MS vs SMP

[TanyaKatya]

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Please, I will like some advise concerning either getting a MS or SMP in order to boost my application to medical schools.
I am applying for entrance into the Summer or Fall 2005 class and would like to know the benefits and drawbacks with either one. With the MS program, I will be able graduate in 1.5 years and will also work as a Teaching Assistant which will be a great experience. I would like to do the SMP in Georgetown but my only issue is the cost. I can't afford to rake up >$20,000 in loans before starting medical school 😱 . Also, will a MS in a state school be regarded as inferior when compared to a SMP?

Thank you.

 

[X.O.]

I would recommend you pursue a program where you can take med school classes along with med students and just ace them. Take medical biochem, physiology, and histology. BU and G-town have the most well known programs like this but there are some public state schools that have similar options but are less publicized.

I did the MS option and took all graduate school classes with alot of useless upper level science but I was constrained by taking only classes at night so that I could work during the day to support myself. I got the impression during the interview trail that grad classes were more or less useless even though I did well in them.

I got dinged with the postbac penalty with 15k in added loans and thats kind of the low end because I went to a state school. You can defer payment on the loans if you get accepted to med school right after grad school, so I wouldnt worry about the loan burden unless its >6 months between the two. The only thing I wished I could have looked into more was working in some capacity at the school I was at and getting tutition waivers but was too lazy about it.

Applying for the 2005 app cycle seems kind of ambitious. I think you need >1 semester of good grades or complete the program depending on what kind of hole youre trying to recover from. Good luck.

 

[cammy1313]

Please, I will like some advise concerning either getting a MS or SMP in order to boost my application to medical schools.
I am applying for entrance into the Summer or Fall 2005 class and would like to know the benefits and drawbacks with either one. With the MS program, I will be able graduate in 1.5 years and will also work as a Teaching Assistant which will be a great experience. I would like to do the SMP in Georgetown but my only issue is the cost. I can't afford to rake up >$20,000 in loans before starting medical school 😱 . Also, will a MS in a state school be regarded as inferior when compared to a SMP?

Thank you.

Go ahead and do an SMP starting Sep '05, I have done it and it works. I had the choice between BUs SMP or an MS in physiology at my state school. State school was practically free it was so cheap, I had a TA position lined up, and the lab to do my research in all set. BUT, I went the BU route because I knew what I needed to do was prove I could do med school coursework. Regular MS grad courses are SO much easier than even undergrad classes and med admissions committees know this. Plus, doing the SMP and doing well in it shows the med school that you can do it and you generally have a leg up when your med app finds its way into their hands. Not to mention the relationships you can establish with faculty members that have a lot of clout over who is admitted. As far as the debt goes, I had the same thought as you for a fleeting moment but, please, what's an extra $20,000 when you are looking to plunge into $200,000+ of debt for med school??? Just put all of this information in perspective and your decision will be easy (although I know I am extremely biased 🙂)

 

[Phil Anthropist]

I think the obvious advantage of the SMP is that you're taking classes with the med students. This gives the adcoms a direct assessment of your ability to succeed in med school. The purpose of the SMP is specifically to get students into med school and the program claims an 85% acceptance rate for SMP graduates. You also have the possibility of avoiding the glide/lag year (i.e. you may be able to start med school immediately after finishing the 1-year program). Programs like Georgetown are very expensive and you probably will have more debt from loans, but if you start med school one year earlier by skipping the glide year, then you can graduate from med school earlier. So there's the possibility of earning a physician's salary earlier.

I think the big advantage of an MS program is that a lot of them are free + stipend. Another big advantage is that the typical MS program requires research and a thesis. The G-town SMP doesn't have this research/thesis advantage. I don't necessarily think an MS at a state school would be considered inferior, but it's just not as easy for adcoms to evaluate whether you can handle med school (because unlike the SMP, you're probably not taking classes with med students--but some do allow you to). In some masters programs there's a certain degree of grade-inflation and the classes are generally not considered as difficult as med school. So again, the SMP has the advantage of proving you can handle med school.

I think either choice is a reasonable option, but if you can shell out the $ , I'd go with the SMP.

Edit: I think Cammy stole my thunder! 😳 😛

 

[LordoftheFries]

Regular MS grad courses are SO much easier than even undergrad classes and med admissions committees know this. ))

for the record, this is BS

 

[cammy1313]

I think the obvious advantage of the SMP is that you're taking classes with the med students. This gives the adcoms a direct assessment of your ability to succeed in med school. The purpose of the SMP is specifically to get students into med school and the program claims an 85% acceptance rate for SMP graduates. You also have the possibility of avoiding the glide/lag year (i.e. you may be able to start med school immediately after finishing the 1-year program). Programs like Georgetown are very expensive and you probably will have more debt from loans, but if you start med school one year earlier by skipping the glide year, then you can graduate from med school earlier. So there's the possibility of earning a physician's salary earlier.

I think the big advantage of an MS program is that a lot of them are free + stipend. Another big advantage is that the typical MS program requires research and a thesis. The G-town SMP doesn't have this research/thesis advantage. I don't necessarily think an MS at a state school would be considered inferior, but it's just not as easy for adcoms to evaluate whether you can handle med school (because unlike the SMP, you're probably not taking classes with med students--but some do allow you to). In some masters programs there's a certain degree of grade-inflation and the classes are generally not considered as difficult as med school. So again, the SMP has the advantage of proving you can handle med school.

I think either choice is a reasonable option, but if you can shell out the $ , I'd go with the SMP.

Edit: I think Cammy stole my thunder! 😳 😛

I completely agree, Phil did a MUCH better job of explaining than I did 🙂

 

[TanyaKatya]

Thanks guys for all your responses 😀 . Please keep 'em coming. Don't hesitate to state any opinions you have.

 

[X.O.]

Another thing to be aware of is that if you do a MS or MSP, the grades you get wont raise your BCMP thats computed from undergrad tagged courses and it'll go under the seperate grad GPA column in AMCAS. Theres no uniform policy among schools in how they treat Grad GPAs in their screening methods so you might want to raise your BCMP through upper level undergrad courses if youre below a 3.0 to maximize your chances that your application wont be screened out for this reason. Its also a good reason why you should take med classes vs. grad classes because schools can better evaluate what you did and what it took to do well in them. No one is going to give a discriminating eye in how hard or easy it was for you to excel in grad school classes because its not uniform between institutions.

Theres also another good reason for going to a state med school or an affiliated grad program to do an MS and thats to cultivate ties with the Dean of Admissions. Try to develop a relationship and keep that person continually updated with accomplishments, MCAT scores/grades, etc. so that person becomes a stakeholder in your application. This wont work for ultra competitive state schools like Cali but most state schools fall somewhere in the mid to low tier and home state advantage is big for overcoming a blemished app. In retrospect, I should have done more of this and but again was too lazy.

 

[scrubs09]

Please, I will like some advise concerning either getting a MS or SMP in order to boost my application to medical schools.
I am applying for entrance into the Summer or Fall 2005 class and would like to know the benefits and drawbacks with either one. With the MS program, I will be able graduate in 1.5 years and will also work as a Teaching Assistant which will be a great experience. I would like to do the SMP in Georgetown but my only issue is the cost. I can't afford to rake up >$20,000 in loans before starting medical school 😱 . Also, will a MS in a state school be regarded as inferior when compared to a SMP?

Thank you.

I was in the same boat as you 1 yr ago. I decided to go the MS route at a state school where most of the visiting profs are from surrounding med schools..---MS in the biomedical sciences. Whatever school you choose to go to, it WILL be intense, hands down.

I have friends in the BU and Georgetown Masters program and its basically sink or swim. In order to get a B in the Georgetown program, you have to do well...more than a certain percentage of the medical students. That really puts more pressure on yourself which is something to think about.

I am graduating this year, applied last summer, and am attending medical school next year entering 2005 so it is about doing stellar in grad school. I graduated w/a 3.3 undergrad but pushed that up in grad school to a 3.9. So go wherever you'll be happiest. Med schools look at the tough coursework... not really the name of a school esp for grad school. Different story for undergraduate college... That's what I was told in my interview.