tbo said:
I was curious if any of you who have done Master's programs with the primary goal of boosting your academic record have had positive experiences with getting into med school. More specifically, you had a low GPA in undergrad, performed well at a Master's program, and were interviewed/accepted to medical school. Was just curious how heavily or lightly the Master's GPA is weighted towards being a more competitive applicant.
More specifially it will take a combined effort, rather than a 1 cure-all event that can overcome something like say a low undergrad GPA. It also depends on how rigorous the masters program is as well. The pros and cons of doing well in a masters program are:
Pros
1) Shows you can handle graduate level classes.
2) Do masters level research (if you are doing masters by thesis).
3) Expand your knowledge into a specific area.
4) If a Special Masters Program, shows you can take and do well in med school level classes.
Cons
1) Grades in grad school SHOULD be higher compared to undergrad, since as someone stated above, you can be booted out of grad school if you get a B-. Our program here puts you on academic probation if you get a GPA of 2.7 (e.g.: B- average).
2) Masters level work may be too specific and may not address inadequacies in undergrad which were in broader subject areas.
3) Although most masters programs take 2 years to complete, and there are a good number of those that can be finished in 1 year, the amount of GRADED classes you take may be few. Therefore proof of doing well may be limited by the amount of units you take. Our program here only has something like ....30 quarter units of graded classes. Thats about 2.75 quarters full-time coursework (3 quarter academic year). Of course we have seminars too that are graded as satisfactory/non-satisfactory.
4) Graduate level coursework is looked upon in a positive manner, but is weighted less than undergraduate coursework. Mainly everyone applies with undergrad coursework, and thus better to compare student A vs. student B via undergrad courses.
5) Special Masters Programs (SMP), if you go to a well known one like the one at Tulane or Georgetown, you may have no problems. But if nobody knows that you took med school classes, or the school you are applying to is not familiar with the program, they will can treat it like a grad school course. Also if the school acknowledges these are med school courses, yet by choice, they consider it as graduate level, then doesn't really boost you that much either.
To overcome the deficiencies associated with graduate school when applying with a low undergrad GPA, you need to pretty much destroy the MCAT. Based on all indications (knock on wood), i will apply to med school with a 4.0 graduate GPA. But even then it will require me to have a high MCAT score to address my low undergrad GPA. Even after that it will be challenging, therefore I have been advised to take additional undergrad classes to continue to boost my undergrad GPA while completing my PhD degree. You will find other non-trads who have higher degrees, and even high MCAT scores, but due to low-undergrad GPA, or not having an undergrad GPA made it an uphill (but not impossible) battle. Therefore it is my impression that a high grad GPA can be only viewed as positive, however it will certainly not be a cure-all in terms of making up for a low undergrad GPA. Hence many schools encouraging post-bacc vs. masters.
Unless you do an SMP program, and depending on how low your GPA is, then I would consider doing post-bacc rather than a traditional masters program. If your GPA is say above 3.2, a standard masters program should be alright. Lower than 3.2 I would suggest post-bacc. SMPs should benefit your application regardless of GPA, assuming you get into an SMP, and the SMP is well known to the school you are applying to. Of course this is combined with getting a high (>30) MCAT score.
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