Need some SMP help, strong upward trend: is it enough?

[Rippy087]

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Going to throw my stats out for you guys and see what response I get. I'm planning on applying to SMPs for the fall of 2010. I have a very strong upward trend in my GPA, with a huge jump in my junior and senior years.

Undergrad GPA will be around 3.00
MCAT 28Q WR:10, PS:9, BS:9, Q

A little about me:
GPA: I was sick most of undergrad, had to go to hospital over 50 times within one year at one point in time due to kidney failure. Due to my medical problems, I became depressed and didn't really do school work until the end of junior year. Cumulative gpa for freshman and sophomore years was about 2.5...
At the end of my junior year, everything got resolved, and I got a 3.43 second semester of junior year, and a 3.65 first semester of senior year.

MCAT: I was consistently scoring much higher on my practice exams, I think I may retake over the summer.

ECs:
-Volunteered 180 hours at a hospital by my house.
-Worked about 100 hours with spinal surgeon, shadowing, etc.
-Worked in a lab at Northwestern for three months.
-President of a public health initiative club at my university for two years.
-Volunteered with an international health organization and travelled to Honduras four times to work with doctors.
-Two possible publications that are still in the works, one would be 2nd author and the other would be 4th author... Hopefully they get published in time for applications.

SMPs I have already looked at:
Cincinnati (would be my first choice)
Drexel
Temple
Georgetown
BU

I would really prefer a 1 year program where I would be taking classes with medical students. I was wondering what my best options would be, hopefully the upward trend in GPA will be enough to get me a spot in an SMP. I feel that I am fully capable of doing well in medical school classes.

Thank you,
Rippy087

 

[Looking Glass]

If you're planning on attending Cincy, I would urge you to figure out a way to retake the MCAT and break a 30 before applying. Your application meets their minimum qualifications of a 3.0 GPA and a 27 MCAT, but almost everyone that I know who got accepted had higher composite MCAT scores or GPAs. A high MCAT would also make life easier if you're planning on applying to medical school the year that you are working on your SMP since the medical school (and SMP) admissions process are heavily number based.

As for everything else, your activities look OK. If you do get accepted to an SMP and take it alongside medical school students, I would advise you to spend a lot of time studying (up to 40 to 50 hours a week in addition to class time). The amount of material that you have to cover is tremendous and in addition to that, you have to consistently outperform the medical school in all of your classes. That being said, if you can explain your situation to the admissions committee either through your essay or during the interview, you probably do have a fair shot at getting into medical school.