How to incorporate SMP into Personal Statement

[premed67783]

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I just completed a special masters program this past school year.

I'm in the process of writing my personal statement right now, and I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate the special masters program into it (or if I should mention it at all). I feel like it's something that should be mentioned, but I'm not sure how to do so without drawing attention to my low undergrad grades, or without sounding excuse-y.

Is there anyone out there who is familiar with SMPs who give their input on how to write about it in the personal statement?

 

[shouldvestudied]

How did you do in your SMP and how does it tie into your academic story? Are you a bit iffy on GPA but killed the SMP?

 

[premed67783]

How did you do in your SMP and how does it tie into your academic story? Are you a bit iffy on GPA but killed the SMP?

I did pretty well in the SMP. my undergrad GPA was ~3.3 with a 38Q MCAT. My SMP GPA was a 3.7 exactly.

 

[shouldvestudied]

Well, there you go. Well done on your SMP and MCAT.

uGPA is supposed to be an approximation for your ability to handle the onerous course load of Medical School. But since you killed your SMP, any Med School you're applying to doesn't need to use this approximation. Instead, they have first hand proof that you will succeed in at least the first two years of Med School. I would focus on how you have proved yourself capable of handling Med School by actually doing MS-1.

 

[genswim24]

I talked about it in the second to last paragraph of my personal statement. I used it to illustrate my growth as a student and my ability to handle the medical school workload. It worked pretty well for me and I know other classmates that had success with it as well. As long as you can incorporate it into the overall message/theme of your personal statement, I would use it.