SMP vs. PharmD

[bullsfan1986]

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This may be a stupid question, but I am curious. After browsing the SDN forums regarding the med school application process, I have read countless stories of people successfully completing a specialized masters program and then successfully gaining acceptance to an allopathic med school. While apparently med school ADCOMS look favorably upon those completing an SMP (with a high enough GPA, MCAT, etc etc), it seems to me from what I have read on these forums, the same does not apply for a med school applicant completing a pharm d. From what I have read, only the undergrad GPA is looked at by ADCOMS and the pharm d GPA is not particularly important. This all seems confusing to me. I had a low GPA in undergrad (~3.1), but my pharmacy school GPA is relatively high (3.8). I guess the question I am trying to ask is: why would ADCOMS see one type of graduate program (SMP ) more advantageous than another (pharm d) regarding "GPA forgiveness" even if both programs have upper level science classes part of their curriculum. Sorry for being so long winded.

 

[DrMidlife]

An SMP is an audition for med school for people with good credit. You do the first year of med school to prove you can handle med school. You hand over $50,000 or so for the privilege, and they don't give any back if you get into med school later. A good SMP is hosted at a med school, puts the SMP students in class with the med students, and grades the SMP students against the med students. There's no reason to do an SMP other than that you want to go to med school and your undergrad GPA is keeping you out. You get a masters degree out of it, but trying to use that degree for anything other than med school would be pretty funny.

By contrast, a PharmD gives you a career.

One of the things that's good to demonstrate on a med school app is your ability to jump through hoops without arguing about the hoops. The hoops here would be undergrad GPA & MCAT.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Nasrudin]

An SMP is an audition for med school for people with good credit. You do the first year of med school to prove you can handle med school. You hand over $50,000 or so for the privilege, and they don't give any back if you get into med school later. A good SMP is hosted at a med school, puts the SMP students in class with the med students, and grades the SMP students against the med students. There's no reason to do an SMP other than that you want to go to med school and your undergrad GPA is keeping you out. You get a masters degree out of it, but trying to use that degree for anything other than med school would be pretty funny.

By contrast, a PharmD gives you a career.

One of the things that's good to demonstrate on a med school app is your ability to jump through hoops without arguing about the hoops. The hoops here would be undergrad GPA & MCAT.

Best of luck to you.

Shoot. You said that real nice. You're getting too good at this. Hope you you're doing good.

And OP, ditto. But given you already have the pharm D. What says the crowd?

I say that's a usual position to be in. Good luck figuring it out.