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sunnydays365

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Hello,

So, I have a Master's in Biomedical Science, even though I graduated from my program with a 2.98 GPA. This is because my program director forgot to add a course to our schedule, so the school was lenient in giving me a degree, despite my GPA being lower than the 3.0 cutoff. The other thing about my program too was that our GPA was based heavily on the basic science courses we took with first-year medical students, where we received a letter grade based on the medical school curriculum, and the other courses we took that were solely for our SMP program were on a Pass/Fail scale.

As a re-applicant, it worries me when I see other premeds with post-bac GPAs in the high 3s. I want to explain these things to medical schools, but I hesitate because I do not want to sound bitter or like I am making excuses. I also do not know the curriculum for other SMP programs as to whether they heavily include medical school level science courses like mine. Is anyone able to give me some advice on whether it would be okay to tell a school that these are the reasons for my low post-bac GPA?

Many thanks in advance!

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Sunnydays: I would like to avoid this PostBac school. Are you able to tell me the name?
 
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I'll be honest, this is likely a very bad sign for your chances. What do you mean by your director forgot to add a class?

Based on my understanding, SMPs are generally taken with medical students so you're not really in a special case in that regard. General guidance seems to be 3.6+ for a SMP to be a positive on your application.
 
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our GPA was based heavily on the basic science courses we took with first-year medical students, where we received a letter grade based on the medical school curriculum

FYI. This is literally what an SMP is. You are supposed to demonstrate your ability to handle M1 coursework on a graded scale. Unfortunately you weren’t able to do that.

At this point your MD aspirations are over. You might be able to find a newer DO school that will overlook your record but I am doubtful about even that.
 
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Hello,

So, I have a Master's in Biomedical Science, even though I graduated from my program with a 2.98 GPA. This is because my program director forgot to add a course to our schedule, so the school was lenient in giving me a degree, despite my GPA being lower than the 3.0 cutoff. The other thing about my program too was that our GPA was based heavily on the basic science courses we took with first-year medical students, where we received a letter grade based on the medical school curriculum, and the other courses we took that were solely for our SMP program were on a Pass/Fail scale.

As a re-applicant, it worries me when I see other premeds with post-bac GPAs in the high 3s. I want to explain these things to medical schools, but I hesitate because I do not want to sound bitter or like I am making excuses. I also do not know the curriculum for other SMP programs as to whether they heavily include medical school level science courses like mine. Is anyone able to give me some advice on whether it would be okay to tell a school that these are the reasons for my low post-bac GPA?

Many thanks in advance!
I can't sugarcoat this, this will sound like you are making excuses.

And taking medical school like courses pass-fail does not tell any admissions committee whether or not you can handle Medical School courses.

What's this a research Masters? If not, I suggest Plan B.
 
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Sunnydays: I would like to avoid this PostBac school. Are you able to tell
Unfortunately it was a small class, so I don't feel comfortable releasing the name of the school. But definitely do your research if you plan on entering a SMP program.
 
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I'll be honest, this is likely a very bad sign for your chances. What do you mean by your director forgot to add a class?

Based on my understanding, SMPs are generally taken with medical students so you're not really in a special case in that regard. General guidance seems to be 3.6+ for a SMP to be a positive on your application.
We apparently were supposed to take a course at the end of the program, but due to some reason, we weren't assigned the class. We didn't even know about it until the degrees were not being distributed.

I posed this question because I do not know how other SMPs are set up. I also spoke with a student from another SMP, and they explained how they took the science courses with the same medical professors, but on a different curriculum, as opposed to my class where we took the same lectures and exams. I noticed that the general SMP graduates finished with a 3.6+ and was more wondering if the majority of SMP programs was like mine or the noted student above.
 
FYI. This is literally what an SMP is. You are supposed to demonstrate your ability to handle M1 coursework on a graded scale. Unfortunately you weren’t able to do that.

At this point your MD aspirations are over. You might be able to find a newer DO school that will overlook your record but I am doubtful about even that.
Thank you for you advice.
 
I can't sugarcoat this, this will sound like you are making excuses.

And taking medical school like courses pass-fail does not tell any admissions committee whether or not you can handle Medical School courses.

What's this a research Masters? If not, I suggest Plan B.
That was my concern, that my description sound like excuses. I will admit that I was naive when I entered the program and did not speak with previous students who went through the program.

The medical school-like courses were graded, and the non-science courses were Pass/Fail. Therefore committees are able to still get a sense of my performance for the medical school curriculum.

Unfortunately, no. This was not a research Master’s.

Thank you for your response.
 
That was my concern, that my description sound like excuses. I will admit that I was naive when I entered the program and did not speak with previous students who went through the program.

The medical school-like courses were graded, and the non-science courses were Pass/Fail. Therefore committees are able to still get a sense of my performance for the medical school curriculum.

Unfortunately, no. This was not a research Master’s.

Thank you for your response.
I can't sugarcoat this, but Your medical career is over. You gave it your best shot, but it was nowhere near good enough
 
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