4 visa high school students who desire to matriculate to BS/MD programs is a very involved, comprehensive and long-term process. My team and I must clearly understand student goals, continuously help students with their applications and develop successful admissions strategies. After all, we know the value of becoming a licensed U.S. medical doctor!
It’s very important to avoid the risks and potential mistakes that will cause you to be rejected from BS/MD programs. After all your hard work, do you really want to make mistakes?Mistakes that can occur in your junior year, senior year and/or on your college applications?
Selectivity: Dr. Lowe only works with qualified students and parents who choose to hire the best!
If you are a high school junior or your son or daughter is a high school junior and you are thinking about applying to direct BS/MD programs, it’s time to get really serious about either planning or implementing your plans. With about 3 months left of your junior year, there is no time to waste! You will need to avoid common mistakes as well as obscure omissions. In addition, it is important to polish your existing student profile. You may think it’s great, however, it must measure up or be better that the 95% of applicants that will be rejected.
As students (even with the help of their parents) prepare for the college admissions process, they read books, look at videos or visit college forum-type websites which they believe may provide personalized answers for them. These sources provide information that everyone else can see, but not customized strategies to help your child avoid mistakes.
Many parents who call us (and whose children are performing the above and have the “perfect” BS/MD profile) then believe that their child is a shoo-in for BS/MD programs and just need “some” advice.
Here’s a list of factors by admissions expert, Dr. Paul Lowe that you should consider if you are a junior seriously thinking about applying to BS/MD programs.
Student CHARACTER – Personality counts! What’s your “je ne sais quoi”?
The HOOK – If you don’t have a hook, the admissions committee will not grab you!
The STORY – It’s all about the story and how it’s framed and presented! No good story, no acceptance! Certain rejection!
Common Application: PERSONAL STATEMENT – Meaningful, well-written and convincing personal statement needed. No flow, harmony, tone combined with gravitas – rejection!
COLLEGE-SPECIFIC SUPPLEMENTALS– You must complement and synergize your supplementals with your personal statement. All the school-specific essays are important, even the 50 word-count answers! Students have been rejected because of mistakenly using one word or a sentence in 50 word-count essays!
COLLEGE-SPECIFIC-BS/MD ESSAYS – The “Why doctor essay?” “I want to help people”. Everyone in the service industry does that!
COLLEGE APPLICATION VIDEO ESSAY – Schools are seriously viewing these videos. Did we say Brown PLME? Check out our College Admissions Video Productions partnership.
The effective and boldRESUME – It’s not just about a 2–3-page resume with lots of research and extracurricular activities which is just a list. It has to be framed correctly or it looks boring and generic!
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES – Are your extracurricular activities meaningless or meaningful? Do they really interconnect to your student profile in a meaningful way? Have you become the jack-of-all extracurricular activities? The master of none? Are you a drive-by extracurricular activities person?
VOLUNTEERISM – It’s not just about tutoring underprivileged children, participating in an ESVE (Expensive Summer Volunteer Activity) or starting your own nonprofit organization. There is more to volunteering than just volunteering!!!
WOW FACTOR – What’s your WOW Factor? How and when can you use it to WOW admissions? You want the admissions committee to say “WOW! We want this applicant on our campus.”
INTERVIEWS – You may be seemingly be all that on paper; grades, SATs recommendations, volunteering to save the world, 1000 hours of shadowing, however, one incorrect word or statement in an interview results in a rejection – That’s right, just one!
ETIQUETTE – Think that doesn’t matter? Think that’s old-school? Think again! Are you mindful of how you present yourself and how people perceive you? It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it! Etiquette matters! We provide personalized etiquette strategies for our clients.
MANNERS– When you say something (or write something) what counts is not what you mean but how you are heard and perceived. Are you mindful of your manners? Manners matters! Do you know when or if you sound rude, pretentious, impolite, disrespectful, unrefined or worse – uncultivated?
WHO ARE YOU? – What are your values? What do you stand for? Can you define you? Why are you different? Are you aware how you perceives you?
DIVERSITY – What’s your diversity intelligence? What’s the meaning of diversity to you? It’s not just a word to be used throughout an essay. It’s not just about being a member of your school’s diversity club. Colleges seek students who truly understand the meaning of diversity. Diversity matters!
UNCONSCIOUS BIAS– It may occur at any time, at any level or at any stage during your admissions process. Can you identify it? How must you successfully deal with it? How do you overcome it for successful admissions decisions?
UNIVERSITY PRIORITIES– Colleges are not accepting applicants for just top grades and their perceived amazing resumes and achievements, they are continually adjusting and building diverse campus communities and future global networks based on geopolitics, geo-economics and their financials. School admissions policies and institutional priorities change year to year and region to region to match their goals. What makes you believe that you know these policies and priorities better than a boutique admissions firm that has superior access to current information and admissions trends?
The KNOW-HOW. So, you really believe it’s just (1-18)? You need the Know How: How do you do the right-things the right-way and with the right-people at the right-time? Our proprietary-knowledge, unmatched experience, admissions success and years of close working relationships with admissions professionals ensures that you do it right!
So you really believe that factors 13-18 are unimportant? Think again!
If you know how to plan, develop and implement (1-19) and how they are used in BS/MD admissions – that’s wonderful!!! But if you don’t, there is an increased probability that you (and your child) will make irrevocable mistakes that will cause instant rejections to all schools. Would you want this to happen after your years of planning as a parent and your child’s hard work?
The parents who retain Dr. Paul Lowe and his team of consultants may take risks in business and investments, but not risks in their children’s educational future – to become a medical doctor. The ones who do take risks in their children’s education – 95% of them bet WRONG!
Why take on RISKS in your child’s educational journey and career future?
Our BS/MD Admissions practice is specialized: Dr. Lowe and his team only work with parents who understand that the BS/MD admissions process is competitive, who desire help from an admissions expert and who see the value and investment in paying for expert advice through a detailed and ongoing comprehensive admissions advisory service for their child’s dream of becoming a doctor. He also specializes in helping international students in the BS/MD process. Parents who chose to use our services want to call their son or daughter – “Doctor” when they are seniors in high school.
The 7-Year Liberal Arts/Medical Education (SMED) program at Boston University is a combined medical program where students spend the first three years at Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences then four years at Boston University School of Medicine.
Dr. Paul Lowe on one of his visits to Boston University.Choose an expert who visits, knows and understands BS/MD programs! Dr. Lowe’s knowledge of programs gives you the COMPETITIVE EDGE!.
Boston University SMED Facts:
Students must complete all requirements of the College of Arts & Sciences and the Seven-Year Liberal Arts/Medical Education Program by the end of the spring semester of the third year to be eligible for promotion to the School of Medicine.
Minimum 3.20 GPA during the program for promotion to the medical school.
MCAT requirement (achieve 80th percentile) for promotion to the medical school.
Open to international and H-4 visa students/applicants.
Imagine the BENEFITS of hiring the BEST admissions expert!
Dr. Paul Lowe, BS/MD Admissions Expert
Our BS/MD Admissions practice is specialized: Dr. Lowe and his team only work with parents who understand that the BS/MD admissions process is competitive, who desire help from an admissions expert and who see the value and investment in paying for expert advice through a detailed and ongoing comprehensive admissions advisory service for their child’s dream of becoming a doctor. He also specializes in helping international students in the BS/MD process. Our Brown PLME 2021 Acceptances | BS/MD Admissions Advisors – 2020 Acceptances. Parents who chose to use our services want to call their son or daughter –“Doctor” when they are seniors in high school.
Northwestern’s Honors Program in Medical Education also known as HPME has announced that it will not be taking applications in 2021! It’s the second year that this top program has been to high school students seeking admissions to a BS/MD program!
HPME program director and Feinberg Prof. Aarati Didwania stated: “After a general review of all our pipeline programs and their effectiveness regarding diversity…”
Since HPME will not be accepting applications in 2021, the competition to gain admissions into BS/MD programs will now increase because there will be fewer programs.
It’s your child’s dream to become a doctor! Should you, as their parents, increase their chances?
Our BS/MD Admissions practice is specialized: Dr. Lowe and his team only work with parents who understand that the BS/MD admissions process is competitive, who desire help from an admissions expert and who see the value and investment in paying for expert advice through a detailed and ongoing comprehensive admissions advisory service for their child’s dream of becoming a doctor. He also specializes in helping international students in the BS/MD process. Parents who chose to use our services want to call their son or daughter – “Doctor” when they are seniors in high school.
Dr. Paul Lowe at The Alpert Medical School of Brown University
This year, we have had an increased number of clients applying to direct BS/MD programs. Few of our clients, by their choice, decided to apply to Brown Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME) because they felt that ED may be too restrictive. We respect our clients’ choices!
We are happy to report Dr. Lowe and his team’s results. Here are the results of our 8 clients who applied to Brown PLME Early Decision:
5 were admitted to the College and PLME
1 was rejected from PLME, but admitted to the College
1 deferred from PLME to regular decision
1 rejected from PLME (College and PLME), but was accepted Early Action to MIT
Brown University: “PLME applicants are strongly encouraged to submit a video portfolio as part of the application process. The video portfolio provides a wonderful opportunity for us to learn more about you.”
This year, Dr. Lowe and his admissions team partnered with the affiliate website: College Admissions Video Productions and successfully advised their clients in developing amazing video portfolios!
“Valuable and expert advice is never free or cheap” – Dr. Paul Lowe
Dr. Paul Reginald Lowe, founder and managing director of Pinnacle Educational Center Admissions Advisors Group, provides comprehensive counseling advice, exclusively for admissions to top private schools; Ivy League and highly-selective colleges/universities; BS/MD programs; graduate and medical schools and top visual and performing arts programs. The admissions affiliate: Ivy League Admissions Advisors specializes in admissions to Ivy League and highly selective colleges, Dr. Lowe also specializes in helping students who have been wait-listed, deferred or rejected gain admission into their top-choice schools: College Application Rejected and student who wish to transfer to another college: College Transfer Admissions Advisors. For colleges and universities that recommend or require videos: College Admissions Video Productions.
As college and university enrollment overall has dropped this fall because of the COVID-19 pandemic, research and reports have demonstrated that there is a record number of applicants to medical schools.
The number of applicants to medical schools has increased by 18% this year over last year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC); and this is driven by the example of medical workers and public health figures such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Increase in BS/MD Applications translates to HYPERCOMPETITION – It’s going to HARDER to get in!
Our research and knowledge of the BS/MD programs has seen an increase in interest in BS/MD programs. More parents are encouraging their children to become doctors because of the uncertainty in the future of non-healthcare careers and the fact that there is a shortage of U.S. doctors. AAMC reports that United States will be short 54,000 to 139,000 physicians by 2033, the AAMC estimates and that more than two out of every five doctors now practicing will reach retirement age over the next 10 years.
In our practice, we are seeing more parents calling us seeking BS/MD admissions help. In fact, we are seeing a trend in high school students switching to BS/MD program admissions from traditional college admissions who are currently juniors. More international high school students and H-4 visas students are also requesting BS/MD assistance.
What does this mean for BS/MD programs? More high school students will be applying and there will be even more HYPERCOMPETITION!
Our BS/MD Admissions practice is specialized: Dr. Lowe and his team only work with parents who understand that the BS/MD admissions process is competitive, who desire help from an admissions expert and who see the value and investment in paying for expert advice through a detailed and ongoing comprehensive admissions advisory service for their child’s dream of becoming a doctor. He also specializes in helping international students in the BS/MD process. BS/MD Admissions Advisors – 2020 Acceptances. Parents who chose to use our services want to call their son or daughter – “Doctor” when they are seniors in high school.
After all that hard work, don’t you want want your child to be a BS/MD student?
Dr. Paul Lowe - Admissions Expert 