An MPH will not help you in the least. First of all, that GPA is entirely separate from your undergrad GPA. Second, an MPH isn't indicative of your academic capabilities in medicine because the curriculum is too different. Don't do an MPH. Take a year and get your application in order. It's unlikely that you'll get many bites for the class entering in 2011 by the time your MCAT comes in March.
Actually, thats not entirely correct JustJoshin. I posted below a cut out of my AACOMAS application, it does show my undergrad GPA seperate from my Graduate GPA, however under both GPAs it shows an overall GPA which is calculated from adding credits for both undergrad and grad school.
Now, that being said, I dont know how much the differnt schools look at the overall GPA as opposed to just looking at UG alone. I do know, when I interviewed at LECOM-Erie, that they did talk to me about my graduate work and my undergraduate work and told me that they have no doubt that I could handle medical school material due to my graduate work. On the otherhand, when I interviewed at an allopathic school and spoke with an admissions counselor there, they told me that I will be mainly judged on my undergrad work - however my graduate work showed that I could handle medical school level material. My graduate work was in a hard-science (Microbiology), so that may be why they stated it was a good indicator of my abilities; I do not know anything about an MPH program, so wont speculate if that would be a good indicator or not.
My piece of advice for the poster, since your interested in DO, specifically LECOM (where Iv been accepted and likely be starting this Fall), would be to take your MCATs as soon as you feel ready for them, and not a second earlier, but keep in mind that the sooner you apply, the greater your chances of an acceptance. I can personally say this is true because I applied around January last year and didnt even get looked at by any of the schools. This year, I applied a month into the application cycle, and magically got an interview invite two weeks later.
I would not go into a Masters program unless you really, really wanted to. The reason I did a masters was because I was considering pursuing a PhD and decided against it. The biggest downfall of graduate school, while it gives you oppertunities to teach and do research, it can take an extremely long time to finish depending on your program. Like I said above, I am not sure what an MPH entails, but in the sciences I know if your research takes a turn for the worst it could tack on a few extra years/semesters to your studies...this happened to me, hence why I ended up applying to schools very late in the cycle last year...I do know, however, that many medical schools (not sure about LECOM) have programs that allow you to pursue your medical degree and a MPH at the same time. I would consider this before doing a seperate program if you are really into getting that degree. Also, I do not know what your ECs are like, but trying to get ECs under your belt can be difficult when you are devoting 100% of your time to grad school.
