Dartmouth CECS or Tulane

[TheGuy2000]

Hello all fellow SDN'ers,

Fortunately, the mail has been kind to me over the past few weeks, as I've gotten acceptance letters from Dartmouth, and the Tulane Master's in Genetics, and Cell and Molecular Biology programs. My GPA will end up at around a 3.1 for undergrad when I graduate in 2 months, and my MCAT's are pretty good, so I figure I just need a strong showing in a grad program to ensure my acceptance somewhere. Anyone have any experience with these programs? If you were in my shoes which way would you go? Thanks for the help guys, and keep fighting it! We'll all get to med school eventually!

~TheGuy

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[Phil Anthropist]

If I were in your shoes, I would choose one of the Tulane programs.

The Dartmouth 9-month MPH and MS programs through CECS both use pass-fail grading systems (well, I think the scale is something like Honors, High Pass, Pass, etc., but there are no letter grades). The Dartmouth CECS programs sound very interesting and unique (I know of no other MPH programs that are similar), but if you're battling back from a low undergrad GPA I would definitely go to one of the Tulane programs. The Dartmouth programs sound GREAT if your application is already pretty good (3.5/3.5/30), but I think it's a very bad idea if you still need to prove your academic capabilities. Also, I believe Tulane's programs are about half the tuition of Dartmouth's. Darmouth's tuition alone is close to $29k last I checked and the two Tulane programs you're considering are about $15k, reduced-tuition, if I remember correctly. For the tuition of Dartmouth's program, you could do both the MS in (Human?) Genetics AND the MS in Cell and Molecular Biology!

I believe Tulane's one-year MS in Genetics is more research-based and is on the med school campus. I believe the one-year MS in Cell and Molecular Bio is not on the med school campus and is less research-based. My understanding is that the Cell/Molecular program also includes a course that is basically for shadowing, patient skills, and bedside manners. This would definitely have its advantages for med school interviews...and it's nice to be able to integrate it in the curriculum. The Cell/Molecular program also gives you a lot of support for mock interviews and advising. I was pretty interested in the Cell/Molecular program, but it's not as interdisciplinary as I would like. The emphasis for electives seems to be on neuro )) and developmental bio ( ). This is what I remember off the top of my head from old threads, but check the threads below to be sure.

In summary:

Dartmouth MS in CECS
One of the Tulane programs

Pertinent threads:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=77483
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=125497
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=98106
(posts 8 and 11 for the last one)