SMP vs. Med School

[fitzhoss33]

Hello, I am a rising senior at a small liberal arts college with a cumulative GPA of a 3.42. I have raised my GPA 0.51 over the course of my undergraduate career (My last three semesters of college have 3.6 or above). I have just been accepted as a scribe, have been a surgical assistant, and have held leadership positions on campus. I understand that I need to take the MCAT, before I can get a more accurate answer, but I want to hear your opinion on what I should do following graduation in May 2017 (at which point, my GPA should be 3.46-3.54 range, dependent on my senior year).

1. Do I do an SMP (EVMS, Georgetown) to strengthen my application to get into an allopathic medical school? I am looking at doing a surgical residency so I would like to stick to allopathic. How much do SMP's truly strengthen your ability to get accepted into medical school? I have so many questions about Georgetown and EVMS, if any of you are in the program, I would love to talk to you individually about it.
2. Due to upward trend, I just send out applications and hope for the best? I know that my GPA is definitely in between the Masters program acceptance as well as medical school acceptance, truly making me a 'tweener' applicant.
I would love all advice and want to go into as much depth as possible.

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[aalamruad]

Hello, I am a rising senior at a small liberal arts college with a cumulative GPA of a 3.42. I have raised my GPA 0.51 over the course of my undergraduate career (My last three semesters of college have 3.6 or above). I have just been accepted as a scribe, have been a surgical assistant, and have held leadership positions on campus. I understand that I need to take the MCAT, before I can get a more accurate answer, but I want to hear your opinion on what I should do following graduation in May 2017 (at which point, my GPA should be 3.46-3.54 range, dependent on my senior year).

1. Do I do an SMP (EVMS, Georgetown) to strengthen my application to get into an allopathic medical school? I am looking at doing a surgical residency so I would like to stick to allopathic. How much do SMP's truly strengthen your ability to get accepted into medical school? I have so many questions about Georgetown and EVMS, if any of you are in the program, I would love to talk to you individually about it.
2. Due to upward trend, I just send out applications and hope for the best? I know that my GPA is definitely in between the Masters program acceptance as well as medical school acceptance, truly making me a 'tweener' applicant.
I would love all advice and want to go into as much depth as possible.

This isn't the right forum for this question, you'll probably find better responses elsewhere

 

[exacto]

You don't really fit the candidate for SMP since you already have an OK gpa. Just focus all your attention on killing the MCAT, shoot for 510 or greater for a solid chance at MD.

 

[GnomeBeGone]

My advice would be to try your luck for a cycle without an SMP to test the waters if you get a >90%-ile MCAT (probably need at least >94%-ile realistically, but that depends on what state you live in).

If you get interviews, but no acceptances, go for an SMP (but for god's sake apply to some less expensive schools too---there are better/equivalent SMP's that cost much less) and apply same cycle. If you don't get any interviews that time around, it might not be worth it to apply during an SMP year.

 

[fitzhoss33]

My advice would be to try your luck for a cycle without an SMP to test the waters if you get a >90%-ile MCAT (probably need at least >94%-ile realistically, but that depends on what state you live in).

If you get interviews, but no acceptances, go for an SMP (but for god's sake apply to some less expensive schools too---there are better/equivalent SMP's that cost much less) and apply same cycle. If you don't get any interviews that time around, it might not be worth it to apply during an SMP year.

what other SMP's do you know about? Any ones that you have in mind that are nationally respected and are very beneficial.

 

[GnomeBeGone]

Check out Cincinnati, Tulane, Tufts, and Case Western. There are many, many others, but these plus the two you listed are the ones I did/would apply to. SMP programs that are integrated with med students are considered the 'Gold Standard', plus any of those with official linkage (though there are fewer and fewer by the year).

See: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/the-official-guide-to-special-masters-programs.346106/ ... you're gonna have to dig around--that thread's getting aged/bloated.

 

[yayayaok]

Take the MCAT stop procrastinating you won't have an idea until you take it


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[IslandStyle808]

There was a poster more recently that had a similar GPA/30 MCAT and did poorly in the SMP. Totally not worth the risk .

Raise the GPA and do well on the MCAT, you'll be fine.