SMP or DIY postbac?

[Billy4810]

Hello! I am a recent undergraduate (spring 23) with a cgpa of 3.3 and a sgpa of 3.0 and an MCAT of 505. I took a break to reconsider mediciine and reflect/take time off after a long year. I’m considering my options and I’m not sure whether I should take an SMP with a linkage or a DIY postbac? My gpa started low freshman year went higher sophmore year dipped considerably junior year and slowly picked up a bit senior year. In terms of ECs I don’t have much, about 500 clinical research hours, some shadowing, a ton of volunteering. i plan on shadowing more and gaining more clinical experience in the next few months hopefully. Im thinking my best bet is probably DO and im probably not competitive for MD, is that accurate?

If I do the SMP, I realize that they are extremely difficult and the linkage is sometime tough to achieve. I have heard some success stories, done research on sdn, and am trying to research school to see which ones have a higher matriculation rate into their medical schools. Any advice or suggestions with this?

If I do a DIY postbac, would it be okay if i take the classes online? I also am not certain how much they will raise my gpa, i currently have 226.1 science semester hours so not sure how many classes i would need to take. Also..

I want to apply into the cycle this year and hopefully start medical school in the fall of 2025, and during the application year do either one of the above. Is that a good strategy, and if so which option may be better? Do schools consider what I am doing and how it may change my grades if im in a program/taking classes while applications are being reviewed? This makes me feel like they would take the smp more seriously as its a program while the postbac is jsut a tentative schedule basically. Also, if I don’t get accepted by any schools, the SMP serves as a backup through the linkage if I do well.
Will this strategy help my application as I will submit transcripts while I complete the semesters or do i need to apply into the cycle after completing one of them? Im not too well versed in how the application works and how the school looks at programs i would be in while applying so i apologize for the maybe obv questions.
I may retake the mcat in may if needed and I think I can get a 510, even though that isnt much of a boost.

I apologize for the long post and if im not able to convey my situation well, im unsure how this works. Any advice would really mean a lot as i am really confused!! Thank you in advance!

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[Goro]

Hello! I am a recent undergraduate (spring 23) with a cgpa of 3.3 and a sgpa of 3.0 and an MCAT of 505. I took a break to reconsider mediciine and reflect/take time off after a long year. I’m considering my options and I’m not sure whether I should take an SMP with a linkage or a DIY postbac? My gpa started low freshman year went higher sophmore year dipped considerably junior year and slowly picked up a bit senior year. In terms of ECs I don’t have much, about 500 clinical research hours, some shadowing, a ton of volunteering. i plan on shadowing more and gaining more clinical experience in the next few months hopefully. Im thinking my best bet is probably DO and im probably not competitive for MD, is that accurate?

If I do the SMP, I realize that they are extremely difficult and the linkage is sometime tough to achieve. I have heard some success stories, done research on sdn, and am trying to research school to see which ones have a higher matriculation rate into their medical schools. Any advice or suggestions with this?

If I do a DIY postbac, would it be okay if i take the classes online? I also am not certain how much they will raise my gpa, i currently have 226.1 science semester hours so not sure how many classes i would need to take. Also..

I want to apply into the cycle this year and hopefully start medical school in the fall of 2025, and during the application year do either one of the above. Is that a good strategy, and if so which option may be better?

Do the post-bac or SMP and then apply. You want to apply with the best possible app.

Do schools consider what I am doing and how it may change my grades if im in a program/taking classes while applications are being reviewed? This makes me feel like they would take the smp more seriously as its a program while the postbac is jsut a tentative schedule basically.

Schools have so may good applicants that they're generally not going to wait for you to finish your reinvention, and take you on the basis of one semester of reinvention work.

Also, if I don’t get accepted by any schools, the SMP serves as a backup through the linkage if I do well.

Then you'll have lost a year of an attending's salary.

I may retake the mcat in may if needed and I think I can get a 510, even though that isnt much of a boost.

A 510 will make you competitive for more MD schools.

SMPs are higher risk but higher reward, especially if given at a med school. Yes, they're difficult, but so is medical school.

 

[cmb12301]

You are right that those stats would put you in the DO range. You can go to an online gpa calculator and determine how many hrs it would take for your gpa to change signifcantly. I strongly suggest the SMP. I am currently in year 2 of my smp and several schools have asked me to email them my grades term to term, resulting in several interviews with lower stats than yours. I wouldn't worry about the difficulty of any smp. Its a mini preview of med school, it not only gives you a solid background on the material you will be learning in med school but it also forces you to learn to study new ways. Also.. if you can't handle the smp just imagine first year of med school. As you've probably heard by now, med school study strategy is much different than undergrad. Try to finish up all shadowing, volunteering, etc before the smp starts and send in your app. I believe the value of the SMP comes from how well it prepares you for med school rather than how much more attractive it makes your application look. Truthfully.. if you retook the mcat and scored higher (your mcat score now is solid btw) you would be a guarantee for DO however I would still suggest the SMP for the reason I just stated. Realistically, your grades in the SMP wouldn't be released until December and you can email the schools a screenshot of your grades but hopefully you would already have acceptances by that point anyway.

 

[carw1801]

Skip the SMP. The course load is very close to the medical school curriculum and you can't just pass the classes like you can in med school. Also, the SMP is only beneficial to you if you get a very good GPA.

 

[Billy4810]

Do the post-bac or SMP and then apply. You want to apply with the best possible app.

Schools have so may good applicants that they're generally not going to wait for you to finish your reinvention, and take you on the basis of one semester of reinvention work.

Then you'll have lost a year of an attending's salary.

A 510 will make you competitive for more MD schools.

SMPs are higher risk but higher reward, especially if given at a med school. Yes, they're difficult, but so is medical school.

Thank you so much for the reply thats really helpful! Which would would you recommend based on my stats, the DIY postbac or the SMP? Also if I get the 510, with my low gpa would I be able to get into md? Or could I be competitve for DO without needing the reinvention and/or the mcat retake if that makes sense?

 

[Billy4810]

You are right that those stats would put you in the DO range. You can go to an online gpa calculator and determine how many hrs it would take for your gpa to change signifcantly. I strongly suggest the SMP. I am currently in year 2 of my smp and several schools have asked me to email them my grades term to term, resulting in several interviews with lower stats than yours. I wouldn't worry about the difficulty of any smp. Its a mini preview of med school, it not only gives you a solid background on the material you will be learning in med school but it also forces you to learn to study new ways. Also.. if you can't handle the smp just imagine first year of med school. As you've probably heard by now, med school study strategy is much different than undergrad. Try to finish up all shadowing, volunteering, etc before the smp starts and send in your app. I believe the value of the SMP comes from how well it prepares you for med school rather than how much more attractive it makes your application look. Truthfully.. if you retook the mcat and scored higher (your mcat score now is solid btw) you would be a guarantee for DO however I would still suggest the SMP for the reason I just stated. Realistically, your grades in the SMP wouldn't be released until December and you can email the schools a screenshot of your grades but hopefully you would already have acceptances by that point anyway.

Oh wow thats amazing thank you! If you dont mind me asking what SMP do u go to and what was were ur stats? Im assuming that first year of the smp went well and you were able to use it on ur apps to apply to school? Im worried if I do a one year smp and apply while in the program they wont consider it so much as it’ll be in progress and I would have my undergrad stats to apply with. Im def intrested in smps so this is really helpful!

 

[Goro]

Thank you so much for the reply thats really helpful! Which would would you recommend based on my stats, the DIY postbac or the SMP? Also if I get the 510, with my low gpa would I be able to get into md? Or could I be competitve for DO without needing the reinvention?

I think that you could get in somewhere, but I think that you deserve better than a brand new do school. I know that they're high risk, but they're also High reward

 

[Billy4810]

I think that you could get in somewhere, but I think that you deserve better than a brand new do school. I know that they're high risk, but they're also High reward

that makes sense thank you! Would you recommend a diy postbac or smp in my case? Also any advice on other factors to consider to help make the decisio?

 

[Goro]

that makes sense thank you! Would you recommend a diy postbac or smp in my case? Also any advice on other factors to consider to help make the decisio?

I lean to SMPs, but if money is an issue, then do the DIY post-bac.

 

[Billy4810]

I lean to SMPs, but if money is an issue, then do the DIY post-bac.

Got it, thank you for the help!