Somewhat Old Prerequisites

[HAVOK121121]

By the time I apply this June, I will have graduated 5 years ago so most of my coursework for medical school would be quite old. My GPA and MCAT are relatively good at 3.8 and 520, which I took in September of last year. I’m mostly concerned about not having any recent coursework. To be safe, I have been considering going to a special masters program while I apply to fix the prereq issue and improve my application for the next cycle. Is this worth doing?

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[DrFortiusNatando]

No, if you have an otherwise strong application, including recent letter writers for LOR's, you do not need recent coursework for the sake of having recent coursework. I would suggest that you take some upper level biology courses that might be useful for medical school for your own benefit however. These courses would not have to be part of a "special masters" program, which is likely to be expensive and keep you from doing things that are much more valuable for you (including earning money, etc).

 

[PodPeople]

@gonnif I'm in a similar situation, but even older courses. I finished undergrad in 2007, and a research masters in 2015. Applying next cycle, MCAT is 523. Would you recommend I take a course or two between now and June? Between undergrad and grad, pretty much the only commonly-available biology course I haven't taken is Anatomy. Retaking other undergrad courses seems like it might come across oddly.

 

[Engrailed]

By the time I apply this June, I will have graduated 5 years ago so most of my coursework for medical school would be quite old. My GPA and MCAT are relatively good at 3.8 and 520, which I took in September of last year. I’m mostly concerned about not having any recent coursework. To be safe, I have been considering going to a special masters program while I apply to fix the prereq issue and improve my application for the next cycle. Is this worth doing?

Are you already planning on applying next cycle? If not yet submitted for this cycle it’s already on the later end.
Regardless, be sure to check the exp dates for those bc some schools have limits on how far they will accept.
Georgetown being one of them

 

[Wolvvs]

An SMP is not a good idea--it does not include the prerequisites. The purpose is to mitigate a poor GPA, and yours is fine, an SMP can only hurt you at this point as performing well only reaffirms your good GPA while perfoming poorly would essentially disqualify you.

This is school dependent. Some schools have expiration policies, with exceptions for recent coursework, I would make a tentative school list and check their websites for expiration policies, build a plan from there.

 

[HAVOK121121]

Are you already planning on applying next cycle? If not yet submitted for this cycle it’s already on the later end.
Regardless, be sure to check the exp dates for those bc some schools have limits on how far they will accept.
Georgetown being one of them

Are you replying to me or the person who just asked Gonnif a question? I already submitted in mid June and have since submitted my secondaries, so we will see. Most schools I found not to have any expiration.

 

[Engrailed]

Are you replying to me or the person who just asked Gonnif a question? I already submitted in mid June and have since submitted my secondaries, so we will see. Most schools I found not to have any expiration.

I was asking you. Good if you already submitted. Yeah, most schools dont have that limit but i noticed a small number do. Best of luck!