New Jersey · Eight-Year Combined BS/MD Program (Health Careers Program)

At a glance

DegreeMD (Rutgers New Jersey Medical School)

Structure8 years

ApplyAs a high school senior

Open toNew Jersey residents only. Runs through the Health Careers Program (HCP), an access pathway for financially and educationally disadvantaged students.

Annual cohortNot published on official page reviewed

GPA floor3.0

Test floorSAT 1100 (550+ each section, single sitting)

MCAT (to keep the seat)Required. Students take the MCAT and must earn competitive scores. No numeric minimum is published on the official Montclair or NJMS pages for this eight-year track.

GPA to keep the seatSemester and cumulative GPA of 3.50 or better, with a B or better in each science course

InterviewYes

Application deadlineDecember 1

InternationalNot eligible

Cost and aid

Undergraduate cost and medical-school cost are separate, and a combined seat is not automatically cheaper. These are the published figures. Confirm the current year with the program before you rely on a number.

Undergraduate years

Tuition (in-state)$8,427 per semester flat-rate total for full-time NJ residents (12-18 credits): $7,839 tuition + $54 SGA fee + $534 fees. Annualizes to $16,854/year tuition-and-fees, 2025-2026 academic year, Montclair State University.

Tuition (out-of-state)$13,785 per semester flat-rate total for out-of-state students (12-18 credits): $13,197 tuition + $54 SGA fee + $534 fees. Annualizes to $27,570/year tuition-and-fees, 2025-2026 academic year, Montclair State University.

Need-based aidProgram is EOF-gated: applicants must 'meet Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) Income Guidelines' as part of eligibility, tying the program itself to a need-based state aid program for financially and educationally disadvantaged NJ residents. No dollar amount or award structure published on the official pages checked.

Medical school years

TuitionRutgers NJMS MD tuition, 2025-2026 academic year: $47,137/year in-state, $75,613/year out-of-state (all four years, per Rutgers Scarlet Hub cost-of-attendance schedule for Rutgers Health/NJMS students).

Sources and verification

Verified July 6, 2026 against 7 official sources. Where a program does not publish something, we say so plainly rather than guess. How we verify.

• montclair.edu /health careers program combined bs
• montclair.edu /health careers program application
• montclair.edu /Health Careers Program Fact Sheet
• njms.rutgers.edu /programs 7 8 year
• montclair.edu /undergraduate costs
• montclair.edu /health careers program eligibility
• scarlethub.rutgers.edu /rutgers health students cost of at

See something wrong?

If you are an administrator, a current student, or a family that knows this program from the inside, email rorymerritt@bridge2md.com. We check every correction against the program's official source before we update.

Montclair State University runs one of the few combined BS/MD paths built as an access program. It sits inside Montclair’s Health Careers Program, which serves financially and educationally disadvantaged New Jersey residents, and it leads to an M.D. at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Two facts shape who it is for. It is open only to New Jersey residents, and it is a full eight years, four undergraduate years at Montclair and then four at Rutgers-NJMS, not an accelerated track. This page keeps the getting-in bar and the keeping-the-seat bar separate, and names what the program does not publish.

How the eight years work

You apply as a high-school senior into Montclair’s Health Careers Program for the combined degree. It is a four-plus-four path: four years of undergraduate study at Montclair State, then four years at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Unlike the seven-year NJMS partnerships at other New Jersey colleges, this one is not compressed, so plan on the full eight years. The medical-school decision is made now, at the front, and you then hold it by meeting the program’s requirements through college.

Who it is for

This is the part that matters most, because it decides eligibility before any number does. The program is open only to New Jersey residents who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, and the Health Careers Program is aimed at students from financially and educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. That is the design, not a limitation to work around. If you are not a New Jersey resident, this is not an available path, and that is worth knowing before you invest a single hour in the application.

What gets an application read

The published entrance bar is concrete: a B average or above, with a B average in science and mathematics, a class rank in the top 10 percent, and an SAT of 1100 or higher with at least 550 on each section from a single sitting. There is an in-person interview, and Montclair asks that a parent or guardian attend it with you, followed by interviews with both the Health Careers Program and the Rutgers-NJMS admissions committees. Clearing the numbers gets you read and interviewed. It does not, on its own, win the seat, because a program reserving a medical place for a teenager reads for whether the commitment is real and the student’s own.

One honest caution on timing. The main Montclair program pages list a December 1 deadline, but the Health Careers Program fact sheet lists December 15. The two official sources disagree, so confirm the firm date in writing before you rely on either.

Keeping the seat

The seat is conditional, and the conditions are stated plainly. To advance to medical school you must hold a semester and cumulative GPA of 3.50 or better, earn a B or better in each science course, complete the Health Careers Program honors curriculum, and take part in summer study or independent research at Rutgers-NJMS. You also take the MCAT. The program asks for a competitive score rather than a published number, so treat “competitive” as a real bar and ask the program what it means for a recent class. On successful completion of all of this, the student automatically advances to NJMS. The getting-in bar and the keeping-the-seat bar are different tests, and a family should know both before committing.

Where this leaves you

For a New Jersey student from a disadvantaged background who is genuinely set on medicine, this is a rare and valuable door: a reserved path to an M.D. built specifically to widen access, with real support along the way. The trade is an eight-year commitment made young, a residency-limited eligibility, and a continuation standard, a 3.50 GPA and a competitive MCAT, that you carry through college.

It is not available to out-of-state students, and it is not the right fit for a student whose certainty about medicine is mostly someone else’s. Whether you are the student or the parent, the honest question is not only whether the numbers are reachable. It is whether medicine is the student’s own chosen path, and whether the requirements that hold the seat, GPA, science grades, the honors curriculum, research, and the MCAT, are ones the student is ready to meet. Where the official sources disagree, on the deadline especially, confirm the specifics with the program before you plan against them.