I was rejected from all med schools because my sGPA was a ~3.3 and cGPA was a ~3.5 with a downward trend. Obviously, I'll have to bring the trend up if I want a better chance for the next application. I found a 1-year M.S.-granting post-bacc program (~33 credit hours) that's geared towards people who didn't get into med school. I'm worried that I might not even get into that program.
What are my other options? Thanks guys.
First, an MS granting program isn't going to be a postbac, it's going to be a SMP. The difference -- an SMP is graduate, so the grades don't get factored in and can't increase your GPA. The upside is that if you do well, you probably prove to med schools that you can do med school level work, if that was an issue. You really need to figure out why you didn't get into med school, and then work to fix that issue, not simply assume that a low sGPA was the cause. Lots of people get into med school with a 3.5 GPA. However assuming the poor science grades were the culprit, your options are (1) the SMP you describe, (2) an informal postbac. The former is graduate, and won't affect the GPA (which is generally calculated from undergrad GPA and
undergrad level postbac, hence a masters program won't work). The upside is if you do well, you prove you can do the work, the downside is that if you do poorly, you prove you cannot function at the med school level, and probably dig yourself a very deep hole. The informal postbac is simply taking and retaking science courses (not toward any sort of degree, although some places may offer a certificate) to bolster your science GPA after graduation. You don't get an MS, you simply up the GPA if you do well. You alternatively may be able to do this before graduation, and it wouldn't be a postbac, simply an extra year of college -- probably advantageous from a student loan point of view but disadvantageous from a tuition point of view.
Now bear in mind that in addition to GPA and MCAT, the things that cause folks to get rejected include weak ECs/lack of clinical exposure, inadequate selection of programs to apply to, applying too late, weak LORs, and most common, weak interview skills. I would make sure I knew where I missed out before I threw myself into a grad program or otherwise wasted a year fixing that which wasn't the culprit. You fix what's actually broken, not what you assume adcoms felt was broken. How can you find out? Sometimes adcoms after the cycle are willing to meet with applicants to discuss "how they can improve their application for a future cycle". They won't come out and tell you why you were rejected, but may telegraph where they feel you were weak, which very often has nothing to do with what the typical premed assumes is the problem. Because again, I note that a lot of people got into med school with B+ averages over the years.
