Dilemma - Advice I Need Your Advice!!

[futuredoc123]

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[Code Brown]

Here's my dilemma that I hope you can help provide some advice:

I am currently 26, career changer, a non-traditional student, UG gpa: 3.75 in design.
EC: Corporate office experience, some research experience (non-medical), teaching assistant, (non-medical), hospital volunteer.

I have been accepted to a pre-med program that takes about 1.5-2 years to complete all pre-reqs. But I have also been accepted to a Master's degree in design at Harvard that also takes 1.5 years to complete. While I am still interested in medicine and like to be a physician, I hate to shoot myself in the foot by not taking this opportunity in hand for higher education (even though not medically related) in case I do not get accepted to any medical school. Also, I don't intend on taking any pre-reqs while being a full-time student in graduate course work because I probably won't have enough time for them.

Do you have any advice for me?? Is graduate gpa included in the cummulative undergraduate gpa for med schools? If I decide to go to Harvard, does having a prestigious name on paper help with med school applications in any way? What do you think I should do?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

That depends, do you want to start med school in 2 years, or in 4. Assuming you get the same 3.75 in your prereqs that you did in ugrad, you will not have any problem getting into a US MD program. Also, if you don't land a prestigious name in terms of medical school, you can always get into a big-name residency after medical school, and if that fails, go get a masters (MPH or MBA). With an MD, you can pretty much take your pick of programs.

As for it helping get into medical school... not really. You would be better served spending an extra 3 months working on getting the MCAT score up a few points.

 

[CultureDoc]

Hmm . . . this is an interesting situation, as I find myself wondering why you would have applied to grad programs in design if you had already made the decision to leave the field. It sounds to me as though you might still be interested in sticking with a career in design, as I'm not sure why you'd go through a grad program (with loans?) if it gets you nowhere other than 2 years further down the road with some skills that won't directly translate to your ultimate career in medicine. (I didn't find grad school to be a picnic, and I can imagine your design studios will be quite intense). If you are still thinking you might want to stay in design, I would say to do the grad program, as it can only help further your design career. Another option: can you defer your grad school acceptance for a year while you start the post-bacc program, do some more medical volunteering and some physician shadowing? That way, if you get into the nitty gritty of science classes, shadowing, etc. and you change your mind about the whole thing, you can pick up where you left off with your design career, secure in the knowledge that you've left no stone unturned.

If you're sure about med school, then why wait? If it's just to get that piece of paper from Harvard, I'd think long and hard about it. The Harvard name is always impressive, of course . . . but when it comes to med school apps, I've seen on here so many times that grad school - particularly in a non-science field - is basically considered a "nice extracurricular" and nothing more. (I did a grad program in art history at a prestigious school, and I think that was definitely true in my case.) The grad GPA will appear on your apps, but will be completely separate from any ugrad and post-bacc grades (the ones that really matter), so I have a feeling it's just glanced at to make sure you didn't completely flunk out of grad school.

One word of caution: if you do do the grad school route and then change your mind midway though, I'd finish it out (1.5 years isn't too big a deal). Med schools don't particularly like to see that you've dropped out of a grad program. Also, if you go the grad route and think you might still want to go to med school, keep volunteering and try to do some shadowing. Med schools like to see altruism and dedication to a cause, and continuing to be in a medical environment should help you think about whether you want to continue down that path.

In any case, best of luck to you!

 

[pietachok]

I, too, am confused as to why you would pursue other graduate studies along another path in which you are supposedly disinterested. This will be confusing to admissions committees as well. You *can* make the argument that you wanted to have a back-up in case you didn't get into med school, but the only thing that should prevent you from getting into med school is bombing the MCAT and a lack of medical exposure--both of which you can prevent starting now.

Keep in mind that in addition to good grades an a good MCAT, to have a successful app you need to have significant medical exposure along the lines of volunteerism, physician shadowing, and/or clinical research to prove that you know what being an M.D. is about and that you are willing to sacrifice to reach your goal.

You won't have a significant benefit to having a graduate degree initiated directly before a post-bacc program. And if you are considering the post-bacc program at Columbia, I encourage you to PM me, b/c I would highly discourage it...Harvard's extension would be a better and cheaper option.

If you are truly unsure as to which path you prefer to take, you could start your graduate program and start plucking away at your post-bacc work slowly at nights or weekends through Harvard extension I believe.

Good Luck!

 

[gman33]

The question is pretty simple, but it may be hard to come up with the right answer. Do you want to be a doctor and are you willing to put in the work needed to become one?

If you've made up your mind to become a doc, any non-medical education will only be taking you away from your goal. A grad degree in design (even from Harvard), will not help in any way. If anything, schools may start to see you as a career student who is not able to make up his or her mind.

Decide your career path first and the rest of the decisions should be obvious.