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Please guys I need some opinions here, I don't know what to do!!
Ok so here's my situation: I really really want to go to my state school, LSU-New Orleans, so I spoke with the Assistant Dean for Admissions and he said my GPA was decent, 3.37 and that I didn't really need to do much else to improve that, but that I really needed to improve my MCAT score preferably above their average of a 28.
Well I'm taking the MCAT again in April and hopefully I can get a minimum of 28. So here's the deal, I really feel that I still need to prove to LSU that I am ready and can handle med school so I applied to the Georgetown GEMS program and another program the Medical Education Development Program at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Med School, hoping that one of these programs can set me apart from the rest of the LSU applicants.
There have been posts here about the GEMS program, but in case u havent' heard about it, it's a one-year post-bac program and Georgetown and u take about 4 or 5 med school classes with the med students and u take the same test and all, now the hard part I have heard about is that in order to successfully complete the program ur grades on each test in every class must be higher than the average that the med students get in those classes, but I hear that the program is aimed at helping you to learn how to study efficiently for these classes so that there is no excuse for you to not do well in them, which sounds pretty hard. So the if you successfully complete the program, then you are accepted at Georgetown med school. The only downside is that the program is around $14,000 and with living expenses I would need a loan of around $20,000 and no to mention that Georgetown med school itself is around $40,000/year.
Well the other program, MED in North Carolina, is just 9-weeks in the summer and u take 5 medical school classes taught by the med school faculty, at the medical school, using all the same books and resources as the med school. This program also helps you with study and test taking skills. I hear that this program is pretty intense as well. The only thing is that obviously in just 9 weeks ur not going to cover eveything that you would in a med school class during the Fall or Spring semester, so they try to cover as much as they can in the allowable time frame. And you take exams that are modeled from the med students tests. U get grades in the classes that u can put into the AMCAS, but these grades won't be calculated into ur GPA. And most interesting is that it's free and u can get a stipend for living expenses.
So here's my problem, I already got accepted to the MED program and I have an interview for the GEMS program. What I like about the MED program is that it's only 9-weeks in the summer, it's free, u take med school classes, although it's not the complete med school class but enough to get the idea of all the studying u have to do and u get grades for what u do in those classes. I was planning on applying to LSU in the summer, so finishing this MED program in July would allow me to put the grades I get in the program in my AMCAS and submit AMCAS in July so that LSU will see these grades. Hopefully with an imporved MCAT and having the grades from the MED program, this will help me to get accepted at LSU. This is the plan that I'm hoping for.
On the other hand, it's not guaranteed that LSU will accept me after having done eveything with the whole MED thing and I would probably be stuck with nowhere to go for next year. So that's where the GEMS program comes in, I would still apply to LSU this summer and if I went to GEMS I would make sure to get LSU a transcript from my first semester grades at GEMs, although that probably wouldn't be until November/December and I'm afraid that by that time it could be too late for those grades to make a difference in my application if LSU hasn't rejected me before I send them my grades. But on the bright side, doing well in the program could mean that I can get accepted to Georgetown and have some med school to go to next Fall in the case that things don't work out with LSU as I had hoped for, but I just don't know about that price tag for GEMS and Georgetown, what do ya'll think?
In the end I'm debating about which program will make a difference in my application, I just don't know and I need to make a decision soon.
Please guys, anyone with more info about GEMS at Georgetown or the MED at North Carolina-Chapel Hill, please pass it on over, cuz I would love to hear about it. Also guys please help me out with any opinions, info, advice, u name it, I would greatly appreciate it. PM me if you would prefer.
Thanks guys, sorry if this got a little long, but I'm desperate at this point.
Ok so here's my situation: I really really want to go to my state school, LSU-New Orleans, so I spoke with the Assistant Dean for Admissions and he said my GPA was decent, 3.37 and that I didn't really need to do much else to improve that, but that I really needed to improve my MCAT score preferably above their average of a 28.
Well I'm taking the MCAT again in April and hopefully I can get a minimum of 28. So here's the deal, I really feel that I still need to prove to LSU that I am ready and can handle med school so I applied to the Georgetown GEMS program and another program the Medical Education Development Program at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Med School, hoping that one of these programs can set me apart from the rest of the LSU applicants.
There have been posts here about the GEMS program, but in case u havent' heard about it, it's a one-year post-bac program and Georgetown and u take about 4 or 5 med school classes with the med students and u take the same test and all, now the hard part I have heard about is that in order to successfully complete the program ur grades on each test in every class must be higher than the average that the med students get in those classes, but I hear that the program is aimed at helping you to learn how to study efficiently for these classes so that there is no excuse for you to not do well in them, which sounds pretty hard. So the if you successfully complete the program, then you are accepted at Georgetown med school. The only downside is that the program is around $14,000 and with living expenses I would need a loan of around $20,000 and no to mention that Georgetown med school itself is around $40,000/year.
Well the other program, MED in North Carolina, is just 9-weeks in the summer and u take 5 medical school classes taught by the med school faculty, at the medical school, using all the same books and resources as the med school. This program also helps you with study and test taking skills. I hear that this program is pretty intense as well. The only thing is that obviously in just 9 weeks ur not going to cover eveything that you would in a med school class during the Fall or Spring semester, so they try to cover as much as they can in the allowable time frame. And you take exams that are modeled from the med students tests. U get grades in the classes that u can put into the AMCAS, but these grades won't be calculated into ur GPA. And most interesting is that it's free and u can get a stipend for living expenses.
So here's my problem, I already got accepted to the MED program and I have an interview for the GEMS program. What I like about the MED program is that it's only 9-weeks in the summer, it's free, u take med school classes, although it's not the complete med school class but enough to get the idea of all the studying u have to do and u get grades for what u do in those classes. I was planning on applying to LSU in the summer, so finishing this MED program in July would allow me to put the grades I get in the program in my AMCAS and submit AMCAS in July so that LSU will see these grades. Hopefully with an imporved MCAT and having the grades from the MED program, this will help me to get accepted at LSU. This is the plan that I'm hoping for.
On the other hand, it's not guaranteed that LSU will accept me after having done eveything with the whole MED thing and I would probably be stuck with nowhere to go for next year. So that's where the GEMS program comes in, I would still apply to LSU this summer and if I went to GEMS I would make sure to get LSU a transcript from my first semester grades at GEMs, although that probably wouldn't be until November/December and I'm afraid that by that time it could be too late for those grades to make a difference in my application if LSU hasn't rejected me before I send them my grades. But on the bright side, doing well in the program could mean that I can get accepted to Georgetown and have some med school to go to next Fall in the case that things don't work out with LSU as I had hoped for, but I just don't know about that price tag for GEMS and Georgetown, what do ya'll think?
In the end I'm debating about which program will make a difference in my application, I just don't know and I need to make a decision soon.
Please guys, anyone with more info about GEMS at Georgetown or the MED at North Carolina-Chapel Hill, please pass it on over, cuz I would love to hear about it. Also guys please help me out with any opinions, info, advice, u name it, I would greatly appreciate it. PM me if you would prefer.
Thanks guys, sorry if this got a little long, but I'm desperate at this point.
