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Suprised there doesn't seem to be a thread for this SMP yet, so I thought I'd start one. Anyone else applied and waiting to hear back?
University of Cincinnati M.S. in Physiology 2019-2020
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Got a bunch of questions that I hope you are willing/able to answer:
- what students should apply to this program
- any GPA / MCAT cutoffs for applying (or any idea what a competitive GPA/MCAT might be for this program?)
- class size? (any students dropout of the program?)
- matriculants from the program / # of interviews given to those in the program? (either what you heard or from last years batch)
- do you know the percent of people who received IIs that actually got an acceptance?
- how are the professors / staff?
- how have you (personally) been finding the program?
- have any complaints or things you would like to see changed?
- Any advice to future students planning on attending the program?
Congratulations on your acceptance to UCCOM, and thanks in advance!
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CONGRATS! Wish you the best of luck in the future. If you're comfortable doing so, could you share you stats/experiences?
Of course. And best of luck to you!
BS Microbiology
cGPA: 3.26/sGPA: 3.2
MCAT: 517 (129/128/131/129)
1 year research, 1 publication as a second author
No volunteering, worked 30+hrs a week all through undergrad.
Shadowing: 60hr ED/5hr primary/ 5hr peds/ 5hr Ortho
1000hr as EMT-B
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Before I emailed the program manager with similar questions and this is what she replied:
To be a competitive applicant, we recommend an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or above and an MCAT of 504 or above. To share additional information, our current students have an average undergraduate GPA of 3.40 and an average MCAT score of 511.
Hope this helps!
Hello, all! Glad to see a new thread was created for the 2019-2020 class. As someone who graduated from the program in 2018 and was accepted to UC this past December, I'm a huge proponent of it. While I only check SDN every so often, I wanted to share this article I spotted on while logging into the UC website: Special Master’s Program in Physiology offers a pathway for medical school admission It's got some great testimonials, and if they'd asked me, I know I would have added mine 
Feel free to ask me any questions, though I can't guarantee a super quick response. Best of luck!
Feel free to ask me any questions, though I can't guarantee a super quick response. Best of luck!1) Do you have a "blemish" on your record, but are otherwise a terrific applicant? Have you applied before and only been on waitlists? Basically, do you feel like you'd make a great med student, but there's just enough room for doubt in the mind of the adcom because of something on your app? This program removes that doubt by actually showing how you'd fair in M1 classes. That can be a blessing or a curse. Doing well or poorly can remove that doubt altogether in one direction or the other.
2) Not sure about cutoffs, but I'd say average was what hiyhiy said above.
3) My year (2018) had 10? interviews at UC during the program year with 5 acceptances to UC. Amongst those who reapplied or took a gap year, there were 9? UC interviews with 6 acceptances. There were also a couple MD acceptances to institutions other than UC during the program year and quite a few MD acceptances for those during the gap year. This was out of a class of 29. I'd say, by the end of this cycle, all but 3 people will have gotten into an MD or DO program, and one of those 3 may have chosen (and I emphasize chosen; it's not like they didn't have the stats) an alternative career path.
4) See website
5) The Master's professors and staff are all terrific with temperaments ranging from tough love to perfect listener. Is there room for improvement? Yeah. But that's the case at every institution, and I will say that with a class size this small, you get a ton of individual attention. Your study room is two corridors away from all of their offices. As for the med school faculty, take a look at UC's average STEP I score last year. You tell me how good they are. Hint: pretty darn good.
6) It was the single most challenging academic year of my life. There were times I wanted to quit and times I felt like I was king of the hill. I learned an enormous amount, and the sweat and tears were totally worth it. (I have a feeling this is how many med students would describe their first year as well).
7) I found the seminars to be of minimal benefit, and they changed that. You now have the ability to choose talks you find relevant and do a write up on them.
8) You are signing up for a heck of a ride. There is an enormous amount of work before you. This program costs 10's of thousands of dollars and a little bit of your sanity. What you gain far outweighs that: lifelong friends who know exactly what you went through, an opportunity to prove to med schools that you are exactly the sort of student they're looking for, study habits that will you to rock the M1 curriculum anywhere in the country, and access to world class faculty/research should you avail yourself of them.
Hope that all helps and good luck wherever you are in the process.
Definitely not too late too apply! The guaranteed interview is new, but it's something the program director has been working on getting the med school to do for quite a while. Should be a nice leg up in the process if you can do well in the MMI.
I will legitimately say that if you work hard and take advantage of the program, you will be super well prepared for whatever med school you attend.
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I’m also an alum of the SMP and a current M1...I am also a huge proponent of this program so I’m willing to answer questions too! This SMP is undoubtedly the reason I got into medical school.
thanks!!!
is there anything you didnt like with the program or wish you could have changed?
I had a week, but I also applied on the very last possible day for applications. I would imagine it's longer for those who apply earlier. Perhaps a5ie5lavida, anderszf, or others can offer other information.
Most of the stuff I wished they'd have changed they are in the process of changing or have changed. For example, we used to have weekly seminars that were somewhat related to physiology, but were often far outside the realm of what any of us were interested in. Now, students get to choose seminars they attend. Many students decide to sit in one department Grand Rounds at UC or Cincinnati Children's Hospital. They just have to do a little write up on it.
It's my understanding that the program directors are also revamping the neurophysiology course to better align with some of the Psych/Soc stuff from the MCAT. As it was, it was too superficial to be of any major help in a med school Neuro course, so retooling it to something like that would be really beneficial.
Additionally, I have mixed feelings about their removal of a Capstone Project. Previously, students were required to either do research or write a manuscript quality review paper under the guidance of a faculty advisor. This project would then be presented via both poster and powerpoint. One of the people in my class even got published. I think it was valuable. They have since removed this requirement, as I think many students didn't take it seriously enough and that put a lot off strain on faculty advisors toward the end of the program. I'm not quite sure what's replaced it, but I know they're going to be doing something to help with presentation skills.
Lastly, I and several other students were a bit miffed about the statistics course's midterm overlapping with some of the medical school coursework we were doing. Even that's been changed, so that the current students take the midterm after the completion of the musculoskeletal system block.
After all of these changes, I can't see anything to complain about. The faculty are really receptive to constructive feedback, and that's one of the reasons I feel confident recommending the program to anyone who could benefit from an SMP.
usctrojans24
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Balrog I'm a bit confused about this so of the class of 29 who applied concurrently how many got into med school? how many at UC?
See, that's the thing: most classes don't apply concurrently. Most classes will have some people who apply the same year as taking all of these Master's Program classes and some people who apply after finishing the degree. Some even decide after getting a real look at medical school that medicine is not for them (something that I view as a blessing. Better to decide that after 1 year and end up with at least graduate degree).
Of the 29 people in my class, at this point, 1 person is on two wait lists with another interview (all US MD schools) upcoming, 1 person I have no clue about, 1 has an interview in Europe coming up soon, 2 are waiting to hear back from US MD schools after interviews, 1 decided on a different path, and the rest (23) have either been admitted to or are currently attending medical schools (DO and MD) across the US after applying during the program year. No one ended up in the Caribbean or something like that. Of those admitted 23, 11 were admitted to UC. I am confident that the number will increase for my year within the next couple months.
If you're interested in the breakdown for other years, I highly recommend looking at the Alumni section of the UC SMP website. Hope you find all that info helpful!
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I’m honestly not sure about this, UC was my first choice SMP so I’m pretty sure I would have just responded immediately saying I was coming haha.
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I am extremely interested in this program and plan on applying for the following year's class. For the alumni in the forum, did you apply to medical school during the program or take a gap year? For those that did take a gap year why? Also if you take a gap year are you still guaranteed an interview at UCCOM?
Thanks in advance
Thanks in advance
I took a gap year, as did the majority of my class. Most students who enter an SMP do not have perfect applications. Consequently, the larger the body of exceptional work (and grades to match) that can be accumulated before applying, the better. When you present an entire year of graduate and medical school level coursework, adcoms can feel much more justified in viewing your performance as indicative of performance in medical school.
Those students who apply the same year tend to have applications that would be just on the cusp of admission for med school, so performing at a high level in just a few courses is all that is needed to push them over the top.
As for the guaranteed interview, I know that is new, but it my understanding that the interview would be for the gap year per this information from the website: "Students who meet these criteria upon graduating will be automatically invited for an interview during course of the following UC Medical School admissions cycle."
Any former SMP student, do you know if MCAT prep, application support, volunteering, shadowing etc are incorporated into this curriculum or student do that on their own ? I understand there is support available if needed but having part of program is different.
If the program were two years, I know they would offer those things, but with the number of difficult medical school classes you take as a student in this SMP over just 10 months, it's just not feasible to do all of that. I know plenty of students who improve either their shadowing or volunteering over the course of the program (not by a lot, but enough to make a difference), but not both.
As for the MCAT, there's definitely not time to do much dedicated studying for that during the program, but the amount of material you learn during the Master's year that's helpful for the Biology is substantial (you get a little bit of neuro that's useful for P/S, too). Further, your study skills will have been honed to their peak by the end, so studying after the program is over becomes much faster.
Finally, regarding application support, there are a couple brief sessions, but most of that will come in the form of informal advice from alumni of the program who have gotten into medical school(s). Those alums tend to be pretty generous with their time, though, so that's usually enough. I really can't stress that enough. The SMP alumni who are M1s or M2s at UC are great resources, and you'll even find help from multiple years via your class facebook page. Any of these programs (if they're doing it right and if they're one year only) is grueling, but I find at UC the class sizes are small enough to where many of your peers are like family. That tends to spill over into the intergenerational side of things too.
Thanks for all the info! I have a low GPA with significant, steep upward trend and I am taking the MCAT in May, cautiously optimistic about a good score based on current practice exams. I'll graduate from undergrad in Dec 2019 so if all goes well I want to apply as early as possible to be in the 2020-2021 SMP.
I'm in the early stages of wondering if I should plan to apply to med school concurrently with the SMP or directly after with a gap year. My question is, what do people typically do during that gap year? Work and save money, yes, but in research positions or otherwise? Is there support from UC for finding such a position? I'm assuming people don't have time to work during the actual SMP, similar to med school, is that right?
Additionally, do most people get all new LORs from SMP professor? Or still use LOR from undergrad profs? Would it ever be appropriate to re-use an LOR from a PI that was used for the SMP application itself, since I'd no longer be working in his lab, meaning that letter would never have been used in a med school application, but it would be a year old?
Thanks very much on for all your help and congratulations on being accepted to those of you who made it through
I'm in the early stages of wondering if I should plan to apply to med school concurrently with the SMP or directly after with a gap year. My question is, what do people typically do during that gap year? Work and save money, yes, but in research positions or otherwise? Is there support from UC for finding such a position? I'm assuming people don't have time to work during the actual SMP, similar to med school, is that right?
Additionally, do most people get all new LORs from SMP professor? Or still use LOR from undergrad profs? Would it ever be appropriate to re-use an LOR from a PI that was used for the SMP application itself, since I'd no longer be working in his lab, meaning that letter would never have been used in a med school application, but it would be a year old?
Thanks very much on for all your help and congratulations on being accepted to those of you who made it through
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Yeah, during the gap year people work. Some people scribe, some people get research jobs like clinical research coordinators, and we all traveled a bit haha. There are tons of jobs to be found at UC, Children's, Medpace, etc. and the alumni are probably your best resource for helping navigate that - we have a talk early in the year with a few alumni talking about what they did during their gap years.
During the SMP you do not really have time to work, that is correct.
Most people get one new letter from the SMP program director, you should still have letters from your undergrad/research/whatever. I reused letters from the SMP for med school apps, I just contacted my letter writers and asked them to re-date the letters and submit to AMCAS and they all did so with no problem.
Hope that all helps.
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The typical schedule during the med blocks is lecture/lab/whatever ~8-12 with afternoons mostly free for studying (with occasional mandatory stuff during the afternoons a day or two a week - it varies).
This program is as rigorous as a medical school curriculum (because it IS a medical school curriculum for the most part) so expect class (if you are a class goer, which I am not) and studying to be your full-time job.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
I am wondering the same thing. Anyone have an answer?
I answered this earlier in the thread. Turned it all in December 3, acceptance January 10th.
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So during the SMp @a5ie5lavida , did you choose not to go to class and just study ? Also, how many hours do you study approx during the week?
Thanks
Thanks
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I did not do it, and I was accepted
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I went to mandatory things but pretty much never went to non-mandatory things. The non-med block classes are pretty much required attendance though.
Expect the SMP to be a full time job, so studying around 40 hrs a week during the med blocks is probably a decent estimate? Some people probably study around 65-70 a week. Some people may study 30. It just depends on the person and the content, some people don’t require as many passes to memorize stuff.
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They didn’t implement this until after I did the program but I was very interested in UC’s program and it was my top choice so I probably would have done it to further prove my interest. That’s just a personal thing though.
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He meant after program completion vs. during program year I think.
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@a5ie5lavida I just got accepted into the SMP. Do you think theres any factor that separates the people that get into UC during the program vs. those who dont get in? I would rather not waste another year, and would prefer to go to med school straight after the SMP.
Thanks
Thanks
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first week of March
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Would anyone here pick evms smp over Cincinnati?
I got an email from saying I was complete and ready for review on April 8th.
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@memdoctobe did you also get into EVMS SMP ?
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Does anyone know how they determine who gets into UC med if you apply during the SMP?
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What do you mean? It is based on your scores/app/interview like everyone else + your grades in the program.
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@a5ie5lavida I meant if theres a certain GPA that if you get in the program like >3.8, that you get into UC.
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If you get a certain GPA you are guaranteed an interview the app cycle after you finish the program. I think it’s around a 3.75. The info is on the website.
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I know that guarantee but I was wondering if there was something similar for applicants while we're taking the S M P.
