Post-bacc/Grad classes needed?

[Solid07]

Hello everyone. I graduated about 6 years ago and have been in the work force since then. It wasn't until 2 and a half years ago that I started volunteering at the hospital out of curiosity and fell into this rabbit hole. About a year ago, I took up a position at a lab (part of college of medicine) located in the hospital and have been assisting a post-doc for quite some time now and I'm about to finish up my first graduate science course that I took for fun. Now, I'm standing at the crossroad between Graduate School and Medical School. Some have advised that I apply directly to Medical School. Others have suggested that I should go for a Master's Degree before applying to Medical School.

My undergraduate GPA is 3.67 with my science GPA being ~3.62. I have taken all of the pre-reqs as an undergrad. Is it strongly advisable that I go for master's degree first since I've been out of school for so long? Or would that be wasteful since I do not need to repair my GPA?

Thank you!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[DrMidlife]

Some schools, not many, expire prereqs after 5+ years. Plenty of schools won't care if you took physics 20+ years ago (my case). Pick some med schools and look at the FAQs on their admissions web pages. Expirers that I can recall are UMass and Miami.

There's no need to do a masters degree to get into med school, and you should absolutely not consider a risky expensive SMP. What you want to demonstrate is that after 6 years you can still do well in an undergrad classroom. A strong MCAT score removes some doubt, but you want to show you have academic endurance over at least a semester. I suggest taking a couple upper div science classes, such as biochem or cell bio, however you want to take them. I strongly recommend against doing online classes.

Regardless, the MCAT is what's going to make you or break you, and if you don't remember what you learned in the prereqs, do whatever it takes to re-master that content before you take the test. With your GPA you'd be expected to just need good regular prep, and you can find out what that means in the MCAT forum.

Best of luck to you.

 

[DrMidlife]

One more thing: applying early and broadly is essential. For best results, you need your MCAT score in hand by June. July is acceptable. Get into August and you get into trouble.

In other words, if you want to start med school in 2016, you need to apply in June 2015, and you need to take the MCAT in April/May. If you have the time to go nuts on MCAT prep for an April or May test date, there's no reason you have to wait.

Start working on faculty letters of recommendation now. It's never too early for that.

 

[Solid07]

What you want to demonstrate is that after 6 years you can still do well in an undergrad classroom. A strong MCAT score removes some doubt, but you want to show you have academic endurance over at least a semester. I suggest taking a couple upper div science classes, such as biochem or cell bio, however you want to take them.

Wouldn't it be odd to take undergrad courses after having taken a 5000 graduate level course? (Finishing it up in about a week.) It would seem like I'm taking a step backward.

If I would have to take undergrad courses again, I already have 2 in mind: Virology and Immunology.
I already took Physiology, Molecular Genetics, Anatomy, Microbiology, Biochemistry, etc... as an undergrad.

Then again. I could take those at graduate level, but is it really necessary?

 

[DrMidlife]

Wouldn't it be odd to take undergrad courses after having taken a 5000 graduate level course? (Finishing it up in about a week.) It would seem like I'm taking a step backward.

Med school is undergrad. If you take a look around this forum, you'll see folks with PhD's who had to go back and take prereqs, so no, it's not odd.

Again, what med schools want to see is a demonstration that gives confidence that you'll thrive in med school after being out of school for 6 years. The first two years of med school are a ridiculous boatload of variable quality lectures with 100+ classmates followed by mass fact memorization and constant hours-long multiple choice exams. It's brute force learning. Med schools understand the value of undergrad coursework, because they see 5000+ transcripts at each school. Grad work is less familiar, and not at all standard across grad schools.

Assuming a strong MCAT score, if you have easier access to grad classes, you might be alright.

There's no reason to repeat coursework other than low grades or can't remember MCAT content.

 

[eideky]

If I would have to take undergrad courses again.

 

[Solid07]

Spoke with my pre-health advisor and med school admission officer. Looks like I'm going to graduate school folks!

For other applicants with the same question. It's best if you go visit the admissions office and ask them directly with your transcript, resume and questions ready. Good luck!

Side note: I found out that my cGPA and sGPA were higher than I previously thought. Not a significant improvement, but still a nice surprise.

 

[jl lin]

Possible issue, which depends. . .how much of the core material do you remember or could bone up on enough to kill MCAT?
Refreshing stuff never hurts--and it helps to have current science professors for LORs. Apparently MS is mostly all about the hoops. Good luck.