I know that getting into med school is hard and competitive; however, are there any exceptions with certain schools?
Any responses?
Bro no need to bump a thread 7 minutes after you make it. Waiting a day is reasonable.
Also this is kind of a confusing question- what do you mean by “exceptions?” You already answered your own question; med school is hard and competitive to get into. You increase your chances by doing well in and out of class and by applying to schools that match your application strength.
@silmaril does having another master’s degree before applying increase your chances?
Not necessarily. GPA and MCAT will be most important, followed by clinical exposure, volunteering in clinical and non-clinical settings and ECs. If you can do well in all of those in college then you most likely won’t need to worry about getting a master’s degree (unless, of course, you really want a master’s degree).
Having a masters degree is not a help.
Your undergrad grades and MCAT scores will count the most.
Having a traditional masters degree can help just a little a bit, but does not help compensate for a poor undergrad GPA.
If you are trying to use a masters degree to compensate for a poor GPA, then you could do an SMP. Those are essentially like an audition for med school. You will be taking courses with med students as a chance to show med schools that you are capable of handling their rigor. However, those are expensive, and you are basically putting all of your eggs into one basket. If you do not succeed at getting into med school after completing the SMP, then those are useless in trying to make a career out of.
Certain medical schools are exceptions. They are all located in the Caribbean though.
@TomSrOfBoston is right. Just Google US MD-granting schools, and you’ll see that the acceptance rates are all incredibly low. When I hear all this ooh-ing and ah-ing about my alma mater’s 4.69% acceptance rate for undergrad, I smile a bit, because that’s pretty much the norm for med school acceptances rates. The concept of “reaches-likelies-safeties” for undergrad no longer applies in this ballgame. In terms of pure numbers, US MD schools are the most selective, followed by DO schools, followed by Carribbean/IMG schools.