Appreciate the response, but still a bit confused - why do only 20/100 apply the first year? since most who go to smp are borderline already, isn't it worth trying? and if only 20 in the tufts program apply, how do 25 get into Tufts (a stat I thought i read somewhere). also, since the admittedly selfish objective is to be better than all others, would it be better to go to program that had less competitive students, but still good linkage? (and everyone feel free to chime in with suggestions here ...)
It all depends on what you want. Do you just want an SMP that gets you only into that school? If that's the case, go to Toledo, Creighton or Temple. Do you want an SMP that is geared towards getting you multiple acceptances so you have a choice? Or maybe to get into a higher ranked med school? Then go to Tufts, Georgetown or BU.
As for less competitive students, I believe anywhere you go will have competitive students. It's a pre-medical program to get you into MEDICAL SCHOOL. Anywhere you go will have tons of competition. Even other schools with good linkage. If you think about it, they don't take every single student from their SMP, so in a way the competition there is even higher because you're competing with everyone for those couple of spots. At tufts, BU or Georgetown, lots of students end up elsewhere (state schools and other schools). So in the end you're not really competing with your classmates as much as you're competing to score higher than the current med students.
And the numbers aren't exact. I can tell you *around* 20 out of 119 applied from our program. You say most SMPers are borderline, but what is keeping them back? For the most part, a low GPA. If your GPA is low, applying same year would only cause you to receive wait lists because med schools are going to want to see a full year of grades. They'll end up wait listing you or holding off on giving you an interview until the last second when they see most of your SMP grades. So it's probably a better idea to take the full year of grades and apply a year after with a higher GPA and possibly higher MCAT (since our program offers a princeton review course). Of course this is just a recommendation and my own opinion.
And soggydog is right, you probably read that the top 25% of the class receive interviews to tufts. The number is actually closer to 50% but this is for the year AFTER you complete the program. And not all of these students are accepted either.
As for a lot of people deciding between Tufts, BU and Georgetown.. here are my opinions (obviously biased because I went to tufts)
Tufts vs BU
1) I have heard BU is much harder and work intensive than Tufts. This does not mean Tufts is teaching you less, because you're taking the exact classes as med students.
2) I also have heard BU is more of a 2-year program geared towards you applying after your first year. Tufts only provides classes for 1 year. This may be what you want if you don't want to find something for that year you are applying, but I don't know how people could possibly do two years of a program like this. It's intense.
3) BU is a lot harder of a med school to get into than Tufts.
Tufts vs Georgetown
1) I've heard georgetown's advising is terrible, the advisors advise a lot of students and end up writing very generic letters of recommendation and update letters. Tufts assigns about 10 students to an advisor and while some advisors are hit or miss you can always contact any of the faculty and many who are really helpful would be willing to be an unofficial advisor to you
2) Georgetown is geared more towards you applying the year you're in their program. Does that make it better or worse? Well it depends on your own specific stats. Like I said above, if your MCAT is on the low side (below a 3.4), applying same year may not be as fruitful as you want it to be and you might be better off waiting a full year.
3) georgetown is the oldest SMP and probably best known
4) Housing at georgetown I've heard is even more expensive than in Boston
If you have any other questions please post to this thread. I've received a lot of PMs about questions like these and would prefer to just answer them on the Tufts MBS thread so that I don't get asked repeat questions. A good example was a recent PM i received about books and supplies, I'm sure everyone would like to know that information so please post it to the thread rather than PM me directly. But especially questions about Tufts vs Other SMPs. Aside from the fact that I am biased and posting to the thread will get you other opinions, I also don't know much about a lot of the other SMPs or Post-bacs because I didn't do them so posting to a thread might help you more. Thanks
Oh and for people still concerned about applying while in the program, I am in the process of creating a committee of students from this year to help improve the advising provided to those that will apply to med school while in the MBS program next year.
