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Deleted member 237747
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It depends on the school. UC's like to see a 3.9 or higher...
Some of my classmates at G-town are scoring in the low 3.0 range... as in 3.1 to 3.4 and they seem to be doing okay with interviews and what not. If you are going to be going to an SMP program you should aim for a 4.0 as far as I am concerned!
I wouldn't settle for anything less than a 3.5 though...
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that's got to be quite the challenge considering you're getting graded against the rest of the SMP students and the med students, eh?
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At G-town you aren't graded against the other SMP students, but you are graded against the med students. Is it a challenge? Well it isn't easy... You want to essentially be scoring above the med students mean on every exam. While that sounds hard, these med students are just people.
If you feel that you have the chops to make it in medical school, then you come here work your butt off and show adcoms. I feel that the main thing that separates people in medical school isn't intelligence but efficiency and amount of time studying. So since you have something to prove, if you come here work hard and study a TON you will do well, I promise!
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Deleted member 237747
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Midwestern Univ in AZ. I'm not really sure why I came here, I had no idea that 99% of all post bac pre-med shoot for DO schools. Probably b/c it was the closest to home.
Fake EDIT: Yeah, seriously. If you're considering an SMP (like I was 1.5 years ago) just forget about having a life. And you should be happy with making this decision if you want to go to med school.
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I came into the SMP with close to 3.8 undergrad and had to submit quarter grades with a HUGE GPA drop. I strongly believe that really hurt me this application cycle. Thankfully I was invited to most of my interviews before first quarter grades were due, but ended up either WL or rejected at places which did see them. I firmly believe it's a horrible waste of money if your undergrad GPA is above a 3.5, and I believe it's even questionable if your GPA is around 3.3-3.4 with a balanced (30+) MCAT. Definitely do your research before throwing away your money and life.
*edit* also from the Midwestern SMP (1 year)
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Look at it this way: if you're in a program that enables you to take classes with (or graded against) medical students with their average set to your B and you're earning a 3.0 GPA, you're beating half of the admitted students. For medical schools that are familiar with well-established programs (Georgetown SMP, Drexel IMS/MMS, etc), my feeling is that something in the overall B range will get you get you some consideration but probably not during the SMP year. Of course, having a 3.5 or better will earn you more attention and (hopefully) more acceptances.
For programs in which you don't compete for grades, the relative value of a higher GPA decreases, as there might be artificial grade inflation or competition on a curve against students who might not be operating at the same caliber as medical students.
Now for my unsolicited two cents. For someone considering enrolling in an SMP with a poor undergraduate sGPA: be careful. I did just that and while I'd be doing fine and dandy as a medical student with these grades, I am falling a percentage point or two behind the medical school mean (usually in the mid-80s). This might be closing more doors than opening at this point, which is a shame considering how much I study and how much this program costs.
Best of luck!
For programs in which you don't compete for grades, the relative value of a higher GPA decreases, as there might be artificial grade inflation or competition on a curve against students who might not be operating at the same caliber as medical students.
Now for my unsolicited two cents. For someone considering enrolling in an SMP with a poor undergraduate sGPA: be careful. I did just that and while I'd be doing fine and dandy as a medical student with these grades, I am falling a percentage point or two behind the medical school mean (usually in the mid-80s). This might be closing more doors than opening at this point, which is a shame considering how much I study and how much this program costs.
Best of luck!
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smp is endgame without a doubt
you're already behind as far as application strength. don't settle for just beating half of the med students with a 3.0/b average. they've already proven themselves in undergrad. the whole point is to prove that you're better than them.
you're already behind as far as application strength. don't settle for just beating half of the med students with a 3.0/b average. they've already proven themselves in undergrad. the whole point is to prove that you're better than them.
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That will all depend what the grading system is at the school. If the school is pure P/F the averages will likely be pretty low, 3-5% above the P/F mark unless either the tests are ridiculously easy or there are some sort of hidden grades. If the PF mark is at 65% then I doubt it'd be super hard to get above the med school mean.
