SMDEP 2014 Question

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hey guys. This isn’t the official thread by SMDEP.</p>

<p>I had a few questions and I was hoping you guys would be kind enough to review them.</p>

<p>My stats:</p>

<ol>
<li>Current Freshman</li>
<li>4.00 GPA (science, overall, no weights)</li>
<li>Course load includes…
Honors Biology with Laboratory
General Chemistry
General Chemistry Laboratory
Honors Freshman English
Calculus 1 with Trig
Entrepreneurship</li>
<li>Honors Program</li>
<li>Member of extremely selective Entrepreneurship Program</li>
<li>Founder/CEO of two start-up businesses. One of them is a unique non-profit organization that has been invested in by a CEO/Founder of x company (trying to be vague), while the other is a social media application expected to launch next year. Both start-up companies have websites which will be listed on the application.</li>
<li>My essays are well written, sincere, and overall good; but I wouldn’t say they’re exceptionally stellar in terms of content. I discussed my high school hospital volunteering experience and how it lead me to realize my passion for medicine.</li>
<li>I will hopefully have a good recommendation from my Entrepreneurship professor (who knows me very well), and maybe a good recommendation from my Chemistry professor (who doesn’t know me well, but I did exceptionally well in her class).</li>
<li>I have a 2120 SAT (660 CR, 720 M, 740 W)</li>
<li>I have no post-secondary shadowing/research/volunteering experience.</li>
<li>I do not qualify as low-income, under-served, or minority. I am of South Asian descent, and I was born in America.</li>
</ol>

<p>Having said all of that, I am currently considering which three universities to apply for SMDEP. I would like to have a general “safety” pick and/or a match. I would like to have one or two reaches.
I’ve more or less narrowed down to UVa, Howard, Yale, and Columbia.</p>

<p>QUESTION: Judging by my stats, would you say that these narrowed down choices are realistic, reasonable targets? I recognize that the fact that I have no post-secondary shadowing/research/volunteering experience will hurt me. I also recognize that the fact that I am not low-income, under-served, or minority will also likely play against me. I’ve heard people with high GPAs have often gotten rejected from Howard and other schools because they weren’t under-represented minorities with low income.</p>

<p>Any feedback would be appreciated.</p>

2

<p>What is SMDEP? I would guess that you know this better than most of the CCers here since it appears you have known more about what this is.</p>

<p>Why do you mention SAT here in a premed thread – assuming that you are interested in getting into a medical school? I thought MCAT scores are what medical schools look at. Nobody bothers to look at SAT scores. Maybe it is because I do not know what program it is.</p>

<p>Hmm…Is the program similar to QuestBridge since you mention low-income and URM?</p>

3

<p>First, let me say this is the first I have ever heard of this particular program so take this with a grain of salt:</p>

<p>If i’m understanding this link properly: [Mission</a> and History « Summer Medical and Dental Education Program](<a href=“http://smdep.org/about/mission-and-history/]Mission”>http://smdep.org/about/mission-and-history/)</p>

<p>The fact that you are not “low-income, under-served, or minority” basically means you have no chance at this program unless you’re at least focused on entering medicine to help those groups. On their alumni profiles, there is literally one white person and 3 asians out of 17 profiles. The white person is on the “rural health track” and 2/3 asians have what look like extensive public health/outreach experience. You sound like a very successful student, but ultimately not for whom this program is intended.</p>

<p>Does your school’s pre-med advisor know about this program, what do they think?</p>

4

<p>D1 attended SMDEP in 2008. And yes, it is intended for low income or minorities who are underserved in medicine. My guess would be that any Asians accepted are either newer immigrant SE Asians (eg. Cambodian, Vietnamese) and/or low income.</p>

<p>As far as safety and match schools, I don’t think there is such a thing for SMDEP, as there are a very limited number of spots for many applicants.</p>