Special Masters Program

[lucyfromla]

If you are/were in any SMP program, please reply to my post. Thanks.

1) What is considered a good grade in these programs? Are B's good enough for the medical school, or do I need A's to be a strong applicant?

2) How difficult is it to get As? Is the grading curve based on the performaces of other SMPer or the medical students or both?

3) What's the downside of these programs? (Other than the cost issue.)

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[daeojkim]

1) A is of course better than B. You should try to get at least 3.5 GPA.

2) I did SMP at Georgetown. Getting an A is heck of a lot harder than getting an A in undergraduate class. Medical student classes are a lot harder since you will have to meet 10-15% cut off. If you put in on average minimum 6 hours per day of serious studying, it is possible to pull off As. Also it depends a lot on your prior education background. At Georgetown, grades were based on your placement among medical students only for medical classes. For graduate classes one was based on a curve among SMP students, but most are relatively easy to get A's.

3) Downside is if you do badly in the course. Then you are actually dimishing your chances of admission to medical school. This is entirely up to you so if you are planning to do SMP, prepare to study very very hard. It is not something that you want to do if you are not dead serious.

 

[braluk]

1) good grade is of course an A, or highest pass (for some programs). 3.5-3.6 makes you competitive, but it also depends on your UG Gpa. If you had somewhere around the GPA of a competitive med school applicant of 3.3-3.6, something that shows a modest improvement from UG to SMP. But daeojkim said it best
2) ur in classes with other medical school students, so the competition will be just as difficult. grad calsses i hear are a little less difficult
3) doing poorly, and the possibility of a glide year after the prgoram is over (the strongest application is always after you finish the program)