completing an informal postbac and then applying to SMPs?

[dbdb]

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after a lot of serious thought, i recently decided to take a shot at going to med school. i was initially premed as a freshman, but i was also incredibly unfocused which made it really difficulty to figure out what i wanted to do. i am in the process of completing my bachelor's and i will be graduating this december.

i have a pretty mediocre (~2.9) gpa from a top 15 research university with an interdisciplinary major. i was really involved at my school through all 4 years serving on multiple exec boards in varying capacities of leadership including a society for premed students. i've had research experience although it was more social sciences oriented and it does not relate to medicine in a substantial way.

this fall i plan on taking gen chem and phys to graduate and then returning home and taking my other prereqs at my state school (nj) in an informal postbac. my plan was to finish chem and physics this school year and then take orgo over the summer and take bio starting fall 2011. i plan to take the mcat spring 2012. from my estimations, my gpa couldn't really change substantially enough to place me in the range of students accepted into medical school, even with an amazing mcat. at the same time i plan on doing more shadowing and volunteering to round out my ECs.

i think i have only 2 options, and i wanted an opinion on what would make the most sense and put me on the path to gain acceptance into to a US allopathic medical school. i was thinking that i could apply to postbacs that enhance your ugrad gpa while taking upper level science classes along the lines of the special sciences program at penn (i'm not even sure that i'm competitive for these sorts of programs) or forgoing that route and applying to special master's programs like bu mams/gtown.

my feeling is that SMPs are increasingly competitive and even with an upward trend in my ugrad gpa i still might have to take higher level science classes to prove that i can perform well and i'm not sure how many upper level science classes i would be able to take before the 2012 school year. along with that, i get the impression that SMPs are a last resort because they tend to be risky programs.

so basically, is doing an informal postbac and then applying to SMPs/structured postbac a viable route? and what sorts of SMPs/structure postbac would i be competitive for b/c i think the big names ones are out of my reach.

i was also considering a second bachelor's in a science at my state school, are these generally worth it?

i've been lurking in this forum for a while now and you guys have been really helpful in giving detail to these programs and their pros/cons.
any advice would be greatly appreciated!🙂

 

[theWUbear]

Funny, you sound exactly like me, just one year later. I recommend rutgers newark for the post-bacc. Classes were easy, i got a 3.92 (after a 2.7 in undergrad at my top 15 undergrad). Only take the gen chem/physics at your current school if you'll get at least B's, preferably A's. After one semester of killing your informal postbacc, be it at newark or new brunswick or elsewhere, start networking with SMP's - you'll get into the one at UMDNJ-Newark without question, i can guarantee you that (they take like 120 students, and let 30 take class with the med schoolers). By the end of your spring at the post-bacc you should start networking with med schools telling your tales of 3.9 to 4.0 in all BCPM courses and an upcoming year of master's classes including classes with med school students. You must try to kill the MCAT too. Feel free to ask any specific questions or PM me

 

[dbdb]

thanks for the advice!

i was debating between taking classes at rutgers newark or new brunswick? which do you think is better? i spoke briefly with a person from the post bac program at newark and i didn't get a good sense of what the support was like in terms of a person completing an informal postbac.

can i ask where you are the process now?