I was out of state and it didn't make a difference for me, the main difference for me was that during my interview here was that I was interviewing other places during the MBS program and that gave admissions a sour taste. You can get letters of rec from professors and some of the faculty here, you'll become close to some if you partake in their research or if you tutor, etc. Its not at your own pace, its pretty much class Mon-Fri, quizzes on the weekends, exams every four weeks, and ECs that have to done to pump up your application. Classes are online if they still haven't opened the in person learning but online is obvs easier cause you wouldn't have to move somewhere for a year, plus it gets you used to medical school lectures since almost no one goes to in person lectures in medical school. There's around 300 of you that would matriculate in a year, it is trimester admissions so class sizes vary on what top 20% looks like but around 15 MBS students get accepted a year. An avg of 250 students graduating a year for the past 5 years, assume that 1250 at 100% graduating rate (which you will find out is not a thing since after the first exam around 5ish or so people go part time because they failed it, and then some more after the second exam, and then around 3-4 fail out of 1st semester) So 1250 graduates and a generous average of 15 students matriculated per cycle gives you 6% chance of admission into this school based on the data for the last five years assume at least a 510 MCAT score. Also, in those 15 that move on to the MD program very few are from the previous class, most did the MBS program around 2 years prior.
Keep in mind that getting an interview doesn't matter if you're just there filling in the minimum check so a school can claim "Guaranteed". 35-70K to get an interview isn't worth it. I say this and write all of this not to say that you cant do it, but to be realistic of whats going on in the SMP/Post-Bacc market currently. I did a further write-up that some classmates helped with me based on their programs and its sad what this Post-Bacc/SMPs are doing. Find a program that offers a guaranteed spot in the next cycle based on certain scores or GPA.
