Gap year or SMP prior to medical school?

[HelpAlwaysNeeded]

Hello! I am an undergrad student in my senior year right now and need different opinions on the next step I should take before applying to med school. My cGPA is 3.6 and my sGPA is around a 3.3-3.4. I have yet to take the GRE or MCAT. I am planning on taking the GRE general exam late this January and the MCAT in May. I have been leaning towards entering a SMP and then entering medical school the year following. I have spoken to a handful of physicians that have suggested both gap year or the SMP. This leaves me a bit uneasy as I do not know which path will benefit me more in regards to an MD. I have done a lot of EC including shadowing, clinical research, volunteer work and assisting in medical publications. However, I still feel that I could equally benefit from a SMP or taking a gap year to work in a medical setting along with research.

If I am to take the SMP route, I will be taking the GRE (unless that's unnecessary?) next month and will be taking the MCAT in May to begin the following Fall. My top schools are BU for BUMAMS and Georgetown for traditional SMP. I have already done some research at BU's affiliated hospital BMC and feel strongly about applying here but am open to every option. However, if I am to take the gap year filled with work/research, then I plan to earn a certificate in phlebotomy this spring semester to work all of next year prior to applying for medical schools. Can someone please help me out and let me know which path is better to strengthen my application! Thanks!

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[CloverBale]

SMP...your sGPA is a bit low for MD schools. Also I don't know why you're taking the GRE? It's unneeded. Focus on the MCAT and kill it.

 

[sss1219]

I'm a 2nd year MAMS student and had a similar profile to you. MAMS classwork was super difficult, but it helped me quite a bit for admissions this year. A couple things I would consider:

- Personally, I'd always recommend people to take the MCAT before thinking about an SMP. The coursework will definitely help prepare you for the Biochem/Bio sections but otherwise there isn't a whole lot of time to study for the MCAT (in any SMP for that matter), so getting it over with first is a good course of action. This is especially the case since redemption students usually need a solid score to offset past GPA mistakes especially if you are boning for an MD (MAMS advisors recommended shooting for a 512 minimum)

- Realize there is scant time to work on ECs during the SMP year, so you really want to have all of your activities in order if you plan on applying for entry to medical school for the subsequent year. So an SMP is a great route, but you need to have quite a bit in order before you think about pursuing one.

- Finally, just a word of warning, but be wary of the linkages for Gtown and BU - I did pretty well in MAMS (3.7+) and was not even offered an interview at BU-SOM and this was also the case for many of my classmates. If you do pursue either program, your main motivation to be to get into a medical school, not that medical school.

On the other hand if you are open to the DO route, your GPA lies within that range. With a decent MCAT you definitely could see some success. This would be way less expensive and stressful + much shorter route to take.

 

[Welshman]

I'm a 2nd year MAMS student and had a similar profile to you. MAMS classwork was super difficult, but it helped me quite a bit for admissions this year. A couple things I would consider:

- Personally, I'd always recommend people to take the MCAT before thinking about an SMP. The coursework will definitely help prepare you for the Biochem/Bio sections but otherwise there isn't a whole lot of time to study for the MCAT (in any SMP for that matter), so getting it over with first is a good course of action. This is especially the case since redemption students usually need a solid score to offset past GPA mistakes especially if you are boning for an MD (MAMS advisors recommended shooting for a 512 minimum)

- Realize there is scant time to work on ECs during the SMP year, so you really want to have all of your activities in order if you plan on applying for entry to medical school for the subsequent year. So an SMP is a great route, but you need to have quite a bit in order before you think about pursuing one.

- Finally, just a word of warning, but be wary of the linkages for Gtown and BU - I did pretty well in MAMS (3.7+) and was not even offered an interview at BU-SOM and this was also the case for many of my classmates. If you do pursue either program, your main motivation to be to get into a medical school, not that medical school.

On the other hand if you are open to the DO route, your GPA lies within that range. With a decent MCAT you definitely could see some success. This would be way less expensive and stressful + much shorter route to take.

How many students are in MAMS? I was told about 30 a year are admitted to BUSM

 

[HelpAlwaysNeeded]

SMP...your sGPA is a bit low for MD schools. Also I don't know why you're taking the GRE? It's unneeded. Focus on the MCAT and kill it.

Okay, so if I am planning on taking the MCAT in May or the summer, then will I still be able to apply for the SMP prior to taking the exam? And should I consider not going through SMP to begin with and just take the other route prior to med school?

 

[HelpAlwaysNeeded]

I'm a 2nd year MAMS student and had a similar profile to you. MAMS classwork was super difficult, but it helped me quite a bit for admissions this year. A couple things I would consider:

- Personally, I'd always recommend people to take the MCAT before thinking about an SMP. The coursework will definitely help prepare you for the Biochem/Bio sections but otherwise there isn't a whole lot of time to study for the MCAT (in any SMP for that matter), so getting it over with first is a good course of action. This is especially the case since redemption students usually need a solid score to offset past GPA mistakes especially if you are boning for an MD (MAMS advisors recommended shooting for a 512 minimum)

- Realize there is scant time to work on ECs during the SMP year, so you really want to have all of your activities in order if you plan on applying for entry to medical school for the subsequent year. So an SMP is a great route, but you need to have quite a bit in order before you think about pursuing one.

- Finally, just a word of warning, but be wary of the linkages for Gtown and BU - I did pretty well in MAMS (3.7+) and was not even offered an interview at BU-SOM and this was also the case for many of my classmates. If you do pursue either program, your main motivation to be to get into a medical school, not that medical school.

On the other hand if you are open to the DO route, your GPA lies within that range. With a decent MCAT you definitely could see some success. This would be way less expensive and stressful + much shorter route to take.

If I am to take the MCAT before thinking about the SMP, then would I still be able to attend a SMP school this coming fall? I went through an internship at BMC this past summer in the orthepedics department and met some first year med students that also went through the BUMAMS and encouraged me to go that route. However, I am also still aware that I can use the next year to work in a medical setting with some research. My sGPA is definitely not among the top sGPA's so with that being said do you think going through a SMP is more beneficial to me than taking a gap year working?

 

[sss1219]

How many students are in MAMS? I was told about 30 a year are admitted to BUSM

From what I understand, around 75 IIs and <25 acceptances of a class of 150 and alumni MAMS ppl. But your chances do not scale exactly with MAMS gpa - the med school still has to protect the diversity of the class so even if you do well, you are not guaranteed an II

 

[sss1219]

If I am to take the MCAT before thinking about the SMP, then would I still be able to attend a SMP school this coming fall? I went through an internship at BMC this past summer in the orthepedics department and met some first year med students that also went through the BUMAMS and encouraged me to go that route. However, I am also still aware that I can use the next year to work in a medical setting with some research. My sGPA is definitely not among the top sGPA's so with that being said do you think going through a SMP is more beneficial to me than taking a gap year working?

I think that may be too late to apply to SMPs. Generally speaking you want to apply as early as possible because come summer, people who did not make it in applying to med school will start submitting their SMP apps, so the competition will go way up. So like I said you'd have to have your ECs in order and do decently on the MCAT to apply comfortably that late on.

Either way, I would still recommend focusing on your MCAT for now and then testing the waters with an application cycle afterward while taking some upper div postbacc courses to boost that GPA. You may find some low tier/state school MD success and you'd otherwise be in perfectly good shape for DO, if you are happy with that route. SMPs are very expensive and stressful so I tell most people to kill the mcat and/or test out one application cycle before looking into applying.

If you'd like my thoughts on MAMS, PM me!