In my opinion, given many other SMPs out there, Loyola would not be a wise choice.
Just to give some updated facts:
1) About 40-50% of the 1st class has been admitted to medical school this year. I don't expect this to change significantly over the summer. Most of the students were excellent students before coming to the program, so it's unlikely this success can be attributed to the program. To note: NO students have been accepted to Stritch. I believe 4 recently interviewed, and were placed on the alternate list. However, there were a lot of politics behind this: students in the program were irate at the lack of attention from Stritch (no interviews at all). This prompted the Director to hand-choose students that she felt would be a good match at Loyola. 👎 Needless to say, this upset many students in the class, since this promoted competition between students, and was evidence of favoritism (i.e., it was not clearly merit-based).
2) It is very unlikely that a class will be taught at the medical school campus next year. In fact, the MAMS advisor said there wouldn't be one next year for sure. Even if there was, the class wouldn't be a medical school class. It would be simply a class, taught at Stritch. The general consensus (confirmed by the former assistant {fired earlier this year for unknown reasons} was that Stritch wants very little to do with MAMS. I cannot emphasize enought that LU MAMS is NOT a linkage to Stritch.
3) The courses in MAMS do not have a clinical focus, and are not rigorous. Depending on your preference, this is either a positive or negative. However, as Phil mentioned, it dilutes the credibility of the program. If a majority of your classmates graduate with a 3.75+, yours will mean that much less when it's in a pile with your classmates.
4) Not only is there no lab work, there's not much of anything besides coursework. Meaning if you have to work on your MCAT, you will get very little support from the staff. This year, a few students who did well on the MCAT volunteered to tutor fellow classmates on the test. The tutoring consisted of reviewing the basics, and proctoring practice sessions. Also, if you want to seek volunteer opps, you're pretty much on your own. Again, the students themselves are organizing a list of "preferred" volunteer activities right now, which will hopefully be available to next year's students. But, the admin. will give you very little support in seeking meaningful opps.
By far, the biggest gripe current students have is with the administration of the program. In fact, the students were so upset at this, that a committee of students was formed to formally raise complaints to the Director and head of the Bio department. No significant changes were effected from this well-intentioned committee.
If anyone has any specific questions on the program, feel free to PM or post. I don't frequent as much these days, but pop in once in a while.
