Applying to Medical School during SMP year...
Started by RaaMD
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For those who have applied to med school and get interviews during the SMP did you have a hard time keeping up with classes and going to the interviews?
I did a program similar to an SMP. It was a 1 year graduate-level program that could be turned into a normal 2-year MS if you didn't get into med school the first year. The first year was all coursework and the optional second year was all research with a masters thesis. I only did the first year.
I have to say it was difficult to apply during my program. The course work required a lot of time and effort. It was substantially harder than undergrad so I spent most of my time studying. The primary application was not too bad since I applied only to schools that accepted the normal AAMC application. I sent in the primary before classes began.
The secondaries were where the issue was. Each school likes to make their secondary different which became a huge pain in the butt. Just filling out the general stuff for each application took at least 15-30 minutes and the essays added a lot more time. I tried to chip away at them little by little but in the end, I decided to cut out a lot of schools that gave me secondaries and only apply to a few.
Your primary concern should be doing well in your classes. If you have to take so much time from studying that you are falling behind, stop doing the secondaries and catch up. It is better to apply to too few schools and do well in the classes than to do poorly and spread your application to lots of schools. For example, if you don't get in this year at least you will have a great shot next year becasue of good grades. It ends up being a weird equilibrium between doing well at the expense of applying a lot of places and trying to send out lots of secondaries at the expense of doing well.
I had a very good MCAT before I entered the 'SMP' so I didnt need to take it again. I would say that the majority of people in my program already had a good enough MCAT to get in. There were definately a few that did not but they opted to do the 2 year program and take the MCAT after the classes ended. It is really difficult to juggle the SMP and MCAT studying.
Timeline
If you haven't take the MCAT I would recommend finishing the SMP and then taking the MCAT in the summer (or whenever they are going to offer the new MCAT).
If you have a mediocre score (above 27 but below 30) go ahead and apply. For those who have the MCAT done already, the primaries should be in before september and the secondaries should be finished whenever you can find the time. I would say you should send the secondaries in at least a month or so before your 1st semester grades come in that way the Adcoms will have enough time to review your file and offer you an earlier interview. Now if you have a pretty solid GPA from Ugrad and good MCAT you may not be put on hold at all and may be offered an interview w/o the first semester grades. For those people, get your secondaries in even earlier. If by chance they don't feel you have good enough stats, they will know that you are in an SMP and will wait until the grades come in. So the people with good stats won;t be hurt by sending in the secondaries as early as possible.
If you have bad stats, you may want to wait until closer to the end of the semester. Those people could be rejected w/o an interview becasue of poor stats from Ugrad, but, with the good grades from the SMP would become a viable candidate. The next little hint will really help these people out.
To speed up the process, send in your scores for the tests you take in the SMP. Send every score and also send some reference point (class rank, the average for each test, etc). I would send them to the linked med school, and your first choice med school and the med school where you have best chance of getting in. That way each school will have a good idea where you stand in the SMP even before the official grades come out. This will circumvent the 'on hold for grades' and may get you an interview sooner. It worked for me.
The interviews are not too bad. You know that you have them coming up so you should get ahead in the class material so that the interview won't hurt. Honestly, a lot of SMP kids will get pretty late interviews. In my experience most got interviews after the first semester was over. Your second semester grades matter much less than the first semester grades. Most schools will make a decision on you way before the second semester grades come out. So, unlike the secondaries that are during the first semester, the interview won't do as much damage even if you fall behind since most will have them in the second semester.
If you get waitlisted, some schools will change your position on the waitlist based on new grades or new letters of rec. For those schools the second semester grades will matter but still not as much as those first semester grades.
Good luck. PM me if you have questions
I have to say it was difficult to apply during my program. The course work required a lot of time and effort. It was substantially harder than undergrad so I spent most of my time studying. The primary application was not too bad since I applied only to schools that accepted the normal AAMC application. I sent in the primary before classes began.
The secondaries were where the issue was. Each school likes to make their secondary different which became a huge pain in the butt. Just filling out the general stuff for each application took at least 15-30 minutes and the essays added a lot more time. I tried to chip away at them little by little but in the end, I decided to cut out a lot of schools that gave me secondaries and only apply to a few.
Your primary concern should be doing well in your classes. If you have to take so much time from studying that you are falling behind, stop doing the secondaries and catch up. It is better to apply to too few schools and do well in the classes than to do poorly and spread your application to lots of schools. For example, if you don't get in this year at least you will have a great shot next year becasue of good grades. It ends up being a weird equilibrium between doing well at the expense of applying a lot of places and trying to send out lots of secondaries at the expense of doing well.
I had a very good MCAT before I entered the 'SMP' so I didnt need to take it again. I would say that the majority of people in my program already had a good enough MCAT to get in. There were definately a few that did not but they opted to do the 2 year program and take the MCAT after the classes ended. It is really difficult to juggle the SMP and MCAT studying.
Timeline
If you haven't take the MCAT I would recommend finishing the SMP and then taking the MCAT in the summer (or whenever they are going to offer the new MCAT).
If you have a mediocre score (above 27 but below 30) go ahead and apply. For those who have the MCAT done already, the primaries should be in before september and the secondaries should be finished whenever you can find the time. I would say you should send the secondaries in at least a month or so before your 1st semester grades come in that way the Adcoms will have enough time to review your file and offer you an earlier interview. Now if you have a pretty solid GPA from Ugrad and good MCAT you may not be put on hold at all and may be offered an interview w/o the first semester grades. For those people, get your secondaries in even earlier. If by chance they don't feel you have good enough stats, they will know that you are in an SMP and will wait until the grades come in. So the people with good stats won;t be hurt by sending in the secondaries as early as possible.
If you have bad stats, you may want to wait until closer to the end of the semester. Those people could be rejected w/o an interview becasue of poor stats from Ugrad, but, with the good grades from the SMP would become a viable candidate. The next little hint will really help these people out.
To speed up the process, send in your scores for the tests you take in the SMP. Send every score and also send some reference point (class rank, the average for each test, etc). I would send them to the linked med school, and your first choice med school and the med school where you have best chance of getting in. That way each school will have a good idea where you stand in the SMP even before the official grades come out. This will circumvent the 'on hold for grades' and may get you an interview sooner. It worked for me.
The interviews are not too bad. You know that you have them coming up so you should get ahead in the class material so that the interview won't hurt. Honestly, a lot of SMP kids will get pretty late interviews. In my experience most got interviews after the first semester was over. Your second semester grades matter much less than the first semester grades. Most schools will make a decision on you way before the second semester grades come out. So, unlike the secondaries that are during the first semester, the interview won't do as much damage even if you fall behind since most will have them in the second semester.
If you get waitlisted, some schools will change your position on the waitlist based on new grades or new letters of rec. For those schools the second semester grades will matter but still not as much as those first semester grades.
Good luck. PM me if you have questions
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I only read bits & pieces, but picked a few things out:
1) You will need an MCAT to get into almost all SMP's. GRE is acceptable, but if you have your pre-reqs, why not take the MCAT? You're adding on an additional glide year by taking it after your SMP.
2) You will get a very late interview at the school you're doing your SMP (usually) b/c they want to wait for 1st semester grades.
3) Didn't you have job interviews in college? It takes some work, but how many interviews do you really think you'll get? Squeezing in 4-5 single or two day trips is not bad at all, just takes some scheduling.
4) If you're doing an SMP, your numbers probably aren't up to snuff, which means you need to be applying as early as possible anyways. That means you won't be doing nearly as much work during the bulk of the school year for apps (or you shouldn't be).
1) You will need an MCAT to get into almost all SMP's. GRE is acceptable, but if you have your pre-reqs, why not take the MCAT? You're adding on an additional glide year by taking it after your SMP.
2) You will get a very late interview at the school you're doing your SMP (usually) b/c they want to wait for 1st semester grades.
3) Didn't you have job interviews in college? It takes some work, but how many interviews do you really think you'll get? Squeezing in 4-5 single or two day trips is not bad at all, just takes some scheduling.
4) If you're doing an SMP, your numbers probably aren't up to snuff, which means you need to be applying as early as possible anyways. That means you won't be doing nearly as much work during the bulk of the school year for apps (or you shouldn't be).
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From my understanding, your average SMP'er is usually a low GPA and high MCAT applicant - otherwise, what's the point? You can't get in without a decent MCAT score, so your GPA is usually the thing that's lacking. The other reason is that people want something to do in their glide year, although if you could get into med school without an SMP then that's an extra 50k of debt you don't have to shoulder.
There are programs that have really low requirements for both MCAT and GPA. The program I did for example has a 2.8 GPA and a 22 MCAT requirement. Of course the people with the low numbers got demolished by the program and had their dreams mercilessly crushed, but there are graduate/SMP programs that you don't have to have good numbers to get in to.
Some programs cost a lot but most, especially instate schools don't. My program cost $11,000. Thats not a bad debt to shoulder, especially b/c in a little more than 3 years I'll be a doctor. Plus, if you don't get in to med school right out of college you need to do something substantial with your glide year. It does not have to be class; it could be volunteering full time at a hospital or doing research. But if you don't substantially improve your application somehow, you become a weaker applicant by the sheer fact that you did not use your time wisely.
Some programs cost a lot but most, especially instate schools don't. My program cost $11,000. Thats not a bad debt to shoulder, especially b/c in a little more than 3 years I'll be a doctor. Plus, if you don't get in to med school right out of college you need to do something substantial with your glide year. It does not have to be class; it could be volunteering full time at a hospital or doing research. But if you don't substantially improve your application somehow, you become a weaker applicant by the sheer fact that you did not use your time wisely.
