Short answer: don't use your GPA as the decision maker.
Step 1:
Use the reapplicant forum to review the less-subjective aspects of your app in progress. Did you get unfriendly adult review of your essay? Is it possible you have a bad letter? Was your app complete after July or so? Did you research your schools using the MSAR and admissions web pages? Are you missing fundamental assets such as clinical exposure and significant extra curricular activities? Have you reached out to your home state public schools to ask for feedback on your app? Before you think about an SMP you need to have a comprehensive understanding of why you aren't getting any love. This requires you to be the diligent adult in charge of your fate and to not lean on the opinions of strangers who have no skin in your game.
Step 2:
You should find in the reapplicant forum that a reapplication needs to be different than the app before. Being enrolled in an SMP shows some commitment but isn't a fresh completed asset. You need to be thinking hard about an MCAT retake, which is a substantial fresh asset that validates your prior take. And it shows that you're not scared of taking hours-long exams covering massive amounts of content, which are what you take like every five minutes in med school.
Step 3:
Consider how ridiculous-ish it is to try to become a different applicant between now and next June. You can't complete an academic program. You can't publish. You might be able to get a fresh letter. But it's 6-8 months. What if you do something substantial that makes a difference in your career, that takes longer than 6-8 months, and is less premed-centric than an SMP? For instance, you could do a rigorous traditional masters with pubs. You could do the Peace Corps. You could do rent-paying work in a lab that doesn't look like a premed gig. Etc. Odds are that you'll need to complete an SMP before it affects your med school app, so you're 2-3 years out from starting med school anyway.
Step 4:
Review your finances and find the courage to look at the long view. Doing an SMP will typically require you to move to another town ($$) and borrow or spend $50k+ on cost of attendance. You will probably want to go home sometimes ($$). Now consider this in the context of the med schools where you have a realistic chance. Will you be accumulating $400k+ in student debt? Do you comprehend what a career-limiting trainwreck that is? Alternatively, are there paths that would increase your odds of getting into your perfectly good, much cheaper home state public schools? Have you done the work to understand how your home state publics view SMPs? For instance, will California publics consider an SMP-in-progress as part of your app, or not? (hint: they will not.)
Step 5:
Meanwhile, get up to speed on the SMPs that have the best results. What differs between Gtown and Barry-which-is-not-an-SMP-but-makes-its-students-post-excessively-in-the-SDN-postbac/SMP-forum? You don't have to fully understand every last detail of each program before you apply. You should be getting your SMP app together now if you think an SMP is what you want. Pick maybe 5 likely programs and use some of your current app year angst to generate a strong app to maybe 5 programs.
Step 6:
Breathe. Do fun things. Start making a list of things you'll be able to enjoy next year while your unfortunate classmates are in year 1 of med school. Build and maintain excellent physical fitness and nutrition. And you might get some late love this year, never know.
Best of luck to you.
