I mean a lot of these masters programs are intended for people with lower GPAs. Yours is just fine. Why suffer another year studying and taking classes when you can be doing other things more meaningful? You'll be studying hard for 4 years in med school anyway
Yeah you'd be surprised how much you can get out in 1 year in terms of personal growth, research knowledge, and maybe even a pub if you have a good mentor that cares for you.
Don't do it. This program is a pseudo-SMP (don't actually take med school courses with med students), but it's main intention is to remediate a low GPA, which is not a problem of yours. I'd recommend scribing.
Yeah exactly, that's my point. You can use the year to do something meaningful outside of school and still apply with your peers who would normally be in college that year with an added advantage of some cool experience.
Except OP would apply before actually doing the cool thing. Sure it looks good if you anticipate 1500 research hours at the NIH, but you won't have as much to talk about if you apply before you've even started the experience.
Ahh ugh you're right. That's true. I guess it would provide for interview talk then...
It's also not worth the academic risk to do the program. If you do well in the program, it won't help you because you're already fine academically (GPA >3.8). But if you do poorly, it could raise some red flags and close, rather than open doors. Do something that isn't academically risky for a year, but still benefits your application.
Volunteering and research are good. Just make sure you do something. Definitely continue to get clinical experience either via volunteering, shadowing, or a job.
That's a personal question that only you can answer. If you write a book, it should be because you are passionate about it, not because it helps your med school application. The continuity of clinical experience is more important than the number of hours. If your numbers are good (MCAT/gpa) do something that you love during your gap year like traveling, writing a book, joining a traveling circus, whatever. It certainly doesn't hurt to show adcoms that you're a person with interests outside of medicine. If you want the cut and dry answer of "what activities will help your med school application the most?", it would be "get a first author pub in a major scientific journal, win an Olympic gold medal, and start a free clinic in a poor African village."
No idea what that acronym stands for, other than Random Access Memory.
If you want to do it, sounds great! Could help build a strong case for wanting to practice rural medicine, if that's what you want to do.
I'd say in-state is the best choice. Save money, and be close to home. I personally think all the prestige of top schools is overrated 😛
I'd rather not give away identifying info, but Florida has lots of public schools with high in-state preference, and even UM has a high in-state preference, so that's great for you!
