Do I need to do an SMP? (and is GU the best?)

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SortOfMcDreamy

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Hey y'all, I'm confused.

I just graduated from a good college with a degree in Poli sci, an overall GPA of 3.31, and a BCPM of 2.76. I finally "got it" this summer and studied my butt off for the MCAT, bringing home a 38R at the end. I have some decent EC's and LOR's, and I'm trying to take a few classes here and there to bring my BCPM up to a "respectable" 3.0.

But now what? My advisor is very much pro Georgetown SMP, and I wanted to get some advice from some of my peers. I don't know if I should just keep taking undergrad classes to boost my GPA, or go whole hog and tackle said SMP. I feel that I'm motivated enough for the program, but I'm not entirely psyched to take out ~$31,000 in loans, as well as basically a "redshirt" year of med school.

Any help would be appreciated!

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You'll defintely have to do something about your abysmal bcmp gpa. One or two semesters of upward trend is not going to cut it. I'm not even sure you would be competitive for the G'town SMP, since they expect a much higher science gpa. Talk to them directly, taken upper level sciences in the meantime and get A's. With a semester or two of strong performance, you may get into G'town or BU's SMP by next Fall.
 
You are a perfect candidate for SMP (low GPA and High MCAT).
I would suggest taking more undergrad science classes to boost your science GPA and start SMP this coming Fall.

SMP is probably the best measure of how you will do in medical school since you are going to take classes with medical students. It is much much harder to get an A than undergrad classes but it is doable.

Since you were a political science major I suspect that you did not take a lot of science classes, so taking couple of undergrad science classes could increase your UG science GPA pretty quickly.
 
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Hey y'all, I'm confused.

I just graduated from a good college with a degree in Poli sci, an overall GPA of 3.31, and a BCPM of 2.76. I finally "got it" this summer and studied my butt off for the MCAT, bringing home a 38R at the end. I have some decent EC's and LOR's, and I'm trying to take a few classes here and there to bring my BCPM up to a "respectable" 3.0.

But now what? My advisor is very much pro Georgetown SMP, and I wanted to get some advice from some of my peers. I don't know if I should just keep taking undergrad classes to boost my GPA, or go whole hog and tackle said SMP. I feel that I'm motivated enough for the program, but I'm not entirely psyched to take out ~$31,000 in loans, as well as basically a "redshirt" year of med school.

Any help would be appreciated!

I would second everything Daoejkim said...

I would also like to add that your stats are similar to mine, except my GPA was worse (Including my BCPM.) I was accepted to the SMP and performed well in the program. I'm now attending GU med and was accepted to two other med schools, also.

The other advantage to the SMP, that I think gets overlooked often, is that Drs. Myers, Mulroney and Sherman ("the Directors") have something like 30 years of experience combined in getting students into medical schools (one was even on the committee at GU for a while) so they are fantastic advisors. Sometimes, what holds a student back is more than just a GPA - it may be interview skills or application writing, for instance. They are very available and very helpful when it comes to polishing all areas of an app. Just a thought.

The only other thing I would consider is just how hard it would be to raise that BCPM. Like DJK said, if you were polisci, it probably would not take too many classes to raise it above 3.0 and that might be all you would need to become competitive with a 38R. For me (biochem and MCB major,) I took a year of postbac full time, got a 3.9 and only raised my BCPM GPA by 0.1. It would have taken 3-4 years of post-bac work (at a 3.9 level) to raise my GPA to something competitive. As a result, it was worth the "redshirt" year and the $50,000 of debt (don't forget living expenses - Georgetown is WAY expensive) to save three years.
 
Thanks a lot for your help guys, I really appreciate the advice, and I think I'm going to try and do it. By my rough calculation, if I can squeeze in 10 or 11 undergrad credits at a high GPA, I can get my BCPM up to 3.0 before summer (thank you, light science load). After that, assuming I get into one of these programs, it's balls to the wall 'till med school.

Thanks again!
 
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