Time: Certificate programs for medical school application enhancement are generally 1 year programs and Masters are two year programs. If a 1 year certificate program "gets the job done" and your first and foremost goal is to enter medical school then why would you want to pay double the COA as well as detract one year from your peak income as a physician?
Efficiacy: I'm talking about efficacy in their effectiveness in getting you into medical school. I doubt anyone in this subsection of the forum will argue that Tulane ACP which offers a certificate in anatomy as being any "lesser" of a program in linking students into medical school as compared to any notable SMP. Rather, it has the highest %s in getting their students into medical school than any other program and the cheapest (this one doesn't factor into this particular argument but still). Why would you attend a special masters program to earn a makeshift Masters degree rather than attend the one which offers the best chance of getting you into medical school?
Another example would be on the osteopathic side such as LECOM which offers a certificate in the biomedical sciences. LECOM sent 79% of the students who recieved their certificate back into their own school with a total of 84% of those receiving the certificate into medical school. Compare that with programs such as AZCOM MA or PCOM MBS which accepts back only 20-25% max. Which would you rather choose if your ultimate goal is to attend medical school?
I know I'm assuming that you do "well" in the program which is virtually unpredictable and you guys are discussing "what if" scenarios, but honestly.. as an SMP student myself, why would you ever try to think of a backup plan for what is considered a last chance route? I see it as a go big or go home mentality. If you aren't prepared to ace your classes going into the program and excelling and getting into medical school thereafter (sadly this doesn't happen as often as you might think), then you really shouldn't be seriously considering the SMP route. The degree that you do obtain is more alphabet soup after your name than it is for practical use but it does beat a certificate. But then again, why would you attend an SMP for the degree rather than the efficacy of the program itself? In more occasions than one, the certificate program offers a higher rate of success in getting you into medical school as opposed to their Masters counterparts, allopathic or osteopathic.
Midlife, you are taking my post way out of context. The initial quote that you made that you had "issues with" had the hypothetical clause of
if the 1 year certification program will get the job done for the individual. It was purely meant as an offset that an SMP should always be done or at least have the Masters degree factor heavily into consideration when choosing programs when say a 1 year certification program would have done similarly well for a certain individual. I'm positive there are students who do not need to always spend 2 years in certain situations. I'm not trying to deal with absolutes here. I cited the timeline to create a broad based generalization with which to differentiate the two types of programs allowing the cost factor to show through.
The second quote you're nitpicking at is not meant to tell everyone that they should be going to ACP like you're assuming and not SMPs. I'm going to go out on a limb and infer from your post that you cited the 15 people that enter ACP because you feel it is unrealistic for most to enter as a legitamite shot. It wasn't meant to be realistic. ACP was
simply used as a counterpoint that certification programs should not be discounted because they award a worthless certificate rather than an almost just as worthless Masters that smarty was trying to emphasize could do something for you in the future. The train of thought I was following was that ACP has 88% andhas a far higher rate of matriculating their students into Tulane Med than most other programs (Gtown, BU MAMS, Tufts MBS, etc). In no way have I said anywhere that that anatomy certificate is worth something, rather I agreed pre-emptively on the bottom that a Masters degree > certificate if you
had to have one of the two. VCU CERT is a certificate program that has an option to continue on for a second year to obtain the Masters, many other 1 year certificate programs do have that clause, but again, I was only prove a point which was why I cited those two examples to provide a dissenting voice in this thread against Masters
always being the right choice as compared to certificate programs due to the "degree" awarded upon completion.
I would argue that the cert you get at Tulane ACP & the cert you get at VCU are absolutely worthless, and the masters you get in an SMP is slightly less but still entirely worthless. The masters will look better on a resume, no question. The only reason schools grant the cert & the masters are for administrative ease & access to financial aid & parents who like to frame things.
I believe I already came out and said that here
The degree that you do obtain is more alphabet soup after your name than it is for practical use but it does beat a certificate.
And lastly, I already emphasized that the only reason you should be doing
any SMP or SMP style program would be to enter medical school. My
main point was you shouldn't factor in a backup plan (it still isn't much of a backup plan to get a Masters in these programs) into what is considered a last chance opportunity in helping you choose which program to attend but rather, you should look at
cost (the point of that overgeneralized timeline part) and the
efficacy of the program (that other part you are nitpicking at).
Either you are reading far too literally or I'm doing a bad job of explaining myself.
