Special Master's Programs, Thoughts?

[inretrospect]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently a senior graduating in May looking to apply for some special master's programs. I have a cGPA 3.44 and sGPA 3.3; waiting to take my MCAT this March (expected score around 33). I'm hoping to eventually go into an MD school. have done research for 2.5 yrs; lots of volunteer work; leader of a couple of student orgs; a bit of job-shadowing experience.

A few SMPs interest me, but I'm not sure what my chances of getting in are and also what are the "better" ones. What have you heard from other people about them? Or better yet, have you gone through it yourself?

My list includes:
Tufts
Boston U
Georgetown
Rosalind Franklin
Mount Sinai
Virginia CommonWealth
Eastern Virginia Medical School
Drexel

Any help would be much appreciated!

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[Dr Dire Wolf]

I would add Temple acms and Tulane ACP to that list. Also look into univ of south Florida

 

[TriagePreMed]

Students in a range of GPA are accepted to medical school. With a 3.44/3.3, I'd be careful of putting my fate in an SMP. If you under-perform, you can forget medical school. I would strongly advice you to consider a post-bacc where you push yourself to a 3.5/3.4 and work on having a strong MCAT performance. I think you could be successful without the SMP stress and price tag.

 

[DrMidlife]

As a senior in college within one standard deviation of the average med school matriculant GPA, you would do better to find a way to add a 5th year of undergrad to raise your GPA into competitive level. That would be, by far, the cheapest and most efficient way to get your stats in order.

In the 3.4 range, with a 32+ MCAT, particularly if you're in California, a traditional rigorous masters with pubs is a good alternative to an SMP.

Meanwhile, the postbac forum has a great deal of info about all the SMPs listed.

Tulane ACP is only open to those who have a waitlist letter from an MD or DO school. But Tulane now has a regular degree-granting anatomy program as well, which would be worthwhile.

You should add Cincinnati to the list.

For best results, I suggest spelling Boston and Virginia correctly.

Mt. Sinai has a research focus, and with the minimum 3.4, that's a good choice.

Note that with several of the SMPs on your list, going to that SMP almost binds you to going to the host med school. Don't be naive about out of state med school tuition as you're considering these programs.

Best of luck to you.

 

[katiemaude]

Rather than risk blowing my chances on medical school and $50K on an SMP if I performed less than stellar, I would do what was suggested above... Take some upper level bio classes and do really well. Get your GPA above a 3.5. If you do get a 33 or above on the MCAT and you have the ECs and research, you will stand a good chance of getting in somewhere if you apply early and broadly.

 

[inretrospect]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I performed badly in most of my science pre-req courses and did well in only upper-level ones, and I feel that ADCOMs would be more trusting of my actual academic capability if I could go through a formal SMP and still do well. And I'm thankful that an SMP wouldn't be a problem financially for me. Now I'm just worried that when I apply in late April with my MCAT score released, it'll already be too late.

 

[DrMidlife]

Now I'm just worried that when I apply in late April with my MCAT score released, it'll already be too late.

Good worry. Cross all but Drexel & Boston off the list, if that's the plan.

See the postbac forum for pros and cons of doing an SMP during your MD app year vs. completing an SMP before applying MD.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Goro]

Unles you just HAVE to have that MD degree, you're competitive for any DO program. So is the extra year+ worth it for just a set of initials after your name?

if so, then any of the programs you're loooing at are fine. I've seen plenty of people from BU and Drexel get into our program.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently a senior graduating in May looking to apply for some special master's programs. I have a cGPA 3.44 and sGPA 3.3; waiting to take my MCAT this March (expected score around 33). I'm hoping to eventually go into an MD school. have done research for 2.5 yrs; lots of volunteer work; leader of a couple of student orgs; a bit of job-shadowing experience.

A few SMPs interest me, but I'm not sure what my chances of getting in are and also what are the "better" ones. What have you heard from other people about them? Or better yet, have you gone through it yourself?

My list includes:
Tufts
Boston U
Georgetown
Rosalind Franklin
Mount Sinai
Virginia CommonWealth
Eastern Virginia Medical School
Drexel

Any help would be much appreciated!