Postbac or SMP?

[Uchiha Kakashi]

Hello,

I would much appreciate some advice on what I should currently do now in order to prepare for medical school applications - pursue a Postbac program or SMP?

I went to UCLA and my sGPA is 3.3 and my cGPA is 3.5.

I initially had a 3.8 sGPA and cGPA my first 1.5 years of college but some personal family events had caused me to lose my grip on school in tandem with growing EC commitments.

I plan on taking a gap year to (1) prepare for the MCAT in January (2) work as an EMT in my hometown.

I am highly interested in USC's MS in Global Medicine because I want to stay in California, however looking at the UC's programs for Postbac are also appealing. (Aside from my Southeast Asian descent [parents are refugees] I am not sure if i fit the bill as the typical URM that I have read the UC Consortium looks for.)

Any advice / suggestions would be much appreciated, Thanks!

ECs:

Non-Medical:
-full time summer (400 hours) doing clinical research internship at Peking University (will be published)
-part-time UCLA student researcher (200 hours) at UCLA Psychology Lab
-Volunteer summer as STEM/nutrition educator and camp counselor for under-resourced African American children at summer camp (Unicamp, UCLA's official charity) (200 hours)
-2 years in Vietnamese Student Union (Intern -> Logistics Coordinator)
-Working at VITAS (Hospice Care) volunteer (100 hours)

Medical:
-9 month internship at an under-resourced hospital (3 rotations)
-full time summer (300 hours) working as personal care assistant for a quadriplegic patient
-UCLA EMS certification (200 hour class)
-NREMT certification
-CPR/BLS certification (lol)

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[dial1010usa]

Have you thought about going to DO route or you set for MD?

 

[Uchiha Kakashi]

Pretty set on MD @dial1010usa

 

[dial1010usa]

Your gpa is low for MD. Take MCAT and go for DO route unless you want to waste your time.

 

[Uchiha Kakashi]

I know it's low for MD but I want to either do a post-bac or SMP to fix that and would like advice on which I should do given my current situation

 

[heybubbaa]

Hello,

I would much appreciate some advice on what I should currently do now in order to prepare for medical school applications - pursue a Postbac program or SMP?

I went to UCLA and my sGPA is 3.3 and my cGPA is 3.5.

I initially had a 3.8 sGPA and cGPA my first 1.5 years of college but some personal family events had caused me to lose my grip on school in tandem with growing EC commitments.

I plan on taking a gap year to (1) prepare for the MCAT in January (2) work as an EMT in my hometown.

I am highly interested in USC's MS in Global Medicine because I want to stay in California, however looking at the UC's programs for Postbac are also appealing. (Aside from my Southeast Asian descent [parents are refugees] I am not sure if i fit the bill as the typical URM that I have read the UC Consortium looks for.)

Any advice / suggestions would be much appreciated, Thanks!

ECs:

Non-Medical:
-full time summer (400 hours) doing clinical research internship at Peking University (will be published)
-part-time UCLA student researcher (200 hours) at UCLA Psychology Lab
-Volunteer summer as STEM/nutrition educator and camp counselor for under-resourced African American children at summer camp (Unicamp, UCLA's official charity) (200 hours)
-2 years in Vietnamese Student Union (Intern -> Logistics Coordinator)
-Working at VITAS (Hospice Care) volunteer (100 hours)

Medical:
-9 month internship at an under-resourced hospital (3 rotations)
-full time summer (300 hours) working as personal care assistant for a quadriplegic patient
-UCLA EMS certification (200 hour class)
-NREMT certification
-CPR/BLS certification (lol)

The downward trend + Ca residence indicate that you will probably need a true SMP for MD, unless you absolutely crush the MCAT. But come back after you take the MCAT, and then people will be able to help.

 

[RickOwens]

The USC program is not really an SMP anymore so I wouldn't recommend it. I'm also a Californian with similar stats looking into SMP's and the only two programs I found that seemed good are UCSD and KGI Keck (maybe Touro or Drexel Sac but eh). Get a 515+ on the MCAT and you should do well after the SMP! My top choices are Loyola and BU for SMP's btw.