New York · Science, Humanities & Medicine Program (Siena College + Albany Medical College)

At a glance

DegreeMD (Albany Medical College)

Structure8 years

ApplyAs a high school senior

Open toOpen nationally

Annual cohort15

GPA floorNot published

Test floorNot published

MCAT (to keep the seat)Not published on official page reviewed

GPA to keep the seatA 3.5 average in the sciences is required to remain in the program (continuation requirement, verbatim from Siena's health-professions affiliation page). AMC's program page adds the softer 'satisfactory academic performance at Siena and a continued commitment to the goals of the program' language; no overall-GPA number is published.

InterviewYes

Application deadlineNovember 1

InternationalNot stated

A BS/MD seat is conditional, not a diploma. See what it takes to keep the seat, and how the continuation terms compare across every program.

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)$48,300 full-time undergraduate tuition, 2026-27 academic year, Siena University (private; single rate regardless of residency). Mandatory fees add roughly $1,400/yr (student activity $400 + programming and support $1,000).

Tuition (out-of-state)Same as in-state: $48,300 full-time undergraduate tuition, 2026-27 academic year. Siena is a private college with one published rate; no residency-based pricing.

Need-based aidYes: the Siena Grant, awarded via FAFSA with amounts varying by financial need, plus 330+ endowed donor scholarships. No published dollar range.

Merit aidYes: all full-time freshman applicants are automatically considered for merit scholarships. Named awards include the Presidential Scholarship (90+ GPA) and Franciscan Scholarship (87+ GPA), amounts not published; Bishops Scholarship is $3,000/yr for graduates of Albany Diocese Catholic high schools.

Medical school years

Tuition$61,125 per year for all four MD years, 2026-2027, Albany Medical College MD program (official Financial Aid Guide, revised 11/2025; four-year tuition total $244,500). Note: the amc.edu cost-aid web page still shows the older 2024-2025 rate of $58,750.

In-state rate grantedNot applicable: Albany Medical College is a private medical school with a single published tuition rate; no residency-based rates appear in the fee schedule or financial aid guide.

AidFour published aid categories for MD students: scholarship and grant aid, loans, Federal Work Study, and service-commitment programs (e.g. Armed Forces HPSP at full tuition, fees, and stipend), drawing on federal, state, institutional, and private sources. No published BS/MD-specific award.

Program scholarship

Program scholarshipYes

TypeService Linked

DetailsGrants cover travel and living expenses for the program's required summers of volunteer service (Siena: 'Funding is provided for travel and living expenses'; AMC: 'Grants are available for travel and living expenses'). This is a service-support grant, not a tuition scholarship. No tuition scholarship specific to the program is published on either side.

What the program does not publish (and what to ask)

No published GPA floor. The screen is holistic. The admitted pool sets the bar.

No published SAT or ACT floor. Standardized testing is reviewed in context.

Sources and verification

Verified June 15, 2026 against 10 official sources. Where a program does not publish something, we say so plainly rather than guess. How we verify.

• siena.edu /albany medical college program
• siena.edu /how to apply
• siena.edu /affiliation
• amc.edu /combined degree programs md
• siena.edu /sample schedule
• siena.edu /tuition fees room board
• siena.edu /siena scholarships and grants
• amc.edu /AMC 26 27 Student FA Guide 1.7.26
• amc.edu /cost aid
• siena.edu /deadlines

Knowing the program is the easy part.

Whether it fits the student is the hard part. Tell a former Assistant Dean where things stand and get the one honest next step. Free, no odds, no pitch.

See Where You Stand →Building the program list? The Match, $500 →

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.

This is an eight-year program you enter from high school: a B.A. in Biology from Siena, then an M.D. from Albany Medical College, with about fifteen seats a year and a national applicant pool. This page lays out what it requires, what it asks of you beyond grades, and what the program does not publish, so that whether you are the student deciding whether to apply or the parent helping, you are working from facts rather than forum rumor.

How the eight years work

This is an eight-year program: four years of undergraduate study at Siena, where you earn a B.A. in Biology, then four years at Albany Medical College, where you earn the M.D. You apply once, as a high-school senior, through the Common Application plus Siena’s supplement, with both due by November 1. There is no separate medical-school application later. The decision about a medical seat is made now, at seventeen.

The program is small and selective: about fifteen seats a year, drawn from a national pool with no state-residency rule. The published academic bars are concrete. You need to rank in the top ten percent of your class and present at least a 1360 SAT or a 30 ACT. This program is not test-optional.

What gets an application read, and what does not

Clearing the published bars gets your application read. It does not, on its own, win one of fifteen seats. Top-ten-percent rank and a 1360 are thresholds, not a finish line, and a large share of applicants will clear them. What separates applications past that point is not who looks the most impressive. It is who is the most credible, and who fits what this program is built around.

The program is explicit that it wants more than strong numbers. It seeks students who have already demonstrated a commitment to serving others. That means the part of your application that does the work is the true account of what you have done and why medicine, not a resume arranged to look the part. A committee betting a guaranteed medical seat on a seventeen-year-old has every reason to look closely at each claim, and a claim that does not hold up does more damage than a modest, true one. The work is to make the real version of your story clear and easy for a reviewer to believe and champion.

Keeping the seat

The guarantee is real, and it is conditional. The published condition is academic: a 3.5 average in the sciences is required to remain in the program. That is a meaningful bar to hold across four years of a biology degree, and it is worth taking seriously before you commit.

One thing the program does not publish is any MCAT policy for this eight-year track. A claim circulates that admitted students cannot take the MCAT or apply to other medical schools. That language comes from Siena’s separate Early Assurance Program, a different track for current Siena sophomores, and is not stated for this high-school-entry program on any official page. Do not assume it applies here. Ask the program directly what the MCAT and standing requirements are rather than trusting a number or a rule you read on a forum.

What this program is built around

This program has a clear character, and it is worth understanding before you apply, because it shapes who fits. Founded in 1986 as the first of its kind, it sets out to form physicians who, in the program’s own words, treat the patient and not just the disease. Service and the humanities are not extras here. They are the spine. In the junior and senior years the academic emphasis shifts toward the humanities, and you declare a minor in the humanities or social sciences alongside the biology degree. There is also a Summer of Service, an extended volunteer commitment with funding provided for travel and living expenses.

That focus should inform whether you apply and how. A credible application to this program shows a person who genuinely wants that blend of rigorous science with ethics and service, not someone who only wants the seat secured. A reviewer reading fifteen of these can tell the difference between authentic commitment and a checklist arranged to fit the brochure.

Where this leaves you

This program suits a student who already knows, for real and tested reasons, that medicine is the path, who can hold a 3.5 science average across a full biology degree, and who is genuinely drawn to the program’s mix of science, humanities, and service rather than just the guaranteed seat. The trade is an early, national, eight-year commitment in exchange for not running the traditional gauntlet later.

It is not the right fit for a student who is genuinely still unsure, whose certainty is mostly someone else’s, or who sees the service and humanities focus as a box to check. The honest question, whether you are the student or the parent reading this, is not whether you can get in. It is whether this is the student’s own decision, made with open eyes, and whether what this program is built around is what the student wants. If it is, this is a distinctive and humane version of the BS/MD path. If it is not, there is no shame in saying so now, while saying so costs nothing.