The usual question - Do I Need an SMP?

[Praetorian7]

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All right, longtime lurker here trying to decide what route to go next year while I'm applying to schools.

I've got a 3.37 (from a very competative, highly-ranked school if that matters at all) with a humanities major. Got a 27-S on the MCAT last year (going to retake in a few months). I have a ridiculous amount of clinical experience (really, you don't want to know how much - this is a lot of the reason for my low GPA - I worked a lot during school), a decent amount of volunteer work (medical and non-medical), but no research (it just isn't my cup of tea).

So what do you think? Should I risk the SMP route, or just wait another year, maybe suffer through some research, etc.?? This question has been on my mind a lot recently, so I appreciate any feedback.

 

[Ty Webb]

All right, longtime lurker here trying to decide what route to go next year while I'm applying to schools.

I've got a 3.37 (from a very competative, highly-ranked school if that matters at all) with a humanities major. Got a 27-S on the MCAT last year (going to retake in a few months). I have a ridiculous amount of clinical experience (really, you don't want to know how much - this is a lot of the reason for my low GPA - I worked a lot during school), a decent amount of volunteer work (medical and non-medical), but no research (it just isn't my cup of tea).

So what do you think? Should I risk the SMP route, or just wait another year, maybe suffer through some research, etc.?? This question has been on my mind a lot recently, so I appreciate any feedback.

Have you already applied/been accepted into any SMPs for this year?

 

[Praetorian7]

Yeah - waitlisted at EVMS and waiting to hear back from a few others.

 

[Ty Webb]

If you feel you can raise your MCAT to a 33-34, you'd probably be alright without it. Otherwise, I'd say do it. Espcecially if you get into a quality program like EVMS.

 

[Perrotfish]

You´re very borderline. You have a chance of getting in without an SMP, especially at DO schools, if you can just get a high enough MCAT. If you can even break 30 on your MCAT you would have the option of just doing more undergrad to bring your GPA up to a 3.5 and then applying. So, yeah, lot of ways you can go with this. The only concrete advice I´d give you is not to waste your time on an SMP with a low success rate. EVMS might be good for you, VCU certificate is probably worse for you than just taking more undergrad.

 

[Praetorian7]

Yeah thats more or less my thinking as well - I was really pissed with my MCAT score, because I was getting 30-36 on all the AMCAS practice exams... hopefully I can bring it up quite a bit, but this time I have to study while taking classes, so we'll see.

Can anyone else weigh in? - I'd really appreciate as many opinions as possible.

 

[gman33]

What's your BCPM gpa?
You need some additional coursework. The main question is to just take more UG classes or to do a SMP. If you are already accepted to a good SMP, than I'd go that route.

 

[Praetorian7]

Yeah my BCPM is only a 3.0 - but its only the pre-req classes (i.e. not that many), so I think it would be fairly easy to bring up by taking some more science classes.

 

[ekcMD]

Hmmm...well, here's my 2 cents. You need to bring that BCPM up higher, and you've already taken all the prereq classes, right? So the questions is whether you have enough time to take enough science classes to bring it up to a 3.4 or so. With one year left, that might be difficult but calculate it out and see what the max gpa you could get is. Anything lower than a 3.4 in both categories has me leaning strongly towards doing EVMS (esp. if you have red flags in your app like C's). Of course, regardless of which path you choose, retake that MCAT to get the 30+. Good luck!