For Community & Cultural Organizations

Give your families a physician's candid take on BS/MD. At no cost, and no risk to your group.

Most strong community organizations don't partner with for-profit services. This page is here to show you why this one is built differently, and why saying yes asks almost nothing of your group.

No selling to your members. No referral fees in either direction. I build the co-branded materials for you. Your families get a genuine resource, and the choice to use it stays entirely theirs.

Start a conversation → Or watch the free webinar first →

By Dr. Rory Merritt, Brown PLME graduate (one of the original BS/MD programs), board-certified emergency physician, and former Assistant Dean in Brown's Program in Liberal Medical Education. He is a first author of peer-reviewed research on the outcomes of combined BS/MD programs (Academic Medicine, 2021), based on national AAMC data.

01 What your community gets 02 Why this isn't a sales pitch 03 What I hand you 04 The hard objections

The partnership, in plain terms

What your community gets. What it costs your group.

A partnership only makes sense if the math is obvious. Here it is, with nothing hidden on either side.

What your families receive

• A free physician-led BS/MD webinar. A candid take on combined-degree admissions from someone who graduated one, then helped run one. Nothing is sold during it.
• The 2026 BS/MD & BS/DO Program Guide, ungated. Program length, MCAT requirements, deadlines, state restrictions, fit notes. Free PDF, no email required: download the Program Guide.
• Where You Stand, free. A five-minute physician-designed assessment that tells a family where their student stands, and sometimes tells them BS/MD is the wrong path.
• Library access. Dozens of long-form essays families can read on their own time, no contact required.

What it asks of you

• One share to your members. A post or message to your list, group, or channel. I write the copy for you.
• Your review of the materials. Nothing goes out under your name until you have read it and approved it.
• That's the whole ask. No budget. No volunteer hours building anything. No money changes hands in either direction.

The reason this works: you carry the relationship with your families, and I carry the expertise they're looking for. Putting the two together costs your group almost nothing and gives your members a resource most of them cannot find on their own.

The rule the whole thing runs on

The grandma rule.

On the first day of my residency, during orientation, my class gave itself a name. GCAT, the Greatest Class of All Time, said with the confidence interns have before their first overnight. Then we made one another a promise the name had not earned yet. We agreed that we would treat every patient the way we would treat our own grandmother. Not the way the chart wanted, not the way the schedule wanted. The way you would want someone to treat the person you love most.

That rule outlasted residency, and I am extending it to this. When a family brings me their child's future, I owe them what I would owe my grandmother: the truth, even when the truth costs me the work.

It is why the free Where You Stand assessment already on my site sometimes tells a family that BS/MD is the wrong path. A five-minute, physician-designed assessment that says no to the very families it could have signed is not something a salesperson builds. I built it because that is what I would want someone to tell my own family. The grandma rule is the whole reason your members can trust what comes from me, and it is the test you should hold every part of this partnership against.

Dr. Rory MerrittBrown PLME graduate · board-certified emergency physician · former Assistant Dean, Program in Liberal Medical Education

Why this isn't the usual consultant pitch

Your members already get pitched by admissions consultants. This is the opposite of that.

I will tell you my own bias up front: selling makes me nauseous. I built this whole thing so I would never have to do it to your families. If your organization is careful about who it lets near its members, good. So am I about how I show up. Four things make this different from the pitch you are used to declining.

• The free tools regularly tell families no. Where You Stand often recommends traditional pre-med instead of BS/MD. A consultant whose income depends on signing families does not build a tool that talks them out of it. I did, because the credibility is worth more than the sale.
• No money moves in either direction. No referral fee to your group, no commission to anyone, no charge to you. And nothing waits at the end: no countdown, no consultation to book, no package quoted in the final five minutes. You can tell your members that plainly, and it will be true.
• The credential is verifiable and rare. I am a board-certified emergency physician, a graduate of Brown's PLME (one of the original BS/MD programs), and a former Assistant Dean in that same program. This is not a marketing claim. It is a record your families can check.
• I never receive your membership list. What I get is only what a member hands me directly: those who register for the webinar share their email, their student's grade, and their biggest question, because they chose to. I use it to send them the recording and one next free, actionable step. You are giving your families a door, not handing me a roster.

See it before you commit to anything

The simplest way to judge whether this fits your community is to watch me do it. The full webinar is free to watch anytime, with no email wall. Watch it, decide for yourself, then we talk. Watch the webinar first →

Who I can help

This is built for a specific family, and I will tell the others so.

My mission is narrow on purpose: help standout students, and there are so many, work out whether BS/MD is genuinely the right fit, and if it is, understand what the path asks of them. That means there are families I am the right person for, and families I am not. Knowing the difference helps you point the right members here.

The right fit for this work

• A student genuinely passionate about medicine, not following a family script.
• An excellent GPA.
• At least some real healthcare experience, more than an interest in the idea of medicine.
• A serious desire to pursue a BS/MD program, eyes open to what it takes.

Not the right fit, at least not yet

• A student too young to have tested the interest in any real setting.
• An interest in medicine that is still shallow or unexplored.
• A path being driven by the family more than the student.
• These families are not turned away coldly. They are told the truth: that BS/MD is not the right question for them right now.

I do the work, not you

What I hand you, ready to post.

The reason most partnerships die is that they turn into a project for the organization. This one doesn't. You receive a finished kit, branded to your group, that you can review and send the same day.

A co-branded flyer.

Designed with your organization's name on it, written so it reads as a resource you are sharing, not a service you are endorsing. Print or digital. Yours to approve before anything goes out.

Ready-to-send post copy.

Drafted for your Facebook group, WhatsApp broadcast, email list, or newsletter. Written in plain, non-salesy language. Edit it, cut it, or use it as-is.

The webinar registration link.

A single link to the free session. If your group prefers, I will run a dedicated session for your members only, on a date that works for your community.

The ungated Program Guide.

A direct download link to share with members who want to start researching on their own. No email wall, no funnel. Only the resource. Download the Program Guide PDF.

The hard objections

The questions a careful organization should ask.

If your first instinct is to be skeptical, that is the right instinct. Here are the objections I hear most, answered straight.

We don't partner with for-profit services. Why is this different?+

It is a fair policy, and I respect it. The difference is what flows between us: nothing financial, in either direction. Your group is not selling a service or earning a commission. You are giving members access to a free webinar, a free guide, and an honest take from a physician, and they decide for themselves what to do with it. If at any point it starts to feel like a sales channel, that is a failure on my end, and you should end it.

What's the catch? Nobody does this for free.+

There is no catch, but there is a reason it is free. The webinar and the guide cost me almost nothing to give to many families at once, and giving honest information is how families come to trust me. Some of them later decide to pay for a Second Opinion of their own student. That is the whole model. Nothing is gated, nothing is sold during the webinar, and your group is never charged.

Is there an upsell after the free resources?+

There is one tier above it, and I would rather you hear it from me than find it later. A few families a year ask me to walk the entire application cycle with their student. That is the Dean's List, and at $15,000 it is the most serious thing I offer. There is no buy button for it, nothing about it is pitched in the webinar, and the only way in is by application. What I promise your members is the plain part: nothing is sold during the webinar, no family is steered toward the high end, and most never need anything past the free guide.

Will our members feel like we sold them to a vendor?+

They should not, because you are not. The materials are written as “our organization is sharing a free resource,” and the resource genuinely is free. The only information I ever hold is what a member chooses to give me by registering for the webinar, their own email and question, and no money changes hands in either direction. You can be fully transparent with your members about every part of this, because there is nothing in it to hide.

Our members already get spammed by admissions consultants. How are you not one more?+

By the test that matters: a consultant's tools tell families to hire the consultant. Mine regularly tell families that BS/MD is the wrong path and that traditional pre-med suits their student better. I am a physician and a former Assistant Dean in Brown's PLME, not a salesperson with a script. The honesty is the product, and it is what your families are not getting from the usual pitch.

How much work is this for our volunteers?+

Close to none. I build the co-branded flyer and the post copy for you. Your only tasks are to read what I send, decide whether you are comfortable with it, and share it once. If you want a dedicated session for your members, I handle the logistics for that too.

Do you get our members' contact information?+

Not from you. I never receive your membership list. Members who register for the webinar give me their own email, their student's grade, and their biggest question when they sign up, because they chose to, and I use it only to send the recording and a next free, actionable step. You are giving your families a door, not handing me a roster.

How do we know your credential is real?+

Check it. I am a board-certified emergency physician, a graduate of Brown's Program in Liberal Medical Education (one of the original BS/MD programs), and I served as an Assistant Dean in that program. It is a matter of record, not a line in a brochure.

What if we want to try it small before committing?+

That is the right way to do it. Start by watching the free webinar yourself, or share only the ungated guide and nothing else. See how your members respond and how it feels. There is no agreement to sign and nothing locks you in, and you set the terms throughout: one post or a standing partnership, a shared session or a dedicated one, your name featured or kept private. Email me and we will start wherever you are comfortable.

The next step

Start with a conversation, not a commitment.

Tell me about your group and the families in it, and I will tell you honestly whether this is a fit. If it isn't, I will say so. If it is, you will have a ready-to-share kit faster than you expect.

Email rorymerritt@bridge2md.com →

Prefer to talk? Send me a quick email and we'll find a time.
Want to watch first? Watch the free webinar and decide afterward.