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To all those student doctors interested in taking a year off, boosting some of your credentials, or switching from another career into medicine doing an SMP program for a year can be a great experience. It certainly has been for me.
I'm starting this thread because when I began searching through various Special Masters Programs this forum was a great resource of information. I was able to contact people in the each program to determine how they really felt about their experience. SO! I offer myself up as a contact representing the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons Institute of Human Nutrition (IHN) Special Masters Program. It's a long name but i'm going to appreviate to the IHN SMP program.
just to introduce myself: i'm currently a masters student and after an unsuccessful application cycle last year I spoke with my roomate at the time, who recommended that i check out the program. I'm glad I did, and after a very successful retake of the MCAT and (pending) completion of this program I will reapply with a great deal more confidence in my chances at med school acceptance.
Here's a brief rundown of the positives:
- it's fun. the classes are interesting, the atmosphere isn't as comeptitive as in many undergraduate premed courses. most of the people love to go out and have fun.
- Living in New York can be pretty sweet. It's expensive don't get me wrong, but the variety of different activities, people, and places are such that spending some time here can be a really eye opening experience.
- classes are at about the perfect level of difficulty. They're challenging but you're not jockeying for a limited number of A's in any class. Plus the professors are easily accessible and readily listen to the advice of students and their criticisms regarding how the course is run (this is the first time that i've been part of a program where there is actual response to student concerns without sacrificing the academic rigor or integrity of the courses)
- It's a chance to gain a different perspective on a topic that isn't going to be covered in depth in most medical school curricula, and can be really relevant depending on the type of medicine you're thinking about. Issues of obesity, Type II diabetes, Metabolic syndrome, and others are the focus of this program. Undestanding how and why they occur as well as the state of current research in understanding and treating such disease is and will be relevant to medicine in the future. Not to say that it's any more or less important than other diseases, but it's nice to be able to focus on pathologies associated with nutrition and understand them in depth.
- It looks GREAT on an application. All SMP programs give you some sort of degree, certificate of completion or some such thing. It shows to medical schools that you are committed to this endeavor and willing to put forth effort independent of your undergraduate education to achieve what you want to achieve. Columbia is a great school with a fine reputation (just like or similar to Georgetown, Drexel, Tufts, and other schools offering SMP's). Though I've always hated the concept of name recognition and any sort of ego related to that, here's lookin at you harvardites, when a school has a reputation for producing successful medical school applicants and you do well in their program, it shows that you're competitive among those who are competitive for medical school (if that makes sense).
- it's a chance to do some quality research (either clinical or bench top) and/or get some really good experience in areas of public health and policy. I was surprised, at first, when I heard that a number of people who come into the program as premeds actually choose to pursue other careers related to medicine AND to nutrition. Now it makes sense to me since a significant part of the program involves finding a research opportunity that works for you and there are a WIDE variety of different options. I'm working in a lab that has an ongoing study on weight loss following gastric banding surgery in morbidly obese adolescents. My work is focused on examining baseline psychological assessment data to determine if any of the measured variables are correlated to success or failure in the weight loss program. Honestly there are a HUGE number of possibilities and the administrators of the program are really open to whatever kind of research you want to do.
Here's a brief rundown of the negatives:
-it's expensive. comparable to other programs but living in new york city is NOT cheap. There's financial aid, but mostly in the form of decent loans.
-there's no linkage to Columbia Meidcal, garauntee of an interview, or acceptance. I know some programs stipulate that if you do well you're given an interview when next you apply. this isn't the case.
-It's not medical school classes. the coursework can be challenging but it's nowhere near what i expect the workload to be like in medical school. Furthermore the topics covered are focused on the biochem, physiology, sociopolitical, and clinical aspects of nutritional science. It's really interesting but the purpose of the program is more to provide supplemental knowledge on a topic that won't be covered in great depth in medical school.
-many facets of the program require you to work independently and your success or failure in many aspects of the program are dependent on your willingness to seek out opportunities for research, volunteer work, or just to coordinate study groups. Not that this is significantly different than other graduate programs, but if you're coming directly from undergrad be aware that this is NOT undergrad style courses. they're graduate courses and are structured differently.
-Not everyone is a premed. this is a positive and a negative (i find the absence of rediculous grade competition to be a positive) but there is a small portion of people in the program who will not have the same focus as you (i.e. they could be pre-dental, or setting up for a PhD or an MD/PhD). Though this doesn't drag the program in any one direction, some of the courses cover aspects of nutrition that are not DIRECTLY applicable to the clinical setting. However having a more diverse background will help you and serve you well when that random fact regarding food poisoning and packaging materials comes up in your pathology class during 1st or 2nd year med.
hope this helps some of you. feel free to post any questions you might have or send me a message through this site if you want more presonalized information.
for more info you can google Institute of Human Nutrition and/or check out the page on facebook, or what have you.
Best of luck to all of you!
I'm starting this thread because when I began searching through various Special Masters Programs this forum was a great resource of information. I was able to contact people in the each program to determine how they really felt about their experience. SO! I offer myself up as a contact representing the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons Institute of Human Nutrition (IHN) Special Masters Program. It's a long name but i'm going to appreviate to the IHN SMP program.
just to introduce myself: i'm currently a masters student and after an unsuccessful application cycle last year I spoke with my roomate at the time, who recommended that i check out the program. I'm glad I did, and after a very successful retake of the MCAT and (pending) completion of this program I will reapply with a great deal more confidence in my chances at med school acceptance.
Here's a brief rundown of the positives:
- it's fun. the classes are interesting, the atmosphere isn't as comeptitive as in many undergraduate premed courses. most of the people love to go out and have fun.
- Living in New York can be pretty sweet. It's expensive don't get me wrong, but the variety of different activities, people, and places are such that spending some time here can be a really eye opening experience.
- classes are at about the perfect level of difficulty. They're challenging but you're not jockeying for a limited number of A's in any class. Plus the professors are easily accessible and readily listen to the advice of students and their criticisms regarding how the course is run (this is the first time that i've been part of a program where there is actual response to student concerns without sacrificing the academic rigor or integrity of the courses)
- It's a chance to gain a different perspective on a topic that isn't going to be covered in depth in most medical school curricula, and can be really relevant depending on the type of medicine you're thinking about. Issues of obesity, Type II diabetes, Metabolic syndrome, and others are the focus of this program. Undestanding how and why they occur as well as the state of current research in understanding and treating such disease is and will be relevant to medicine in the future. Not to say that it's any more or less important than other diseases, but it's nice to be able to focus on pathologies associated with nutrition and understand them in depth.
- It looks GREAT on an application. All SMP programs give you some sort of degree, certificate of completion or some such thing. It shows to medical schools that you are committed to this endeavor and willing to put forth effort independent of your undergraduate education to achieve what you want to achieve. Columbia is a great school with a fine reputation (just like or similar to Georgetown, Drexel, Tufts, and other schools offering SMP's). Though I've always hated the concept of name recognition and any sort of ego related to that, here's lookin at you harvardites, when a school has a reputation for producing successful medical school applicants and you do well in their program, it shows that you're competitive among those who are competitive for medical school (if that makes sense).
- it's a chance to do some quality research (either clinical or bench top) and/or get some really good experience in areas of public health and policy. I was surprised, at first, when I heard that a number of people who come into the program as premeds actually choose to pursue other careers related to medicine AND to nutrition. Now it makes sense to me since a significant part of the program involves finding a research opportunity that works for you and there are a WIDE variety of different options. I'm working in a lab that has an ongoing study on weight loss following gastric banding surgery in morbidly obese adolescents. My work is focused on examining baseline psychological assessment data to determine if any of the measured variables are correlated to success or failure in the weight loss program. Honestly there are a HUGE number of possibilities and the administrators of the program are really open to whatever kind of research you want to do.
Here's a brief rundown of the negatives:
-it's expensive. comparable to other programs but living in new york city is NOT cheap. There's financial aid, but mostly in the form of decent loans.
-there's no linkage to Columbia Meidcal, garauntee of an interview, or acceptance. I know some programs stipulate that if you do well you're given an interview when next you apply. this isn't the case.
-It's not medical school classes. the coursework can be challenging but it's nowhere near what i expect the workload to be like in medical school. Furthermore the topics covered are focused on the biochem, physiology, sociopolitical, and clinical aspects of nutritional science. It's really interesting but the purpose of the program is more to provide supplemental knowledge on a topic that won't be covered in great depth in medical school.
-many facets of the program require you to work independently and your success or failure in many aspects of the program are dependent on your willingness to seek out opportunities for research, volunteer work, or just to coordinate study groups. Not that this is significantly different than other graduate programs, but if you're coming directly from undergrad be aware that this is NOT undergrad style courses. they're graduate courses and are structured differently.
-Not everyone is a premed. this is a positive and a negative (i find the absence of rediculous grade competition to be a positive) but there is a small portion of people in the program who will not have the same focus as you (i.e. they could be pre-dental, or setting up for a PhD or an MD/PhD). Though this doesn't drag the program in any one direction, some of the courses cover aspects of nutrition that are not DIRECTLY applicable to the clinical setting. However having a more diverse background will help you and serve you well when that random fact regarding food poisoning and packaging materials comes up in your pathology class during 1st or 2nd year med.
hope this helps some of you. feel free to post any questions you might have or send me a message through this site if you want more presonalized information.
for more info you can google Institute of Human Nutrition and/or check out the page on facebook, or what have you.
Best of luck to all of you!