SMP students: do you feel "looked down" upon by medical students

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

GProtein

New Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2009
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Hi all,

I am currenltly in my third and final undergraduate year as an "organismal and evolutionary biology" major at Uof Oregon. If I pull a 4.0 my last two terms I will graduate with a 3.3 GPA. I am currently 20 years old, as I started college after three years of high school (I was in an accelerated program).

Obviously, I need to increase my credenials for M.D. admission. My MCAT is 27. I plan to retake it, possibily shortly after graduation.

This past summer I also completed two (it was rough!) medical school courses in embryology and histology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center http://www.unmc.edu/summerschool with grades of A and B+,
respectively. These grades are not factored into my undergraduate GPA

I am looking into specifically SMPs (actual medical school courses).

I am wondering if anyone here as ever felt "looked down" upon by the medical students? Is there a great deal of animosity between med students and SMPers? I certainily hope not.

I know SMPs are a big financial risk. However, I have no student debt as of now.
 
Last edited:
1. Even if you do get looked down upon, would that really be a deciding factor in your decision?

2. I did the Georgetown SMP. In general, the med students were very friendly. Very few looked down on us, but those that did were also tremendous tools.
 
I'm in the MWU SMP and I can say that the med/dental students there have actually set up a big/little sib program between SMP students and the Med/Dental school there because they know how hard it is to get in and were once in your shoes.

It makes absolutely no sense that there would be animosity between the two groups. They know and hopefully you know as well that one day you will be future colleagues so might as well get along now.
 
Who cares whether they look down on you or not? Are you going to have similar fears if you go DO and the perceived inferiorness of DO vs MD?

Have a little more backbone and do whats right for you, not whether or not med students will think highly of you or not. They don't sit on the ADCOM
 
not at all, most are very helpful. they have access to tutoring and other resources that the SMP students technically do not, but the med students share all of it with us anyway.
 
Nah, its not really an issue, and actually many of the med students have sympathy for the SMP students plight. Most of the med students realize that many of the SMP students are just are as intelligent and likely harder-working than they are. If anything, some of the med students are a little bit jealous that we have an extra year of prep and the MS1 year is just so much easier after having been through it once!
 
No one at my school looks down on the SMP or Post-Bac (I'm one) students. Hell, I'm jealous of some of my classmates with masters when we are on a block that they have specific expertise in.
 
At G-town I felt like many of the med students both looked down on us, and resented the fact that we were there taking up their space and their time with the professors...

Its hard to make generalities, but that was the feel I got!

That said, many of them were nice and I wouldn't trade my experience there for anything...
 
Top