Georgetown SMP Application Thread 2019- 2020

People generally live in the residential areas just north of the hospital (Glover Park and Burleith areas), to the east of Georgetown in Foggy Bottom (which is about 2 miles from the main campus), across the river in Rosslyn (part of Arlington, VA), and to the west of Georgetown in the Fox Hall neighborhood.

 

I'm using Interfolio to submit my recommendation letters for my application, does anyone know what email address I should have them sent to?

 

Based on their FAQ's, the acceptance rate in their own MD school is very low. "Although there is no formal agreement between our program and the medical school, historically, about 15% of SMP students have been accepted to Georgetown each year.
University of Cincinnati however is stating that "Beginning with the graduating class of 2019, UC SMP graduates who submit a medical-school application to the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine will be invited for interview "
Which is a better program. Those already in the programs or those who researched can you please share ?

 

Look at the class size of Cincy’s SMP. It’s like 30-35 if I remember correctly. So if they interview everyone in their SMP, that’s even less than what GUSOM interviews from our SMP class, which is around 80 plus or minus 10 from what I’ve heard. Of those that interview, around 30 plus or minus 5 will be accepted into GUSOM. Hope that helps.

 

Thats a super fast turn around, mind if I ask your stats? I just submitted stats 3.45 515

 

You'll catch an acceptance in the next week or two. I'm ~3.4 / 516.

 

Once you are accepted to the SMP, how much days do they give you to accept the offer ?

 

April 15th

 

I graduated from the SMP in 2018, and was just accepted to GUSoM this cycle! If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them!

I loved my time at the SMP and felt very well supported by the faculty. After finishing, I retook the MCAT, and felt very prepared for it. I probably would not be going to med school next year if not for the faculty and support that I had!

Just to clarify a few things about interview&acceptances to GUSoM: people who apply via AMCAS during the cycle are put into a separate pool that interviews in early April. This is after GUSoM has finished their interviews for the regular cycle, and your interview day consists of just the 1 on 1 interview. They interview roughly the top 40% of the class, which usually corresponds to a ~3.7 SMP GPA cutoff and about 75-80 people. The admissions committee looks at your app as well to make sure that you have all the other necessary parts of a good medical school applications. From that pool of 75-80 interviews, you'll have roughly 30-35 people accepted. Hope this is helpful!

 

Hey thanks for your reply!
I was wondering why you didn't apply the same time as enrolled in the SMP? It seems that they encourage people to do so?

 

Thanks for answering questions! Are advisors readily available/helpful in your experience and an asset for helping to improve your overall app? I currently go to a rather large public uni where its pretty difficult to get any pre-med advising help, so if the SMP has good opportunities for that I'd be super stoked.

 

I did apply while I was enrolled in the SMP! I had only applied to Georgetown while I was in the SMP because I had wanted to apply to other schools with a full set of grades. Schools can be kind of crappy about accepting updates, so I did not want to spend more money than I had to that cycle. After graduating, I retook the MCAT, and reapplied to 23 schools. My first cycle, I had only received 1 II, and this cycle, I've received 5.

From what I understand, Georgetown doesn't actually set aside seats for SMP students, so by the time you interview as a SMP, they've finished their regular cycle interviews. Make of that what you will.

I thought that the advising from the SMP was really good. They were very clear on the timeline for application and overall very supportive. Additionally, they had a presentation in the second block with Donna Sullivan, one of the ladies who works in the admissions office, where she more or less outlined exactly what Georgetown was looking for in its secondary "Why Georgetown" essay.

Overall, I thought that the SMP was a great resource. The program's been around for ~40 years, and there are a LOT of doctors out there who are graduates, and at least in my experience, SMP grads are always happy to help out other grads.

 

That's awesome! Congratulations! I'm glad it worked out haha!
From the SMP faq I see it says, " Over 50% of our students are accepted to medical school while they are enrolled in the Special Masters Program" how true is this statement? What do you think makes these students get in over others besides I'm guessing "academic success" in the program itself?

 

I'm very interested in this as well if former SMPers could comment on how successful the class is who applied concurrently? Also how big is the class size?

 

I would say that having actual experience with what med school classes are. Since you take med school classes, and are graded against other med students, there's really no ambiguity surrounding how you'd do in medical school for better or worse. SMP's are good for a very small subset of students in my opinion: people who have the MCAT score, extracurriculars, and letters, but are just missing the grades. These applicants are usually borderline cases, and just need the extra push to get them over the edge for the acceptance, and I think that this program is able to do that, granted that the student works hard and does well.

Class size is about 180 at GUMC, and 25 at GTDT.

 

A-robit can you comment on how successful people were who applied to medical school right before the program started and how many got in?
Is the average GPA in the program still a 3.2-3.4

 

Majority of the people I knew who applied right before the program started ended up getting in somewhere. The advisors will work with you on the timeline while you are in the program, and advising remains accessible after graduation. I have personally met with my old team leader for mock interviews, and I have friends who have organized skype sessions to figure out future plans.

I am not sure what the average GPA for the program is, since I've never really asked the administration for that. You really want to be scoring above a 3.6-3.7 in this program to show schools that you can handle med school. IIRC, it wasn't super difficult to get a B/B+ in classes, but the A- and A margins were usually pretty thin due to the way the M1 averages broke down.

 

So I was very happy to be accepted into Georgetown's SMP, but also was accepted into NYMC's 1 year accelerated masters SMP program. Its closer to home for me (as I'm in New York) and it boasts a 80-85% acceptance rate (although wording is vague on their website). I've read several blogs and accounts of the NYMC program and it seems that about 80% of students get into a medical school in the fall directly following the end of the program (no glide year). What do you guys think? I'm leaning towards NYMC as the cost is lower, ability to opt out of classes in M1 year depending on how you do during the SMP, requirement GPA for an interview is 3.4, and the matriculation rate into a MD school after the program is much higher. Would love some insight on this!

 

I’d be wary of programs like this. It sounds great on their website but you have to ask some questions. How long has this program been in operation? I’ve never heard of this SMP. I’ve heard of Cincy, BU, and Gtown. There are probably others out there but these are the most reknowned from the research I did prior to entering the SMP. Plus, their agreement with medical schools is their own, a podiatry school, an osteopathic school, and a dental school. Does that 85% include acceptance dental and podiatry schools? This is just my first take on it. Maybe someone else can provide a different perspective on the matter.

PS: In the end, you have to do what is best for you. If you do this program, do it well. I’m sure it’ll work out. But this was just my first take.

 

Congrats on your acceptance! When did you take the MCAT last summer? I am currently enrolled in the SMP and planning on applying after the program ends, but I am struggling to figure out what the best timeline would be for taking the MCAT so that I'm not at a disadvantage for applying late. Did you study for the MCAT during block 4 at all or did you just start studying after exams ended?

 

I took my MCAT Aug 3. Finished early June, took a week to decompress, and then started content review with EK and Anki. Finished content review in three weeks, and then did the various AAMC materials, NextStep tests, and UWorld questions leading up to the exam. I was complete in the first week of September at most schools, but I prewrote secondaries while I was waiting for my score since some schools wouldn't send you a secondary without a MCAT. My school list was built based on what I was scoring in practice tests.

I personally do not recommend studying for the MCAT during block 4, since that block was quite loaded with two separate anatomy exams, an embryology group paper, 3 med exams, and the end of your grad classes. Unless you're already accepted by that point, you want to finish strong.

 

Anyone recently, or in general, accepted with lower end (2.7-3.0gpa) and lower MCAT? Maybe you have great experiences to make up for the lower stats?

 

I did. PM me and I can share.