If you’re a hopeful future doctor, you’ve probably heard of the Brown University Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME). This prestigious eight-year continuum culminates in a combined baccalaureate-MD, offering automatic admission into The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University after four years of undergraduate studies at Brown University.
PLME is the only program of its kind in the Ivy League.
This innovative program is highly coveted and prestigious. It is well known globally, considered one of the top combined degree programs in the country, if not the world — and with good reason.
PLME has a several-decade-long history, beginning in the 1984–85 academic year. Students may pursue any of the nearly 100 AB or ScB degrees offered by Brown, across the sciences, humanities, social sciences, or behavioral sciences. This gives students the opportunity to explore a variety of interests through Brown’s signature Open Curriculum. They will need to complete pre-med requirements but have the reason to pursue other disciplines through their major, without having to complete any core requirements.
Once students earn their bachelor’s degree, they will automatically be enrolled in the Warren Alpert Medical School. They will be able to defer entry for up to two years to pursue additional opportunities, such as research.
Students who are in good academic standing will not need to submit MCAT scores to matriculate at Alpert.
In most respects, the admissions process for PLME is identical to that of the general undergraduate Brown admissions process. Students will use the Common Application to apply and complete the Brown supplement.
However, in addition to the essays all applicants complete, PLME candidates will need to complete an additional three essays as part of the Common App, which they will find in a separate section via the portal. One of the applicant’s two letters of recommendation must be from a math or science teacher.
Students may apply to PLME either through the regular decision or early decision plan. Early decision is a binding agreement, and students may be admitted to Brown while being deferred or rejected from PLME. In this case, they will still be required to attend the university — one drawback for students who have their heart set on the combined bachelor’s-MD program.
While there are no specific prerequisites for admission, applicants are encouraged to pursue the most rigorous curriculum available to them, including plenty of honors, AP, and/or IB courses, particularly in STEM subjects. The university also recommends that students complete, at minimum:
• 4 years of English with an emphasis on writing • 3 years of college preparatory mathematics (we recommend four) • 3 years of foreign language (we recommend four) • 2 years of laboratory science above the freshman level (we recommend four years of lab science) • 2 years of history, including American history (we recommend four years of history) • At least one year of elective academic subjects
To be competitive for the Brown PLME program, we recommend an overall unweighted GPA of 3.8+ in the most rigorous classes available to you at your high school.
The average SAT for accepted PLME students was 748 EBRW and 779 math
The average ACT for accepted PLME students was 35.
Currently, Brown Undergraduate Admissions has a test-optional policy for first-year students, and Brown says that students who are unable to submit ACT or SAT scores will not have a disadvantage in the admissions process — this applies to regular admissions and PLME admissions. However, we recommend PLME applicants have SAT / ACT scores of 1530 / 35 or higher to be competitive.
Brown does not disclose the average GPA for accepted students but it is safe to assume it is at least a 3.8 unweighted.