I'm planning on applying to med schools during the 2012 cycle. If I don't get in, I would like to be able to begin attending a special masters program like TCOM's starting in fall 2012, so that I will be able to apply to med schools in the 2013 cycle. I'll be a 24 year old female by then and will only be getting older. Would I need to apply to both masters and med schools during the same time...Junish 2012 or does the masters programs accept applications later (until Decemberish) in order to matriculate for the fall.
If you apply to med school during the 2012 cycle:
Primary application should be submitted June 2012.
Secondaries submitted, interviews done by Oct-Dec 2012.
Acceptances 1-2 months after acceptances.
Med school starts Jul-Aug 2013.
If you apply to SMP's starting in Fall 2012:
Application should be submitted before Apr-Jun 2012, applications usually start after Dec 2011-Jan 2012 (later than med school app start)
Interviews for SMP done within 2-3 months of submission.
SMP class starts Jul-Aug 2012.
Can you:
Since there are so few SMP's, their application fee ($50-150) are unlikely to be a big part of your application fee compared to applying to ~20 medical schools. However, you have to evaluate your CV (stats, EC's, LORs) and see how likely you are to get into medical school. If you apply to both SMP + med school, you will have to prepare your med school application package (no small feat!!) right after your SMP application submission (which also requires LORs, so that's a nice coincidence).
If you decide to apply to both at the same time, supposing that the SMP finishes in 1 year, in that 1 year you will have to interview AND complete the SMP. Now, from word-of-mouth I've heard that SMP is about 2/3rd the workload of medical school, but with more non-medical science classes. That's still a lot of classes that might be catastrophic for your grade if you miss some to interview or be distracted by medical school secondary applications, negating the point of the SMP in the first place.
With some SMP's, they have guaranteed interview and/or admission if you pass a certain score threshold in good standing. If the former, then not only do you have a great chance at all medical schools in general, but you are pretty much guaranteed admission into that med school. HOWEVER, that takes an extra year (2013 cycle) of med school application, during which the SMP graduates typically either finish the second year of their SMP (in some programs) or tutor med/SMP students (in one-year SMPs).
