SMP or postbacc

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kgibran

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Question for you guys...I'm sitting at a 3.3s/c with a 3.5+ over my last 40 BCPM. If I continue my trend for a year (24+ credits) I could get up to 3.4+ in both s/c. My question is would I better off doing an informal postbacc or an SMP? Planning on retaking 29 (11,10,8).
Thx

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3.5 over your last 40 isn't impressive. From a 3.3, every grade you get that isn't an A is a step away from med school.

Think bigger than "SMP or what?" here.

Location: If you're in California, just assume you need 2+ years of additional work after finishing prereqs from a 3.4. That might mean an SMP like Gtown plus a gap year, or it might mean traditional grad study with pubs. The less competitive your state, the less you need to do to account for a 3.4.
DO willingness: If you're willing to consider being a DO, that's by far the fastest path to becoming a practicing physician in the US. Do not look at Caribbean schools as a viable option, that's just a joke.
Access to more undergrad coursework: If you can conveniently take more undergrad, then you can avoid the expense and risk of an SMP. You don't mention if you've graduated yet. If you haven't graduated, look into adding a minor or 2nd major to extend your undergrad program. If you've graduated, then it's less convenient and more expensive to keep taking classes. Berkeley Extension and Harvard Extension are good examples of flexible postbac options for GPA redemption.
Resources and seriousness for the MCAT: The majority of MCAT retakes result in a lower score. Only pursue a retake if you're going to dedicate substantial time, energy and money to the job. Don't use practice tests to gauge your readiness, because you'll never see that content on the test. Use comprehensive content review and do a million quizzes/problems.
Timing: The year you apply to med school is less important than the month you apply. Plan all of this around being ready to submit a complete and compelling app on June 1. "Losing" a year in favor of securing your maximally competitive app is not a loss. Being ready to apply in early summer means you have your best MCAT score in hand on June 1, which means any MCAT retake happens in April, May at the latest. You also need to have financial resources in hand for secondary fees and interview costs at the time you submit AMCAS.
Baketime: If you do not yet have experience with real responsibility, where your mature decisions result in your ability (or not) to pay rent and in the success (or failure) of a large team project, then you should look for such experience before you pursue med school. There's too much competition for med school to assume you can get away with just being a mall rat gamer who never spells out words like "because". That describes a typical 21 year old, which you can't afford to be.

Best of luck to you.
 
Ignoring deep pockets, SMP's are for people with poor trends, inconsistent performance in upper-level science courses, or a low GPA made up of a lot of science credits with an otherwise stellar application. Your Bio score indicates that you need to reinforce those basic concepts, which isn't something that an SMP would necessarily help with. A 3.4 can be fine with a good trend for a non-Californian with a high MCAT and great if you're willing to do D.O. The advantage of post-bacc is that it is more flexible/less intense/less expensive than Master's, meaning that you have time to work on other parts of your application. The more classes you do well in, the less you have to depend on a statistical anomaly to push your app.

In order for an SMP to be considered a viable option, you'd have to improve your MCAT score by 3-5 points in the next couple of months (all while maintaining your trend). That's a lot of things to think about and the Master's option is always the riskiest. The safest option is to find a good postbacc to do 20-30 credits from 2014-2015, find meaningful EC's, dedicate this summer to the MCAT before the test changes, and apply for entry after you have all your grades. You're doing everything you can- I don't necessarily agree with staying at the same university for another major. Sometimes a change of scenery is good, especially if there are obvious distractions that have been holding you back. At least at my undergrad, which is supposed to be the most rigorous/famed for its grade deflation, the post-baccs all scored well because they were no longer in the undergraduate mindset. If you stay at your undergrad, you are more prone to falling back into old habits ESPECIALLY if you still have friends there. It may be less fun, but fun (or engineering) is what causes coasting grades in the first place.
 
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