Georgetown SMP and Master's Program Review

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Hello Pre-Meds! I graduated from the Georgetown SMP program and am writing this post with one of my friends who graduated from the regular MS program. This post is geared towards anyone considering doing a post-bac program or someone who wants to supplement their application to medical school, raise their science GPA, or trying to get into medical school. Both of us will write some notes; me on my experience with the SMP program and her with her experience in the regular Master's program.

Before going into details both me and my friend would like to show our support for post-bac programs in general or one year Master programs as we believe they do help better your chances for acceptance into medical school. That being said we both believe you should NOT consider Georgetown AT ALL. While it is known that these programs are academically challenging and mentally exhausting it is our belief that all Georgetown cares about is money and we both regret going to school here. The facilities are extremely poor and you will be lucky to find a faculty member that goes above and beyond to help at all. A majority of faculty are tenured so they have been teaching the same material since 1980 and are unable to explain material in a way that students can comprehend. We were promised help with finding jobs in a clinical setting upon completion of this program but received an email once a month (maybe) with one job. One professor even told us "Use Google to find jobs." The tuition cost is almost $55,000 and this does not include cost of living. While it is true the top 10% or so of the SMP class does get admission to Georgetown Medical School, it is not worth it. I was fortunate enough to be in this group and declined admission there and am attending another medical school. Though I made close friends in this program it is very cut throat and everyone is against each other. There are so many kids fighting to be in the top portion of this class and it becomes overwhelming and while we will have to learn to deal with this either now or in medical school, you receive absolutely no help from faculty or staff in terms of support so a support system of your family or friends in class is absolutely necessary. Many of the professors take their lectures from other schools and many of the assignments and exams are from Quizlet and many assignments are collaborated between several or more students so it is not fair. All of this is not representative of what we thought "Georgetown" would be like. Halfway through this program I met with the Dean to discuss my concern and was told "everyone has their own opinion and they would look into this" yet nothing resulted from this conversation. A majority of our fellow classmates share our sentiments. Not to mention that there are also mice everywhere you turn and in the classrooms and bathrooms. With regards to the regular MS program it is worse than the SMP program as no one got even an interview for Georgetown and since this program is not with the actual medical students, even less care or energy is put into it by the faculty and staff. You will have to do everything yourself to make sure you get letter of recommendation, a job after the program, and even teaching yourself the materials. Also like the SMP program many professors use lectures from other universities and a majority of quizzes and exams are on Quizlet. Many people had previous exams that were passed around throughout the year. I took a huge loan for this and regret doing so and hope this post saves at least one from choosing to do this program or attending school here. As graduate students in this program you are treated below all other graduate students and it is clearly seen with the lack of funding, educational opportunities, and personal building workshops. The point of any program like this is to help prepare you for the MCAT and help get into medical school; this program did neither nor did they provide me with anything I could not have done myself to get into medical school.

We did not write this post to deter anyone from attending these types of programs; we wrote this because where you go, what faculty you learn from, how much you or your family pay, and your mental/emotional health is an extremely important decision and one that should not be taken lightly. Other than being in a large city like Washington, graduate school at Georgetown was not worth it. All in all we felt like these programs were a scam and Georgetown was using their name to lure students for a pointless degree. There are numerous programs around the country that students should consider before Georgetown. If we could go back and do it again, we would go somewhere else and hope this information helps others in their quest to become a physician.

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How was the average GPA? Did many kids succeed, or did most of them get a poor GPA?
 
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Hello Pre-Meds! I graduated from the Georgetown SMP program and am writing this post with one of my friends who graduated from the regular MS program. This post is geared towards anyone considering doing a post-bac program or someone who wants to supplement their application to medical school, raise their science GPA, or trying to get into medical school. Both of us will write some notes; me on my experience with the SMP program and her with her experience in the regular Master's program.

Before going into details both me and my friend would like to show our support for post-bac programs in general or one year Master programs as we believe they do help better your chances for acceptance into medical school. That being said we both believe you should NOT consider Georgetown AT ALL. While it is known that these programs are academically challenging and mentally exhausting it is our belief that all Georgetown cares about is money and we both regret going to school here. The facilities are extremely poor and you will be lucky to find a faculty member that goes above and beyond to help at all. A majority of faculty are tenured so they have been teaching the same material since 1980 and are unable to explain material in a way that students can comprehend. We were promised help with finding jobs in a clinical setting upon completion of this program but received an email once a month (maybe) with one job. One professor even told us "Use Google to find jobs." The tuition cost is almost $55,000 and this does not include cost of living. While it is true the top 10% or so of the SMP class does get admission to Georgetown Medical School, it is not worth it. I was fortunate enough to be in this group and declined admission there and am attending another medical school. Though I made close friends in this program it is very cut throat and everyone is against each other. There are so many kids fighting to be in the top portion of this class and it becomes overwhelming and while we will have to learn to deal with this either now or in medical school, you receive absolutely no help from faculty or staff in terms of support so a support system of your family or friends in class is absolutely necessary. Many of the professors take their lectures from other schools and many of the assignments and exams are from Quizlet and many assignments are collaborated between several or more students so it is not fair. All of this is not representative of what we thought "Georgetown" would be like. Halfway through this program I met with the Dean to discuss my concern and was told "everyone has their own opinion and they would look into this" yet nothing resulted from this conversation. A majority of our fellow classmates share our sentiments. Not to mention that there are also mice everywhere you turn and in the classrooms and bathrooms. With regards to the regular MS program it is worse than the SMP program as no one got even an interview for Georgetown and since this program is not with the actual medical students, even less care or energy is put into it by the faculty and staff. You will have to do everything yourself to make sure you get letter of recommendation, a job after the program, and even teaching yourself the materials. Also like the SMP program many professors use lectures from other universities and a majority of quizzes and exams are on Quizlet. Many people had previous exams that were passed around throughout the year. I took a huge loan for this and regret doing so and hope this post saves at least one from choosing to do this program or attending school here. As graduate students in this program you are treated below all other graduate students and it is clearly seen with the lack of funding, educational opportunities, and personal building workshops. The point of any program like this is to help prepare you for the MCAT and help get into medical school; this program did neither nor did they provide me with anything I could not have done myself to get into medical school.

We did not write this post to deter anyone from attending these types of programs; we wrote this because where you go, what faculty you learn from, how much you or your family pay, and your mental/emotional health is an extremely important decision and one that should not be taken lightly. Other than being in a large city like Washington, graduate school at Georgetown was not worth it. All in all we felt like these programs were a scam and Georgetown was using their name to lure students for a pointless degree. There are numerous programs around the country that students should consider before Georgetown. If we could go back and do it again, we would go somewhere else and hope this information helps others in their quest to become a physician.

Also what SMP do you guys think is better seeing as how the other reputable programs are all out of pocket?
 
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How was the average GPA? Did many kids succeed, or did most of them get a poor GPA?
If you are referring to the GPA prior to the program, SMP students (myself included) had a GPA below 3.4 for the most part and the MCAT is needed to apply. For the regular Master's program the GPA was above 3.5 usually. In the program, many kids did succeed but many finished with a 3.0GPA or something a little bit higher which is not great. There are a large number of students in the SMP program and I would say many of them succeeded but the GPA they needed depended on the student's situation. Higher MCAT score means their GPA could be lower and vice versa. SMP program is very rigorous and there were a lot of people with a GPA that would be considered poor to the outside world. I hope that helps answer your question.
 
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Also what SMP do you guys think is better seeing as how the other reputable programs are all out of pocket?
This would depend on the student and what they are looking for. A better name school does not necessarily mean better chance of getting into med school in the future and we both wish we would have thought about that more. This link lists all the programs that contain a SMP program: Postbaccalaureate - AAMC (you may have to copy and paste this link). My friend is from California and she considered UC Berkeley but I would be remiss to give my own opinion on other programs as I do not personally know. I would go to that link and contact the school to ask your specific questions so that you can make the most informed decision. Hope that helps answer your question.
 
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Hi there, I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad experience at GTown! I was recently accepted am seriously considering it as it gives us the chance to take classes along side M1's. But I was also accepted to JHU Health Sciences Intensive. Would you recommend that program over GTown?
 
Hi there, I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad experience at GTown! I was recently accepted am seriously considering it as it gives us the chance to take classes along side M1's. But I was also accepted to JHU Health Sciences Intensive. Would you recommend that program over GTown?
Yes anything over it
 
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Honestly- I did a masters in physiology from my state school and loved it. Obtained over 40 hours in graduate science courses with in state tuition. Made a 4.0. This program is well known in the area to prepare kids for prof school be it medicine, dentistry, vet, etc.

id choose the most economical, bang for your buck option you have if you’re doing graduate degree for med school.
 
While there's a lot of truth in what OP said regarding the cut throat nature of the SMP program and run down facilities, this idea that the program is somehow obligated to find their students jobs is ridiculous. Even if the program somehow advertised some type of job finding support, it's on the students themselves to go seek these jobs out, not the individual professors. They may know people here and there that might be looking but to solely rely on them and not put in your own effort is just lazy. And the bit about professors using other lecture material or may not teach very well is not a Georgetown problem, it's an every medical school in the country problem. This is why, in general, lectures in medical school are pretty worthless and it's better to just study your own stuff using the lecture as a guide. You're an adult so get your ass up and learn stuff on your own. When you finally become a doctor, the patient's not going to be bring in the material for you to diagnose their illness, you're gonna have to figure it out. And finally, with regards to cost, yes it's stupidly expensive but with everything in life you're paying for the Georgetown name. It does carry some cache depending on where you end up. If you thought somehow that Georgetown will teach you significantly different physiology and materials compared to a state school I'd question your understanding of the process as a whole. While I don't share a whole lot of love for Gtown myself I find some of the complaints trivial and pretty much widely seen in many other medical schools. So, while I wouldn't recommend the SMP program due to cost, area COL and cut throat nature if you do work hard enough the top 10% do get in.
 
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Honestly- I did a masters in physiology from my state school and loved it. Obtained over 40 hours in graduate science courses with in state tuition. Made a 4.0. This program is well known in the area to prepare kids for prof school be it medicine, dentistry, vet, etc.

id choose the most economical, bang for your buck option you have if you’re doing graduate degree for med school.
I also second choosing the most economical option. Most of the programs that I looked at were fairly similar and the most important factors are basically cost and if there's any kind of school linkage/agreement. Doing well in any program will help your application.
 
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While there's a lot of truth in what OP said regarding the cut throat nature of the SMP program and run down facilities, this idea that the program is somehow obligated to find their students jobs is ridiculous. Even if the program somehow advertised some type of job finding support, it's on the students themselves to go seek these jobs out, not the individual professors. They may know people here and there that might be looking but to solely rely on them and not put in your own effort is just lazy. And the bit about professors using other lecture material or may not teach very well is not a Georgetown problem, it's an every medical school in the country problem. This is why, in general, lectures in medical school are pretty worthless and it's better to just study your own stuff using the lecture as a guide. You're an adult so get your ass up and learn stuff on your own. When you finally become a doctor, the patient's not going to be bring in the material for you to diagnose their illness, you're gonna have to figure it out. And finally, with regards to cost, yes it's stupidly expensive but with everything in life you're paying for the Georgetown name. It does carry some cache depending on where you end up. If you thought somehow that Georgetown will teach you significantly different physiology and materials compared to a state school I'd question your understanding of the process as a whole. While I don't share a whole lot of love for Gtown myself I find some of the complaints trivial and pretty much widely seen in many other medical schools. So, while I wouldn't recommend the SMP program due to cost, area COL and cut throat nature if you do work hard enough the top 10% do get in.
I mean it can pretty much just be summarized in the fact that you are taking the classes with the med students -- who already have issues with how things are run (thats another story) -- but you have to be top 10-20 percent of your SMP class and it isn't pass fail its percentage/gpa. I just know there are plenty of people who do SMP that get into GTOWN MED. And thats awesome, its just very very brutal. Can only attest to the fact that everyone that I know that did it (whether they went to georgetown or somewhere else) it sucked their soul, is so competitive, and you really have no support.
 
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I mean it can pretty much just be summarized in the fact that you are taking the classes with the med students -- who already have issues with how things are run (thats another story) -- but you have to be top 10-20 percent of your SMP class and it isn't pass fail its percentage/gpa. I just know there are plenty of people who do SMP that get into GTOWN MED. And thats awesome, its just very very brutal. Can only attest to the fact that everyone that I know that did it (whether they went to georgetown or somewhere else) it sucked their soul, is so competitive, and you really have no support.

Don't get me wrong. I completely empathize with the situation. I had to do something similar myself prior to medical school and I've never worked so hard for a year before (and I'm including medical school and residency in that statement) because it was my last chance. The process isn't supposed to be easy that anyone can just waltz in. These programs exist for a reason. The people in these programs have some deficiency (usually academic) that they couldn't get into med school outright and now have to do an SMP. If we were all that and a bag of chips we would already be in right? So I know the desperation that permeates these type of programs and the me-first mentality. Everyone's trying to get into the top 10% so they can fulfill their dream of being a doctor. The camaraderie comes after you're in and you don't have to worry about getting that MD (unless gunning for uber competitive specialties). You just have to understand that mindset and then just accept that life's gonna suck for a year but if you do well it pays off. The problem is people think it's going to be like college and don't expect it to be like that. It's a mindset problem.
 
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Do you think it would have made a difference if you did the GTDT program instead of the GUMC? I am looking for program that would give me somewhat of a support system/small classes where I can actually talk to my professors? The thing that has been torn between JHU Health Sciences Intensive w/ Biotech and the GTown SMP is the fact that you're taking M1 classes and that Gtown is older. Please help :/
 
Do you think it would have made a difference if you did the GTDT program instead of the GUMC? I am looking for program that would give me somewhat of a support system/small classes where I can actually talk to my professors? The thing that has been torn between JHU Health Sciences Intensive w/ Biotech and the GTown SMP is the fact that you're taking M1 classes and that Gtown is older. Please help :/
Older means nothing they just changed their curriculum 2 years ago and still struggling through it. ALso have you heard anything about the JHU one? If you hear good things I would do it.
 
Older means nothing they just changed their curriculum 2 years ago and still struggling through it. ALso have you heard anything about the JHU one? If you hear good things I would do it.

I'm still researching on JHU but I've heard negative things about that one too (younger program, seen as JH lite degree aka not taken as seriously) so I honestly don't know how to weigh the both of them. I was thinking that older program = more rep among ADCOM's. It worries me tho that most people in this program get around 3.0 gpa since that's what i'm trying to improve
 
I had a friend that did one of the masters programs at georgetown. It was cutthroat and she was miserable, depressed, and burnt out. It’s malignant.

She’s in DO school now and much happier
I can confirm I know 2 very good friends who did it and they were miserable the ENTIRE time.
 
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Would most SMP grads say that if you do well in the SMP program, you can get into an MD program?

How do other schools besides Georgetown look at an SMP program?

Is it worth it to do the SMP so if I get into another MD program I can do well in the classes?
 
Is it worth it to do the SMP so if I get into another MD program I can do well in the classes?

Disclaimer: not an SMP grad.

SMP is for extreme grade repair. Like 3.0/.1/.2 with too many credits that a post bac wouldnt be able to move the number at all. Its also a make or break- dont do well enough in your SMP then your chances for med school are basically shot for a while.

Its not worth doing to have an easier time in your classes for M1 by any means especially bc SMPs are pretty expensive in general.


In regards to question 1, the answer is probably yes as long they have a cogent app otherwise
 
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Disclaimer: not an SMP grad.

SMP is for extreme grade repair. Like 3.0/.1/.2 with too many credits that a post bac wouldnt be able to move the number at all. Its also a make or break- dont do well enough in your SMP then your chances for med school are basically shot for a while.

Its not worth doing to have an easier time in your classes for M1 by any means especially bc SMPs are pretty expensive in general.


In regards to question 1, the answer is probably yes as long they have a cogent app otherwise

I don’t know about that low if a GPA. Im borderline MD (3.5/3.6) and I have 1 II. I understand where you’re coming from because others tell me the same, but really at this point, whats the alternative. Im honestly so surprised by how many schools are completely silent compared to the list I've seen floating around from last year.
 
I don’t know about that low if a GPA. Im borderline MD (3.5/3.6) and I have 1 II.
I mean, you are n=1 and you also applied late iirc? But that is quite literally what SMP's are for- extreme grade repair and career change reinventors. There is another n=1 user here who has like a 3.1, but 4.0 SMP and good mcat that is killing this cycle.

I also cant tell from your wording if you did an SMP lol.

I understand where you’re coming from because others tell me the same, but really at this point, whats the alternative.
The alternative is 2 semesters of science courses (~32 total credits) and for anyone whos fresh out of college (~120 credits?), that would make a good dent in their gpa and post bac shows up as its own row on AMCAS
 
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I don’t know about that low if a GPA. Im borderline MD (3.5/3.6) and I have 1 II. I understand where you’re coming from because others tell me the same, but really at this point, whats the alternative. Im honestly so surprised by how many schools are completely silent compared to the list I've seen floating around from last year.

I had a 3.5 and 3.4 and have gotten 11 MD II over two cycles. It’s Probably not your gpa. If you go on MSAR you’re at the median for pretry much all the mid/ low tier md schools. This process is SO MUCH MORE THAN STATS. saying I only got 1 II because my gpa is at the median is just not how this process works.
 
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I have a downward trend and a 507 so Im more like the bottom 10 - 25 for most. Hopefully theyll look at the entire context of reaching those benchmarks because im confident in my ability to succeed. I really dont want to pay for another cycle, Im dreading the even higher hours ill have to work to have enough come application time.
An SMP wont help your mcat tho!!
 
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I don’t know about that low if a GPA. Im borderline MD (3.5/3.6) and I have 1 II. I understand where you’re coming from because others tell me the same, but really at this point, whats the alternative. Im honestly so surprised by how many schools are completely silent compared to the list I've seen floating around from last year.

I am in the same boat. I just don't want to put myself through the stress of an SMP if I don't NEED it, but if it would help me then obviously its worth it. I'm just worried that a borderline GPA/MCAT won't make the first cut and then I would have regretted not doing the SMP. My experiences are very strong, just borderline (but in range) numbers.
 
Thanks for the advice guys!! I decided to do the SMP at Cincinnati (I recently and finally heard back from them) instead. Lmk if there are any red flags to look out for there, cuz I haven't heard any bad things about their program
 
For those who did the regular MS in Physiology program at GTown, have you been able to find/land a job with the degree since graduating for the meantime until you start med school or apply to med school? Trying to gauge if the Master's itself is useless or not as a backup in case getting to med school takes longer than expected.
 
For those who did the regular MS in Physiology program at GTown, have you been able to find/land a job with the degree since graduating for the meantime until you start med school or apply to med school? Trying to gauge if the Master's itself is useless or not as a backup in case getting to med school takes longer than expected.
I'm in this boat as well. I just got accepted. I'm not sure about what health-care path I want to take yet so I figure the regular masters is a good thing to do while I figure that out and gain clinical experience? I don't know if I'm wrong about that though.
 
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