What's up prospective master's students, current Middletown MS student here! I would like to share my experience in this program, for those interested. First of all, I would like you guys/gals, to be aware of something. The grading curve in this program is different than the grading curve for the DO students, so you will be competing with each other. As other MS students have mentioned. You will be graded on a B+ curve, and in order to get at least an A- in every class (which amounts to a 3.67 overall at the end of the semester), you will have to get at least half a standard deviation above the average for the class. So for example, The average for our first anatomy exam this semester was almost a 90 and the standard was around 7.8, so we would need at least 94 in order to get an A-. In order to get an A, we can literally miss one question only! The competition in this program is insane and the amount of material which you will be learning in a short period of time is immense! If you're the type of student that needs time to really learn the material, start studying during the summer!!! What makes this program so competitive, is the people whom you will be competing against. In this program, you will find people from ivy league schools, you will find people with other master's degrees who have a very strong background in the material you'll be studying , you will even find people who could've easily made it into other medical school, or have made it (I know 2 people who were accepted into tother medical schools before starting this program), but decided to do the master's program because they applied late, so couldn't make it into the DO program. You will even find people who are repeating the program because they missed the 3.5 gpa by a bit and didn't matriculate into the DO program in the prior year. You will be competing with people who have amazing stats, but might be lacking in their interview skills which prevented their acceptance at other schools. You will be competing against people who have interviewed for the DO program, but were waitlisted, so they decided to do the master's for direct admission. Those are the kinds of people whom you will be competing with, so just keep that in mind. I would advise everyone who will be starting this program, to really study hard for the MCAT, if that's your only hinderance, and retake it before this program, to have a back up plan just in case you don't make it. I know a few people in my class who have been accepted to other schools. If your gpa is the only hinderance, and you have a decent MCAT, I advise you to look into other master's programs. In order to make the 3.5 gpa in this program, you literally have to be outcompeting, not only your class, but the DO class as well! My point is, please please please make sure you have a backup plan before starting this program and make sure you've explored other options as well. For those wondering, I am a middletown student, and only 25 people made the gpa for the first semester out of 75 students. As of now, we only have 68 students. For our class, only 25 people will make the 3.5 by the end of the semester, and the school will accept an extra 15, who have applied for AACOMAS. But for prospective MS students, there will be a cap of 35 students who will make into the DO program for the upcoming years. If anyone has a question, please feel free to ask. Also, I apologize if this post has intimidated some of you, but I'm being very honest, so you guys would get a glimpse of what you're up against.
