Unsure whether SMP is right for me

[649223]

I still have a few questions for which I cannot find answers on this forum. They are mostly particular to my personal situation, though. I appreciate any advice!

BACKGROUND:

Undergraduate (2009-2013)
B.S. biology
B.A. history (not earned, lacking 1 lower division class)
cGPA: 3.47
SGPA: ~3.0 (not 2.xx)
Classes: ochem, biochem, upper division bio, biostat
GPA trend: fluctuating (up, down, up, down, etc.)
GPA distribution: Bs in science, As in non-science (few exceptions)

Dual credit (2007-2009)
cGPA: 3.95
sGPA: ~3.9
Classes: bio, gen chen, physics, calculus
GPA trend: all As except one B

Applied TMDSAS for 2014 matriculation (calculated cGPA ~3.6, sGPA ~3.2)
Never applied AMCAS
Never applied AACOMAS

ECs: negligible
Hospital volunteering (4 hrs/week, 2011-2012)
Volunteer tutoring (3 hr/week, 2011-2012)
Undergraduate student researcher (20 hrs/week, fall 2009, quit b/c lazy)
Summer student in a lab (40 hr/week, summer 2008 & summer 2009)
No shadowing
[Paid] Tutoring high school kids (30-35 hrs/week, 2013-present)
[Paid] Tutoring preschool - middle school kids (15-20 hrs/week, 2011-2012)
EMT-B: finished program, opted not to take NREMT (physical inadequacy. Hit the gym shortly after completing program, will retry when I can squat and deadlift ~200 lbs. Never tried benching, nobody to spot me, don't want to hurt/kill myself)

MCAT: downward trend, didn't study
April 2011 - 29T
August 2011 - 26R

GRE: 164 quant (88th percentile)/159 verbal (81st percentile)/6.0 writing (99th percentile)
Will retake spring 2015

SAT (if it matters): 2240

Backup plan: M.S. statistics (favorable prospects after talking to admissions)
If GPA is 4.0 and I make good connections --> Ph.D business analytics
If GPA is not 4.0 --> get a job

Why I was a bad student: lazy and immature. Some family problems.
How I fixed it: Larger financial independence (dad still pays for health/car insurance). Although I still live at home, I rent a room on the side. It gives me peace of mind, since I no longer have crippling anxiety attacks every time my dad comes near me. Knowing I have a safe place to go when things get scary has helped SO. INCREDIBLY. MUCH.

QUESTIONS:

1a. Am I competitive for SMPs? I am looking at Georgetown, NYMC, UCincinnati, BU, and iffy about Johns Hopkins HSI -- aiming for 2015 matriculation. It seems that the people that are self-reporting acceptance on SDN have GPAs and MCATs above mine, and significantly more ECs. The reason I ask is because my plans for spring 2015 are contingent on the likelihood of SMP acceptance.
Likely --> prep for medical (pay for Princeton Review MCAT prep, shadow, clinical volunteering)
Not likely --> prep for backup plan (relearn calculus, teach myself Python, take linear algebra at cc, study for GRE/GMAT, etc.)

1b. What other SMPs are recommended? The stuff I see about Drexel dilution is scaring me, and I don't even qualify for EVMS because my MCATs are too old. I'm having a hard time forming an impression about the other SMPs that are not listed above, because the threads here seem to go both ways.

2. Does it matter if I do research vs. get a non-clinically related job during the glide year? I should be applying for med schools at the same time I graduate from the SMP, so the research won't even make it onto the application. Assuming I can get a job that pays more than a laboratory, wouldn't it be better to start chipping away at that ~60k debt from the SMP? Also, the impression I got from UT Southwestern (psychiatry, anyways) is that it takes years to get any meaningful results. What's the point of doing what is clearly a last-ditch research effort, when medical schools favor consistency and results vs. busy work?

3. Assuming I get shadowing/volunteering done during spring 2015 and the glide year, will I have enough ECs to be competitive for med schools? Does the inconsistency of it hurt me?

4. Can I get into SMP with substandard LORs? One of the reasons I need the SMP is for those letters. I never spoke up and never visited my professors. Additionally, the majority of my biology classes were taken freshman/sophomore year, and the majority of my history classes were taken junior/senior year. I doubt anybody remembers me and/or will write me a good letter.

5a. Are my prereqs too old? If I matriculate into the SMP in 2015, I will apply in 2016 and matriculate in 2017. I began taking the prerequs (bio, gen chem, physics, etc.) in 2007 at the dual credit program. That's a decade apart. Will that disqualify me from admittance into med school?

5b. If so, what are my options? 2007 is recent enough that it also disqualifies me from the post-baccs for career changers (I called and asked admissions, so I'm sure about this).

6. Which of these alternatives is the better idea and/or which one(s) is/are a horrifically bad idea?
- Spend the next 10-20 years gaining financial stability (aforementioned backup plan), pay for a career changer post-bacc, and try again.
- Take out an ungodly amount of loans to retake all the upper division bio classes and apply for D.O. schools

Thanks in advance for any answers.

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[DrMidlife]

I generally try to give useful advice, and maybe the best I can do here is to advise you that the people who can actually help you honestly don't have time to read that wall of text.

 

[TyrKinase]

Your post is a little scattered, which as an internet stranger, gives me the impression you're a little bit scattered.

That being said, you're probably within SMP range if it wasn't for your MCAT. You'll probably need to retake it to get into a SMP worth attending.

Before you head off to sign up for the next MCAT administration at your closest Prometric center, can you explain why you want to be a physician? Not that I personally need or want to know, just that you have very little real exposure to being a healthcare provider. You have what sounds like a plan A, B, and C, but I get the sense that you're looking for a next step (med school trajectory versus other grad school) rather than answering the more fundamental question which is, why medicine?

As I tell non-internet people, don't do medicine unless you can't be happy doing literally anything else. This applies doubly for people taking the SMP route. It's a long, expensive, and tiring path, and you owe it to yourself to determine whether you know what you're truly signing up for before you dive in head-first.

TLR: figure out if you want to be a doctor first, then worry about the rest of the details.

 

[TyrKinase]

You seem scattered in the sense that your story is all over the place (and I read your most recent reply before you edited out the part about Ebola and children with tire irons and joining the military). This observation doesn't address your primary question ('is an SMP right for me?') but may speak to some underlying issue with your narrative (which is what a lot of med schools ask about when they say, "why medicine?"). I'll focus on you your primary question.

It seems like getting into an SMP will be difficult for two reasons: your MCAT and your lack of clinical experience.

So you have two goals: get into an SMP and subsequently get into med school. Both require the MCAT. You have MCAT scores in hand, but they won't do you any good for med school (they will have expired) and are of dubious quality for the SMPs you've listed. Sure, you could apply with those scores and get in to an SMP, but then you'll need to take the new MCAT before applying to med school and that isn't something you can really do during your SMP year. If you take it after your hypothetical SMP, you're looking at delaying your med school application (not a good idea).

Short version: a new and better MCAT score would help for SMPs and is required for med school. Consider taking the January 2015 administration which is the final time you can take the "old" style test.

You need more clinical experience. Your timeline in which to do so is basically now until Fall 2015 (if you are successful in matriculating into an SMP) and/or during your SMP. Unfortunately, getting clinical experience isn't a <1 year endeavor, which means you'll need a longer commitment than now until, say, Fall 2015. And I wouldn't bank on doing a lot of meaningful clinical volunteering while you're an SMP student. And if you get into a SMP without clinical experience, and subsequently apply to med school, your application will only include your activities completed up to and during your SMP year; you cannot include things you plan on doing during your application year.

Other concerns you've brought up, in no particular order:
- No, your pre-requisites aren't too old
- Med schools don't care what you do during a "glide year"
- Don't bank on picking up a lot of clinical experience during your application year because the schools to which you are applying will never know about it
- You won't ever be a "career changer" because you already took science courses and have spent time pursuing medicine (i.e. taking the MCAT twice)
- Applying to DO programs isn't a bad idea and the argument against doing so (loans) doesn't make sense because it's not like SMPs are cheap

Good luck!