Hi guys, you guys have helped me so much I thought that it would be a great idea to help my friend. He has a December 2014 mcat score of 21 with a gpa below 3.0. He has plenty of research, shadowing, teaching, clinical, ect. He wants to know if there are any SMP masters programs that would accept him and that he should target? Im not knowledgeable about SMP's hence my posting here. I believe TCOM has a masters but I think they require a MCAT of ~27 or so. Any suggestions? Thanks!
2.7ugpa/sgpa 21 mcat URM Texas Masters possible?
- Thread starter Cruz123
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2013
- Messages
- 770
- Reaction score
- 902
Your friend needs to retake the MCAT since that is something he can fix first. He could then retake some of the undergraduate classes since DO schools have something called grade replacement, which will help raise the undergrad gpa. SMP would be needed IMO for MD schools.
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2013
- Messages
- 5,422
- Reaction score
- 12,690
Both your friend's MCAT and undergraduate GPA suggest that s/he will not succeed in medical school.
If those numbers are representative of his/her abilities, Plan B may be in order. But if they're not, then demonstrating that s/he's much brighter than those numbers suggest is what s/he needs to do. The quickest and easiest way to do that will be by taking additional courses and absolutely acing them. If the low GPA is due to a few really terrible grades, then DO grade-replacement would be the faster route. If they're due to a general pattern of B's and C's due to immaturity and errant priorities, then 2+ years of serious full time coursework to prove sustained 'upward trend' and ability may do it.
And of course, a significantly better score on the MCAT. Depending on the particular variety of URM, your friend may have more or less leeway. But either way, s/he'll have to reach the level where s/he is likely to succeed in medical school to have decent odds of admission.
If those numbers are representative of his/her abilities, Plan B may be in order. But if they're not, then demonstrating that s/he's much brighter than those numbers suggest is what s/he needs to do. The quickest and easiest way to do that will be by taking additional courses and absolutely acing them. If the low GPA is due to a few really terrible grades, then DO grade-replacement would be the faster route. If they're due to a general pattern of B's and C's due to immaturity and errant priorities, then 2+ years of serious full time coursework to prove sustained 'upward trend' and ability may do it.
And of course, a significantly better score on the MCAT. Depending on the particular variety of URM, your friend may have more or less leeway. But either way, s/he'll have to reach the level where s/he is likely to succeed in medical school to have decent odds of admission.
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2006
- Messages
- 6,133
- Reaction score
- 2,369
An smp is not for your friend.
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2013
- Messages
- 843
- Reaction score
- 1,413
Most SMPs require higher than a 21. But they tend to evaluate on a case by case basis. URM status only helps so much, so an SMP is pretty much required at this point.
Your friend should just speak with someone directly in the admissions office of an SMP and discuss their specific predicament to get a better grasp of what to do next.
*edit: My guess is that either the GPA or MCAT are going to have to come up BEFORE applying for TCOM's program. But again, they need to call.
Your friend should just speak with someone directly in the admissions office of an SMP and discuss their specific predicament to get a better grasp of what to do next.
*edit: My guess is that either the GPA or MCAT are going to have to come up BEFORE applying for TCOM's program. But again, they need to call.
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2011
- Messages
- 4,963
- Reaction score
- 2,959
How much did he study for the MCAT? If he gave it a good honest effort I think he might be better served considering other careers
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2009
- Messages
- 1,031
- Reaction score
- 777
3.0 in the last 60 hours and 23MCAT for TCOM. But I do know someone who got in with a 2.98 with a higher MCAT, and someone with a higher gpa and a 19 MCAT. So just apply as I'm not sure what other factors apply.
What makes your friend think they can do well in an SMP? Med schools only take the top students from SMP's generally, your friend could barely "pass" undergrad and crashed and burned on the mcat, I doubt they will be able to succeed in an SMP, much less med school, and I doubt admission committees at SMPs or med schools would be willing to take a chance on your friend.
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2008
- Messages
- 7,983
- Reaction score
- 1,370
I do not think your friend could pass medical school classes based on that history. Tell your friend to consider a different career.
Thanks guys. What about taking the DO grade replacement route? He's AA and his DO cgpa is 3.11 and sgpa is 3.01. Will DO SMP or Biological Masters accept a 21 and if so would this be a feasible for getting into a DO school? Thanks!
Grade replacement would be his best shot imo, and he needs to actually study for the mcat next time or take a class or something. There is no way he should be scoring that ridiculously low of a score unless he hasn't learned the material and didn't prepare at all. Grade replace, take an MCAT class or something, and shoot for DO if he is dead set on becoming a physician and if for some reason his previous grades and mcat were just flukes b/c of lack of effort or something.
Plenty of people have poor mcat's then retake and do well and successfully make it into med school. What kind of explanation he gives would make the difference on whether an Adcom would accept it or not. If your friend redid all the classes and did well, and redid the mcat and did well it would show good reinvention. But unless you friend just did really poorly in the beginning of undergrad and then had a strong upward trend, the question really stands, what is different now? How is he suddenly planning on going from a borderline failing student to a top of the class student?
Do some more searching on the pro's and con's of formal vs informal post-bacc's. My impression is that informal ones can generally be less intense and are much easier to get into, but may not really fly/give you the benefits of showing performance at a program that is similar to the intensity of 1st year med school classes. Personally I would probably do informal if I was your friend (and dead set on trying for med school), he can likely take easier classes, for a lot less = less financial risk if he blows it, and from my basic understanding it should be fine for DO grade replacements.
But your friend really has to have opened a new chapter of how seriously he takes school and how well he does for any of this to work, I have met so many premeds who just "wanted to go to med school with all their heart", "were confident they could do what needs to be done", "were ready to give it their 100% and were sure they could get the A's/33+'s/etc/etc", some did a great job and made it, but most hadn't really changed and just wasted more time and money.
- Joined
- May 27, 2014
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
- 0
Have him look at MEDPREP at SIU
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2015
- Messages
- 80
- Reaction score
- 127
I think this is one of the posts where "friend" is actually a friend, as that post is like 3 years old.
