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SMP without having taken the MCAT?
- Thread starter Osote
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It's not likely you'd do well in an SMP considering you didn't do well in your basic sciences, you're not scoring high on your MCAT practice tests, and you've been out of school for a year. It's not a "weird" position- it's the one you earned. I went to a top 10 school with rigorous premed program and the best piece of advice I ever got was to act as though I didn't. With that GPA and a lack of MCAT it doesn't matter where you went to undergrad. Take things slow and do whatever it takes to get your assumed brilliance on paper.
How many science credits do you have? What state are you from? If it's not that many and you're not from California, you should take the advice to do more undergraduate work seriously. SMP's are for a special of privileged, impatient idiot with a lot of science credits (or reformed non-traditional student-whichever comes first).
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It matters maybe possibly a little bit for admissions, but not enough that you can count on it (especially at your GPA). Tufts offers MCAT prep, but my friends in that program say the majority of people already have MCAT scores and that they couldn't imagine studying for MCAT while doing an M1-esque courseload. Also, if your intention is to get into these programs for fall it's pretty late... and you don't have an MCAT. Bad planning, especially considering you're a year out. Whether or not I think you should do an SMP doesn't matter, since you're probably not going to get into one worth getting into this fall.
Part of the benefit of doing undergrad work is that it's not necessarily life or death- you have time to experiment with different attitudes towards academics and new study strategies. Realizing that you have serious work to do before you're ready for medical school is better done doing UG work than when you're taking M1 classes at an SMP. Even if you think you're capable of doing better, your capacity has to be reflected on a transcript AT LEAST through a positive grade trend. Look into CUNY or SUNY schools and start right away (summer)! Take more science classes, keep studying for the MCAT, get the score you need, then apply to a good SMP. $$$
That was/is my plan and if it doesn't work, I'll let you know in a year.
Part of the benefit of doing undergrad work is that it's not necessarily life or death- you have time to experiment with different attitudes towards academics and new study strategies. Realizing that you have serious work to do before you're ready for medical school is better done doing UG work than when you're taking M1 classes at an SMP. Even if you think you're capable of doing better, your capacity has to be reflected on a transcript AT LEAST through a positive grade trend. Look into CUNY or SUNY schools and start right away (summer)! Take more science classes, keep studying for the MCAT, get the score you need, then apply to a good SMP. $$$
That was/is my plan and if it doesn't work, I'll let you know in a year.
You can take your GREs and apply somewhere, but you're not going to get into a top tier SMP.
The suggestion to ace a year of undergrad is well founded, if you get into a SMP and don't rock it you're in for a lot of debt, a worthless degree, and you're going to be doomed for MD and likely DO.
I appreciate the advice. Are there any stickied posts on the best way to go about doing this? Should I just be taking random upper level science courses through the night-school or something else?
Can't thank you enough for going so in depth and helping me. One last question: Have you been/do you think I should just be taking random upper level science courses at this point or should I try and structure it into a second major/minor? Would it be worth retaking the core premed courses I got below a B- in (apparently the two grades would be averaged so this wouldn't help my cumulative GPA as much)?
Thanks again!
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I've been taking random science classes, retaking my three C's (2 C-'s and 1 C) in prereqs. I didn't do a second major and I think any benefit of that is secondary to getting as many A's as possible. Especially if you end up taking classes at a random school, putting yourself into a major may force you into grade-deflated/redundant classes (relative to the classes from your old school if they don't transfer over), both of which you want to avoid. You need to be strategic and only take classes that you think you can do well in- talk to premeds from the school and I guarantee they will name some teachers/courses to avoid.
For me, part of my success is that I didn't do my post-bacc at my undergrad school. Sometimes a change in environment can snap you out of the bad habits that caused you to need a postbacc in the first place. If your school has proven itself to be beyond your depth, don't be a hero.
Another thing that I think people on the GPA redemption track take for granted is that you need to keep up extracurricular activities. The more time that passes between your med school app and your undergraduate EC's, the less they "count" when considering what you're up to now.
Best of luck!
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Just wanted to say that its not true that you're not going to get into a top tier SMP if you apply with GREs. That was something I was freaking out about before applying but luckily, it didn't hinder me. I have slightly higher stats than yours, got 90 percentile score on the GRE, and got into every SMP I applied to (granted I only applied to ones that didn't require MCAT scores). I got into Georgetown, Tufts, BU, RFU, and a couple of others. The thing is I applied in mid March which wasn't too late so it may have made the difference for me. Still worth a shot though!
Much appreciated!
