Medical When is an SMP necessary after a post-bacc?

[GoSpursGo]

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I asked adcoms for feedback on my application after no interviews this past cycle.

I had a long meeting with an adcom from an MD program who said I need an SMP to be competitive. I already did a 60-credit post-bacc at a 3.90 (41 credits were science at a 3.88). 514 MCAT. My GPAs are still low: 3.3 cGPA and 3.5 sGPA.

Do I really need an SMP, in addition, to get a look from MD programs? I will be applying to DO programs this cycle, but want to apply broadly to MD as well, pending that my cGPA is not too low to be considered for MD without an SMP. My ECs were lacking but I have addressed that for this cycle.

As always thank you so much for the help.

The bottom line is that with a 3.3/3.5 cGPA/sGPA split, some MD doors are simply going to be closed to you. Not sure how competitive this adcom's school is, but IMO you proved over the course of 60 credits that you're not the same person who originally had a low GPA. The more likely culprit would be your lack of ECs, and possibly an overly-ambitious school list if you didn't include DO schools previously.

 

[Goro]

You don't need an SMP!!! You have shown reinvention, and I recommend the following schools:

Dartmouth
Pitt
Mayo
Mt Sinai
Keck (maybe)
Temple (maybe)
UCSF
EVMS
Hofstra
Emory
Jefferson
Miami
Drexel
Albany
Tufts
NYMC
TCU/UNT
Your state schools
Rush
Loyola
Rosy Franklin
Tulane
Wake
MCW
SLU
Creighton
Wayne State
Netter
NovaMD
NYU.LI
Any DO program. Include UNECOM if you’re from the NE, OSUCOM if you’re from the Plains states and PacNW if you’re from that region. I can't recommend ARCOM, RVU, Nova, BCOM, ICOM and LUCOM, for different reasons. MSUCOM? Read up on Larry Nasser and you decide. LMU has an accreditation warning, which concerns me. CUHS is too new and appears to be too limited in rotations sites. Avoid those new schools that haven't graduated a class yet, if at all possible.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Should NOT need SMP. Was the school you are talking to very competitive?

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

I think I would classify it as a "low-yield" school. They get 10k+ applicants, but the average matriculant stats are not crazy high by any means...

In fact, it's on Goro's list above!

Thank you all for the advice, and for saving my bank account...

Interesting they would say that.