Pursuing 2nd bachelors after masters? LOL!

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

krazymackbk

Junior Member
7+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
31
Reaction score
0
I'm a 26 year old aspiring health professional (just decided again a few days ago). I earned a Computer Science degree with a mediocre 2.7 GPA and earned an MBA with a 3.5 GPA.

I'm currently enrolled in the prestigious New York City Teaching Fellows program which I am earning a subsidized second Masters degree in teaching mathematics through Pace University. I am slated to teach for the next two years at the "inner city" high school I graduated from. (Go figure!) I bet it'll be an interesting experience because my former teachers will now become my colleagues and I'll be able to become role model to students that used to sit in the same seats that I did as a highschooler. It will be such a surreal experience to be a teacher at the institution that I attended. I'm truly looking forward to this opportunity. I'll be receiving an Americorps grant for my service. However, teaching is not where I want to be for the rest of my life. So I'm making plans now to transition to an alternative career after I complete my two years of teaching service.

I started out pre-med in college and I had pretty decent grades in the semester of General Biology and the year of General Chemistry that I took. Once I got to Orgo, I freaked out, dropped the course and decided to solely pursue my CS degree. I guess I was slightly turned off from pursuing medical career after the infamous Orgo.

Just couple of days my mom encouraged me to rekindle those interests. Like I received the chicken pox two weeks ago and I became so interested in learning more about the viral illness that I contracted. I know the medical profession can be more intricate than this interest, but it dawned on me that this field of caring for the "well being" of individuals is the type of career that I would love to spend the rest of my life in.

I'm now faced with the situation of going back to acquire my additional prerequisites for health professional schools. I can afford to attend a different college and get financial aid for courses as a second bachelor's degree student on alternate evenings because where I'm attending for master's degree through the fellows is only one night a week and thankfully that degree is paid for.

I would like to ask board members' advice, would it make sense to get a second BA or BS degree after I acquired a Masters degree? I'm thinking of a Chemistry major or a Philosophy major and my additional prereqs. I feel I can use the extra undergraduate coursework to increase my lousy 2.7 GPA from my first bachelors and spend time working on preparing for my MCAT. I plan to apply to med school within two to three years (God willing). So I have time to increase my record.

Members don't see this ad.
 
Mack


are you willing to pay the price in time and sacrifice involved with a second bachelor?
 
medhacker said:
Mack


are you willing to pay the price in time and sacrifice involved with a second bachelor?

Definitely medhacker! :) If it would get the adcoms to see that I'm serious about becoming a health professional. I'd do anything I can to demonstrate this.

Even if it involves a time investment and taking extra courses towards a degree. I honestly feel with my record there is nothing to show that I'm interested and serious about pursuing a career in medicine. Plus I've lost contact with my former science professors at the Florida undergraduate school I took my first half of prereqs before transferring to a liberal arts college in New York.

So I haven't secured any sort of references to show that I have promise to handle the rigors of medical school. I feel that obtaining the 2nd bachelors can help me to establish relationships with professors that can provide some sort of support to my application. But I'm sure there are other ways I can garner references outside of an academic realm. I truly feel my overall undergraduate GPA is definitely in gray area territory and I definitely need to show some sort of improvement at the undergraduate level. Graduate courses can be a little misleading due to the grade inflation of these courses.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
krazymackbk Are you planning to retake prereqs?
 
medhacker said:
krazymackbk Are you planning to retake prereqs?

No medhacker. :) I'm planning to take the remaining of the prereqs that I have left which is Organic Chemistry I & II w/labs, Physics I & II w/labs, and the other half of General Biology w/lab.
 
I have a BA, similar stats. I have an MBA. Similar stats. I'm now enrolled in a BS in Biochem program with a concentration in pre-med studies. ;) In 2 years while taking my prereqs and boosting my undergrad GPA with only science classes I am going to have a 2nd degree as well as hopefully an acceptance to my "new" state school ;)
 
mshheaddoc said:
I have a BA, similar stats. I have an MBA. Similar stats. I'm now enrolled in a BS in Biochem program with a concentration in pre-med studies. ;) In 2 years while taking my prereqs and boosting my undergrad GPA with only science classes I am going to have a 2nd degree as well as hopefully an acceptance to my "new" state school ;)

That is so great that we share something in common mshheaddoc! :) Your post has inspired me to pursue the second Bachelors as a pathway to medical or other health professional schools even more. Thanks so much for sharing your stats. It is such a pleasure to meet you mshheaddoc and I commend you for becoming an aspiring physician. I'm relatively new to this board. :)
 
...that another bachelor's won't matter. Finish up the prerequisites and get into the application game. Your 2 masters will be more than sufficient, especially with the teaching experience.
 
OldPsychDoc said:
...that another bachelor's won't matter. Finish up the prerequisites and get into the application game. Your 2 masters will be more than sufficient, especially with the teaching experience.

I agree!
 
Thanks so much for your input OldPsychDoc and FutureDocDO. You guys are right, maybe it might be best to just focus on obtaining the remaining prereqs. The second bachelors may be overkill in my specific situation.

It just really concerns me that I will still be using my really, really, low overall undergraduate GPA to apply for medical school. Especially when the undergraduate school that I went to, a small Christian liberal arts college named Nyack College is not "highly ranked." I am definitely not knocking my alma mater because I had such a wonderful undergraduate experience there.

But you guys are right the two masters may pull enough weight. Thank you again for taking the time out to address my situation.
 
krazymackbk said:
Thanks so much for your input OldPsychDoc and FutureDocDO. You guys are right, maybe it might be best to just focus on obtaining the remaining prereqs. The second bachelors may be overkill in my specific situation.

It just really concerns me that I will still be using my really, really, low overall undergraduate GPA to apply for medical school. Especially when the undergraduate school that I went to, a small Christian liberal arts college named Nyack College is not "highly ranked." I am definitely not knocking my alma mater because I had such a wonderful undergraduate experience there.

But you guys are right the two masters may pull enough weight. Thank you again for taking the time out to address my situation.

You don't need the actual degree, but you should probably take enough undergrad level courses (i.e. an informal self created postbac), including the remaining prereqs and perhaps some upper level sciences, to pull your undergrad GPA up to a palatable level -- something above a 3.0 would be a good idea for your situation, I think, if it's obtainable. Then rock the MCAT. Good luck.
 
Law2Doc said:
You don't need the actual degree, but you should probably take enough undergrad level courses (i.e. an informal self created postbac), including the remaining prereqs and perhaps some upper level sciences, to pull your undergrad GPA up to a palatable level -- something above a 3.0 would be a good idea for your situation, I think, if it's obtainable. Then rock the MCAT. Good luck.
\

Disagree--he's got a 3.5 in his MBA, which should be adequate demonstration that he's not a total slacker. If he can get a few As in the remaining prereqs and pull out a decent MCAT, that should demonstrate that the UG GPA was overcome once he got some "seasoning" and solid direction in life.

I think that the UG GPA really only matters if that (plus the MCAT) is all they've go to go on as far as evaluating academic ability and motivation. Two masters clearly trumps that.
 
Disagree--he's got a 3.5 in his MBA, which should be adequate demonstration that he's not a total slacker. If he can get a few As in the remaining prereqs and pull out a decent MCAT, that should demonstrate that the UG GPA was overcome once he got some "seasoning" and solid direction in life.

I think that the UG GPA really only matters if that (plus the MCAT) is all they've go to go on as far as evaluating academic ability and motivation. Two masters clearly trumps that.
I would suggest contacting a few school admission officers over the next couple of years. You have a low GPA for application and I was advised (even with my MBA) that I would need to show that I can do well in hard science classes. Law2doc is right along those lines. Everyone I talked to really said unless you ACE the MCAT with at least a 35, you will need to prove yourself in science.

I was advised to do the prereqs then enrolled in a SMP or something of the sort. I moved out ot the middle of nowhere for my fiance so now I am just taking science classes. Surprisingly in less than 60 credits (due to the fact I have hda all my other "necessary" classes with the first degree) I will have my 2nd degree. Additionally if I don't finish the degree and decide to take time off if accepted ... I will be able to transfer back my med school classes back to the undergraduate institution and be able to still receive the degree. I was extremely lucky in finding an institution with a degree that was more along the lines of a "pre-med" degree that I can take whatever classes that I want to take and don't need things that wont be relavant in med school (botany, etc).

Yes 2 master will help him. Especially the mathmatics one, but depending on what type of schools he's looking at, he may need an applied science background to show he's committed to medicine.

Once an admissions counselor told me "we can teach the science, we just need the right person"

I think your best bet really is to contact a few school admission counselors. I did that and was thrilled as the response that I got. Most of them were willing to meet with me and talk things over. :)

:luck:
 
OldPsychDoc said:
\

Disagree--he's got a 3.5 in his MBA, which should be adequate demonstration that he's not a total slacker. If he can get a few As in the remaining prereqs and pull out a decent MCAT, that should demonstrate that the UG GPA was overcome once he got some "seasoning" and solid direction in life.

I think that the UG GPA really only matters if that (plus the MCAT) is all they've go to go on as far as evaluating academic ability and motivation. Two masters clearly trumps that.

Good success in grad school helps, but you never totally obviate the need for a decent UG GPA, in my experience. Plus the MBA is material very distant from stuff medical schools care about, so getting As in finance, management or accounting won't mean as much to people focussed on BCPMs as acing a biochem masters might.
 
krazymackbk said:
Thanks so much for your input OldPsychDoc and FutureDocDO. You guys are right, maybe it might be best to just focus on obtaining the remaining prereqs. The second bachelors may be overkill in my specific situation.

It just really concerns me that I will still be using my really, really, low overall undergraduate GPA to apply for medical school. Especially when the undergraduate school that I went to, a small Christian liberal arts college named Nyack College is not "highly ranked." I am definitely not knocking my alma mater because I had such a wonderful undergraduate experience there.

But you guys are right the two masters may pull enough weight. Thank you again for taking the time out to address my situation.


krazymackbk

Most med school admissions people I have spoken too have told me that a stellar masters/PHD GPA does not make up for an undergrad GPA, as incoherent as it may sound this is how they do it. Perhaps there is some school(s) out there which would instead look at your graduate GPA but I do not know of any. Best Wishes.
 
Top