Messed up in SMP...questions.

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EventualMD

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tantacles said:
With a 3.36 and a 38, why not just apply to medical school? Is everything else in order?
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My advisor recommended it. I don't have any red flags. I'd have to re-take the MCAT.

Also, I did a lot of neurological research and was interested in neurology and apparently that is a DO friendly specialty, no?
 
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EventualMD said:
My advisor recommended it. I don't have any red flags. I'd have to re-take the MCAT.

Also, I did a lot of neurological research and was interested in neurology and apparently that is a DO friendly specialty, no?
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Sounds like you have a good adviser!

There are many DO friendly fields, and you should absolutely apply to some DO schools, but your stats are good enough for MD schools as well.
 
Best answer; try the newer DO schools and particularly SMPs that DO schools offer. With that MCAT score, I could definitely see someone perhaps giving you a chance at least at the SMP where if yo uhit a certain GPA you are in(and DO SMPs are much less workload than MD).

But yes, you should keep perspective realize there is a real chance medicine wont work out and think about plan B even while entertaining not giving up. With that 38 MCAT it's not like you arent capable of doing many things in this world, quite the opposite actually. And it is a good idea to take a little while off to put some time in between that SMP showing, enhance your application in other ways, while all the while thinking about plan B.

PS: dont listen to that advisor next time. The majority of people with 3.4/38's who apply broadly get in somewhere every year.
 
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With a 3.36 GPA and your mCAT, you could have just sailed into my school. I can't sugar coat this: right now, seeing that you tanked an SMP, you'd be dead meat.

You could take your chances with some of the newer DO schools, but better to start working on Plan C.
And don't tell my Dean that your SMP charges six figures!!! Frankly, you got ripped off.


EventualMD said:
I had a 3.36 GPA from a top 20 school going into an SMP, and a 38 MCAT. I was aiming for a US MD school.

I had 2 immediate family members pass away during the first part of the SMP, one unexpectedly, and I unfortunately did poorly in some courses, was put on academic probation, and took a leave of absence. I was given the chance to come back and re-take courses but I opted not to return, because the debt load would be huge (~6 figures @ 7.2% with no guaranteed med school admission because of the semester I would have to re-take courses).

I'm currently looking to work in an unrelated field, save some money, and explore other careers. However, I've since looked at what I did, and feel like I got really unlucky. I did make mistakes--some times I should have gotten help, and I shouldn't have chosen to save a few bucks to live 40 minutes from campus. I've had some qualms about not going back. I had so much invested in becoming a physician, and I feel completely wrecked. I'm still looking for a good job right now.

I'm not looking to apply to medical school right now, but I'd like to be informed on whether or not my poor performance is a kiss of death as everyone says or not because of the circumstances. They did tell me that if I re-took the classes and did well, and also did well in the second part of the SMP, it could turn out OK (but they wouldn't be the ones being put into $100k of debt in their early 20s for an unmarketable degree outside of medicine). I'm also well aware of that I may not be cut out for the pressure of medical school, and may need some growing up still (I'm 24).

My question is, given my circumstances, have I not completely thrown away the chance of becoming a doctor?
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EventualMD said:
Even though I was put on probation in an SMP? I had 3 courses where I was below a B, which was not allowed. The other courses I did not do spectacularly in.
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Not a question I can answer explicitly. Your stats are competitive for MD schools. Beyond that, I don't have tremendous insight.
 
I think it's time to move on to alternative career options.
 
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EventualMD said:
my question wasn't what i should do, i'm currently not even touching medicine with a 10 ft pole, but rather, should an SMP become financially feasible again, whether or not it could undo what happened given the extenuating circumstances. also, the DO question. i got a really high mcat score and feel like i would be wasting my abilities if i did some of the other stuff i'm looking at.
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I have no idea. I've never heard of anyone dropping out of one SMP, going back and successfully doing another, and consequently matriculating into an MD school.

There may be low-tier DO SMPs that are willing to take you.
 
EventualMD said:
That advisor is currently leading a top 3 ranked department at a top 10 med school.
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And yet she still somehow doesn't know what she's talking about. Stats don't lie.
 
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EventualMD said:
Oh god, I don't even know. I think it was like a 3.0 when I left. I only did one semester.
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Your best bet is redoing the SMP if your school is wiling to expunge your first semester due to your circumstances. Maybe see if they can expunge it and you can just apply DO.
 
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Are there any ways to provide feedback about advisors to the school? There was a good chance that OP would have gotten into a MD program without a SMP. It's kind of crazy that these advisors get paid to say whatever they want without repercussions

If your MCAT isn't expiring this cycle, redo the classes while applying to DO and MD programs that don't require you to finish your masters. Get in early and drop out of the 2nd semester of the SMP? Sorry you got such horrible advice :/
 
Beggars can't be choosy.


EventualMD said:
my question wasn't what i should do, i'm currently not even touching medicine with a 10 ft pole, but rather, should an SMP become financially feasible again, whether or not it could undo what happened given the extenuating circumstances. also, the DO question. i got a really high mcat score and feel like i would be wasting my abilities if i did some of the other stuff i'm looking at.
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EventualMD said:
That advisor is currently leading a top 3 ranked department at a top 10 med school.
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And look at where that got you. Largely thanks to her, you went from being a good MD candidate to one now begging and pleading if any DO school will give him any look.

I mean let's not sit here and pretend like DO schools every year dont take on applicants with some mistakes in there pasts and that these people with 3.2's after grade replacement with 24-26's on the MCAT are automatically better candidates than you. The key is you have to prove yourself and if possible put some gap of time between this. For some perspective not even 1 DO matriculant last year had a 40 on the MCAT. Only 1% even hit 35. If you were to matriculate with a 38 it would be one of, maybe even the highest score in teh country of any DO student. Some DO school who never gets any real shot at nabbing an applicant with such a high MCAT score certainly is going to be intrigued by that MCAT alone but the key is to show you have overcome what caused prior issues.

Like I said above, the newer DO schools and many of these DO schools with SMPs linked to them are your best bet to look at. Hit X GPA in a DO SMP and you are basically in the school(and DO SMPs are much easier than MD SMPs also). It's your call; nothing is guaranteed or close to it. But if like you said you really cant see yourself doing anything else, make the most of what you have I think youll find that some DO schools might perhaps be interested in giving you a second look, at the very least through one of their SMPs where whether or not you get in to the medical school after is soley dependent on how you do in the SMP.
 
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tantacles said:
Not a question I can answer explicitly. Your stats are competitive for MD schools. Beyond that, I don't have tremendous insight.
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Not really. Most schools are rocking a 3.7 average gpa. 3.36 is very low
 
EventualMD said:
Actually it was 39 but i put 38 to not give away my identity, not that i should care anymore b/c apparently i can't become a doctor anymore.
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I think that you could convince a DO school to take a chance on you. I wouldn't say that a 3.0 in certain SMPs is necessarily bombing the program. I have heard that the average gpa at some SMPs is a 3.3, so if that is the case then you weren't that far below it. And, at least at my SMP, a B average is still like a 75+% on medical school exams - so you would at least not be failing out of medical school with your performance.

If you really want to go MD, then the only plan I could think of would be to serve in the military for a few years and then try again for the SMP - maybe this could even help you out financially. Other than that, unless you can get your SMP program to give you retroactive withdrawals and another shot at the program, I really don't see MD being a reality anytime soon.

I have no idea about dentistry. I think you would be competitive for podiatry school, though.
 
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Mansamusa said:
That is for Hispanic/black applicants. If OP is white, the chances are 54%, but coming from a top 20 he likely would have been in that 54%
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Still, given that 50% of the medical students in this country are accepted with a LizzyM <70...you'd think he would apply with a 73.
 
EventualMD said:
I had one unsuccessful application cycle, no interviews (secondaries from UCSD though). I applied to a lot of reach schools, but also a lot of lower-tier (I should have applied to a lot more).

It seems so stupid in retrospect but I listened to my advisor. Also, I had a lot of community college courses from HS that bumped my UG GPA to the 3.36; my GPA in college was actually 3.24.

The consensus was that I needed to demonstrate that I could do well, and my college record did not have an upward trend. I fully regret doing the SMP though, I literally threw away what I did for the last few years.
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Oh, well if your science gpa was lower than that 3.24, you likely would have needed some kind of gpa repair even with your MCAT (or perhaps just a better school list). Your advisor's advice wasn't completely horrible
 
EventualMD said:
Science gpa was 3.30
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Still, the lack of an upward trend hurt. Of the 50% of applicants that get in with your stats, many will be rising trends, reinventors, veterans, etc. I actually think that an SMP might not have been a bad idea for you - but that is irrelevant now, as you made the decision to do one.
 
EventualMD said:
I just emailed my old advisor asking if they re-admit people, for future reference. I'm trying something else now (actuary exams) and just got a job in IT at a nonprofit. Perchance I will return, perchance. Probably not though.
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That's good news. Good luck with everything - I am sorry that happened to you.
 
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I am very sorry to hear your woes OP. Unfortunately, I don't have much say since this is an issue known specifically well by the adcoms and @Goro essentially stated that tanking an SMP (which is a total ripoff btw) is a severe red flag.

I hope you are successful in any path you pursue. However, and i realize hindsight is 20/20, a 3.3-3.4 GPA isn't exactly a bad thing for medical school admissions, especially for DO admissions (US MD and US DO have equal practice rights in the long run). MD admissions is tricky yes but I have seen many, many people, including some of my friends, who applied with a sub 3.3 GPA with a 39+ MCAT and they still managed to get some acceptances, even among the top tiers.

I personally think an SMP in general is totally unnecessary and incredibly risky. For the SMP to hold merit, you need to beat most of the MS1s in your class and do well. That is difficult, and the prized SMPs of Georgetown/Cincy/BU make it even more difficult. But hey, that's why doing well in these SMPs help a lot for MD admissions. But it's pricey and emotionally taxing so I'd rather personally apply to DO schools and be happy rather than ever doing an SMP. Just my $0.02.
 
EventualMD said:
I'm putting all of this behind me, I beat myself up during my leave of absence too much. In any other field, I can just say that I took one semester of an SMP and switched out voluntarily because i changed my mind about being a doctor. I'm 24 and have a degree from a good school and options open that are interesting to me, life can be a lot better, i'm moving on.
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Best wishes on your future endeavors!
 
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