MD Is Special Masters Program really worth it?

[Student1222]

Hey guys, I am currently a Senior in College and was wondering if Special Masters Program are actually worth it.

I will probably end up with a low GPA than most applicants (3.2~3.3cGPA, 3.3sGPA). Also, I have not taken the MCAT, yet, but preparing hard for it. I think I have standard amount of EC like volunteering, shadowing, and research experience.

I feel like my GPA is the biggest point dragging me down, but I was wondering if SMP are worth it. They are very pricey and cost about 30k to 40k for most of them and I was wondering should I just work as a research technician/assistant and earn money or go to SMP to improve my GPA and improve my chances to med school.

Please feel free to leave any comments. Thanks 🙂

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[GrapesofRath]

You need an MCAT score to see whether an SMP is worth it. If your MCAT is MD caliber(511+ esque) then if you are gunning for the MD, yes, an SMP is the single best thing you can do to make yourself a competitive MD candidate. But an SMP has no value for someone who cant get an MD caliber MCAT score. So without the MCAT, theres no way of knowing. But to answer your question, a strong performance in an SMP will definitely do more to help your candidacy than some lab tech work, even if you get papers out of it.

The other factors is you gotta realize
a) how risky SMPs are
b) what caused you to have a low GPA.

Not doing so hot in an SMP is often the kiss of death; if you dont have good reason to believe youll do well in an SMP, dont do one. And as for figuring that out, identifying why you had a poor GPA in college will answer alot of your questions. Was your GPA low because you had other commitments and couldnt study much? Poor time management? Poor study techniques? Or was it simply you put in a good amount of effort and it still wasnt enough? I ask all this becuase doing well in an SMP is much much harder than doing well in undergrad. You will have to beat out 60+% of MS1s in an SMP taking classes with them with an average 3.75/32 UG stats who will be studying just as much as you. Do you have reason to believe you can pull this off? If you had a bunch of other commitments in college and didnt study much and have an MCAT score similar to those MS1's youll compete with, that might be reason to believe you have a chance. But if you studied alot and still only hit a 3.2, that might appear like you have hit a limit on your learning capacity/ceiling. In that case, I would be much more hesitant to pursue an SMP.

Ultimately all these questions are things only you can answer. But you better answer them and have an MCAT score before taking an SMP plunge.