http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=9338804&postcount=174
In general, osteopathic SMPs in my experience cater heavily towards accepting their SMP students back into the host medical school upon completion. The "reputation" factor that is often touted for Georgetown, BU MAMS and other allopathic programs don't necessarily translate over in the same regard therefore I personally (my own opinion) would choose a program that has a high probability and record of taking back in most of their successful students
if I wasn't concerned about location, price, etc.
GA's program is just very new and if you want to look back at other "new" SMPs, they usually have problems. Take UMDNJ-Robert Wood MBS as an example. All 3 campuses hold an MBS program yet just the other day I saw a post from a current SMP student there stating how disorganized everything was and that he/she would most likely require another SMP afterward. Another example would be VCOM's post-bacc when it first started where the initial agreement was for most students to matriculate in the Fall only to realize that when the time came, there weren't any spots open. Fortunately most managed to filter back in through the waiting list but still you know? Not only will you most likely have issues with a few of the faculty (they have to develop a curriculum for you as well as their main concern medical students
and their own research) but with the administration as well on what "guarantees" are allowed.
As I said which can be supported by many past threads about PCOM on SDN, the PA campus has been around for a long time and as such, the faculty and administration are very "polished" in handling typical problems/procedures. It also holds a better reputation among other peer DO schools according to admissions counselors and other small factors such as learning from cadavers for anatomy and whatnot in PA as opposed to 3D software (?) in GA. But most importantly for me, I see the fact that the MBS program is roughly 3/4 the size of the medical student class which makes me cringe when I wonder how many students are allowed to get back in. If PA only allows about 10-18% average from their MBS class of 60ish with a first year class size of 180, then how many will GA let in with an MBS size of 60 and a first year class size of 85?
I'm at LECOM so you can take my words with a grain of salt I guess but I've talked to several PCOM MBS students as well as spent most of my time in this subsection of the forum. GA's still a good program in my mind but I don't know if it's the best option that you have available to you is what I'm getting at.