Medical Should I withdraw from waitlists and pursue SMP?

[Goro]

Hello, I applied to medical school this cycle. I was not receiving any interviews, so I decided to apply to a couple SMP's. Luckily, I was able to get accepted to all of the SMP's that I have applied to. But, 2 months ago I received 2 medical school interviews. I attended both interviews and I am currently waitlisted to both of them. My question is how bad would it look if I were to withdraw from both medical school waitlist spots? Both schools are very far from me, so I would be leaving my friends and family. One of the SMP programs that I was accepted into has a VERY strong linkage program, and is just 20 mins from my house. Would I be blacklisted if I were to withdraw from the waitlist spots to both medical schools and then apply to different medical school next year?

No med school prompt that I know of will ask ifyou have withdrawn from waitlist.


But why did you apply to the schools if you had no intention of attending them? You knew they were far away from home

 

[Goro]

I didn't think I would've been competitive for a lot of the med schools closer to home so I decided to apply to schools where I was at their average in terms of GPA/MCAT. But after talking to a couple counselors, they have told me that that my stats, along with my story and URM status, will most likely get me interviews to schools closer to home. So as of right now I am willing to withdraw from the 2 waitlists so that I can enter the SMP and apply to med schools next cycle, but this time apply to schools closer to home as well as schools that fit my mission.

URM? What ethnicity?
What are your GPAs and MCAT? I'm worried that your advisors, like most of them out there, are not good.

 

[Goro]

Mexican. 3.5 for both cumulative and science. 506 MCAT. Lots of service to underserved community. Lots of Pubs in journals.
I only applied to 5 DO schools, no MD's. I also applied late this cycle, in November.
Thanks Goro for helping me out with this.

Your advisors are indeed wrong. What's your state of residence?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Illinois. I was accepted to an SMP in-state. I did not apply to any in state medical schools since I thought my stats were too low.

Do you have any indications that you'll be accepted off the waitlist? I'm sure that if you withdrew explaining that you felt an SMP would help you later on that a school probably wouldn't mind. But why you didn't apply to your own in-state schools goes against standard advice given the prehealth applicants. In all likelihood, the lateness of your application was the main issue, and you probably could have been more successful if you applied earlier. That said, an SMP wouldn't hurt you, and if you do well with the linkage, you'll get what you ultimately wanted.