bad GPA, good MCAT, good EC's - Post bacc? SMP? or neither.

cGPA: 3.2, sGPA: 3.1

MCAT: 520

EC’s:
Shadowing: 100 hours in the OR with various surgeons

Volunteering: 60 hours at the hospital.
150 hours outside of hospital. (homeless shelter)
50 hours of tutoring.

Research:
1000+ hours of research
Review paper published
2 major papers being worked on.
Strong LOC from PI.

Leadership:
Started numerous organizations, with several LOC’s to back up their success.

Should I even try applying this cycle? Should I do a post bacc? Should I do an SMP? A normal masters? Should I try and get 2 more papers published? What do I do? I really want to get into an MD school.

SMPs were made for people in your situation.

I wouldn’t apply to medical school this cycle. Your chances for an admission are very poor due to your GPA and lack of clinical experience. 60 hours isn’t close to being enough.

Do not apply this cycle. Your GPA is lethal, an SMP would definitely be a good idea. You also need to get way more clinical experience—shoot for at least 150 hours of clinical volunteering to stand a chance at MDs, and obviously the more the better. I also recommend getting ~20 hours of shadowing in a primary care setting.

Your research achievements are above and beyond the average applicant, so don’t worry about that. Keep volunteering at the homeless shelter if you can, what you already have is great so I would just continue to build on that.

Why is there such a big difference in your MCAT vs GPA.

Are there any SMP’s that you’d recommend? Does it matter if I get a degree at the end or not? I’m prepared to rack up student loans for any SMP as long as it’s worth my time, and obviously I’ll work my ass off to have a high GPA.

I didn’t really have intentions for medical school until junior year of undergrad, started focusing on grades my last two semesters, have been 4.0’s since then, as well as a good MCAT. I also failed a differential equations class my freshmen year that was worth 5 credits so that really brings it down.

Wondering how much clinical experience is enough and can those hours be split? If so how much Volunteering would be needed if student also worked as functioning MA 1400 hours (Medical assistant, float covered FP, IM, Peds(mostly summer and holiday work)) during college?

@scorpia

The best SMPs are at schools that also host a medical school: Cincinnati, Tulane, Georgetown, Temple, VCU, etc

You can check AMCAS (or SDN) for a list of current programs.

AMCAS—https://apps.aamc.org/postbac/#/index
Choose record enhancing + graduate as the type

Not if you earn a medical school admission, but it may if you don’t get an acceptance or if you need to apply for financial aid. (Only students in degree granting programs are eligible for federal financial aid.)

Please realize that SMPs are not a golden ticket. They are high risk-high reward. Only the top 15-25% will get med school interviews. Not all of those interviewed will be accepted. If you don’t finish at the top of the class and/or don’t get interviews at end of the SMP, your chances of ever getting a med school acceptance are permanently gone. Also most students coming out of SMPs end up in osteopathic med schools. (Beggars can’t be choosers.)

@RW1

How much is enough?

There is not fixed number of hours required, but enough so that the applicants has a very clear idea of what its’ like to be a with patients and their families on the very best or the very worst day of their lives. Enough that the applicant can clearly articulate what it means to be a doctor and what the day-to-day life of a physician is like. Enough that the applicant knows that working with the sick, injured, dying, demented and mentally ill is something they want to do for the rest of their life and is able to explain why.

I’m not sure what you mean by “splitting hours”? AMCAS only has limited number of options the applicant can choose from in how to label experiences on the application. The options are chosen from a pull down menu.

Thanks, I understand the idea.

If you plan to enter a primary care field, D.O. programs might very well be well suited for your goal.

Or, apparently this year—radiation oncology.

<joking–sort of.=“” rad=“” onc=“” had=“” a=“” disastrous=“” year=“” in=“” the=“” match=“” with=“” more=“” than=“” 26=“” programs=“” going=“” unfilled=“”>

That might be because the robots are coming for those jobs.

^^Actually it’s combination of rapid over-expansion of programs, a low pass rate on boards (70%) by recent grads, and poor leadership within the professional organization.

Lots of finger-pointing going on right now.

Plus, like several of other specialties (pathology, ophthalmology, IR, GI, possibly cardiology), rad onc is reaching/has reached the saturation point near large urban areas. New jobs are in smaller cities and towns away from major East & West Coast cities.

What does failed mean? Did you retake it?

If you FAILed (meaning getting an F) a math class, you must retake it and it better be an A. Med schools will not over look this and you will have a problem to be admitted.

And maybe you need to take two years to catchup, some SMPs are two years, they also will give you the opportunity to get ECs that you desperately needed.

I thought Rad Onc is a PGY2 matching process. Don’t they have to complete a Transitional year?

Here is some thing I read on reddit

“Research other SMP programs. Go on SDN and read all you can in the post-bacc section.

Generally speaking, SMP programs are pretty **** deals for premeds. They take a crap ton of money from you for CHANCE of getting an interview and an even smaller chance of actually getting accepted. So if you still plan to do an SMP, prepare to work you ass off. You must be able to get 3.7+ GPA. It isn’t easy because you are not only competiting against your fellow SMPers but also an entire medical school class.”

@artloversplus

The OP doesn’t need to retake the differential equations class if he/she failed it. Diff eq is. not a required pre-reqs (except at Carle-Illinois) and adcomms won’t care if they passed or not beyond the damage the F did to their GPA.

Is this true even if the math class is not required by the med school? No med school requires differential equations. If he has decent grades in the math actually required, I wonder if he really needs to struggle through differential again.