Taking the MCAT simply to apply to SMP's

[theCLE]

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[Catalystik]

I think you may get more complete information if you Search or post in the Postbaccalaureate Programs Forum where SMPers hang out more. There are SMPs where you can apply directly without having gone through an application cycle first if your MCAT score and GPA fulfill their minimum requirements.

 

[Sammich117]

I agree - Here's the link if you want to check it out 🙂

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=71

 

[Untraditional]

If you can put up a high MCAT you probably don't need a SMP. You're better off doing a science MS with med related research or an MPH with some clinical volunteering if you need to boost your grades. What you learn there will be more useful in your MD career, the classes will cover advanced material and demonstrate you have better study habits than when you were undergrad and the letters from this route are probably going to be more personalized.

SMPs are for people with subaverage grades who haven't mastered the basics well enough to understand the MCAT (and by extension Medical School) or who come from unaccredited undergrad programs.

Compare with Post-baccs which are programs for non-science degree holders (example: soc science, music, history, poli sci) with good grades who need to learn basic science from scratch before their career switch.

 

[theCLE]

thanks to everyone who responded, the answers were helpful. Is there anyone (a mod maybe?) who can move this to the postbacc thread, where it would get more attention, and be less bothersome to the rest?

thanks!

 

[Kaustikos]

If you can put up a high MCAT you probably don't need a SMP. You're better off doing a science MS with med related research or an MPH with some clinical volunteering if you need to boost your grades. What you learn there will be more useful in your MD career, the classes will cover advanced material and demonstrate you have better study habits than when you were undergrad and the letters from this route are probably going to be more personalized.

Um, what? I disagree completely, especially if your gpa is as low as the OPs. An SMP will clearly convey your ability to do well in Med School whereas a MS in science doesn't guarantee much of anything.

SMPs are for people with subaverage grades who haven't mastered the basics well enough to understand the MCAT (and by extension Medical School) or who come from unaccredited undergrad programs.

Like the OP

 

[Untraditional]

Um, what? I disagree completely, especially if your gpa is as low as the OPs. An SMP will clearly convey your ability to do well in Med School whereas a MS in science doesn't guarantee much of anything.


Like the OP

If OP can't get through the MCAT then sure he might want to think about an SMP. If he is able to put up a decent MCAT and clearly knows the material why screw around with Ochem and Physics (provided they're already on his transcript?) Taking advanced courses and getting As is the way to go.

A 3.0 GPA is only subaverage for med school. We also don't know his grade splits. If he got As in his med prereqs the 3.0 probably isn't fatal. Adcoms are less likely to care about a C- in Greek History freshman year than a D in senior Physics.

If OP is at risk of putting up a bad MCAT however, he's better off with the SMP, I agree.

OP: Some places offer MS degrees in Human Anatomy. Several med students I know have done this and it has served them well in their preclinical training. It's something else to consider.

 

[Kaustikos]

If OP can't get through the MCAT then sure he might want to think about an SMP. If he is able to put up a decent MCAT and clearly knows the material why screw around with Ochem and Physics (provided they're already on his transcript?) Taking advanced courses and getting As is the way to go.

A 3.0 GPA is only subaverage for med school. We also don't know his grade splits. If he got As in his med prereqs the 3.0 probably isn't fatal. Adcoms are less likely to care about a C- in Greek History freshman year than a D in senior Physics.

If OP is at risk of putting up a bad MCAT however, he's better off with the SMP, I agree.

OP: Some places offer MS degrees in Human Anatomy. Several med students I know have done this and it has served them well in their preclinical training. It's something else to consider.

A 3.0 is not subaverage.... A 3.4 is subaverage, this GPA has SMP written all over it.

 

[genswim24]

A 3.0 is not subaverage.... A 3.4 is subaverage, this GPA has SMP written all over it.

At the SMP I attended and all the other ones I considered, a gpa over 3.2 was the average. The averages for the MCAT were over 30 too. Most of the kids in my program who had a GPA below 3.0, had an MCAT score greater than 32, and usually had strong research experience to boot. If you get a good score on the MCAT, I agree with Kaustikos that you should consider an SMP. A bad MCAT score would exclude you from all of the major SMP programs out there.

If your MCAT score is high (35+), you can consider trying to improve your GPA through taking classes at the undergrad level. Even then you will have an uphill battle. A 3rd year med student who frequents these forums had similar statistics to that and he talks about how he barely got in.

There are also graphs floating around the forums showing that anyone below a 3.3 GPA has a hard time getting in to med school unless their MCAT scores get into the 32+ range. It will also be a long time before you can bring that 3.0 to a 3.3.