Graduate Certificate before med school?

[psychgirl95]

I'm currently a freshmen so I have a while to decide, but my question is what would be the better option? Or are they both equal? I was originally planning to go with option one, but now I'm not sure. I'm not sure if it's relevant or not, but I'm planning on spending 4.5-5 years in undergrad instead of doing a post-bac program.

Option 1: Start graduate certificate right after undergrad and use that year as a gap year. I guess this would be a good time to study for the MCAT?
Option 2: Start med school or MD/PhD programs right after undergrad and concurrently pursue the certificate when feasible.

The certificate would be in ASDs (Autism Spectrum Disorders), which is something I'm personally affected by so it's also what I will be doing my undergrad research experience in. It's online and is composed of 6 classes that are each worth 2 credits, so technically speaking it could be completed in as little as a year (taking classes spring, summer, and fall semesters). I know the certificate isn't necessary per se for working with autistic individuals, but getting it is still important to me. So if I managed my time very well, would it be possible to maybe take one class at a time while also being a medical student/MD/PhD student (like if I could take a class or two during the summer) and finish it in a couple years? Or would that be too much?

Thanks in advance. 🙂

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[jsmith522]

So first off you are young and have lots of time to change your perspective on things. So if in four years autism is still your passion and willing to pursue the cert then it's not going to hurt you. It is just not really necessary if one you do well in undergrad and two you do research in it. Certs are really there for people who need to prove that you can handle grad level course work because of lower grades in undergrad. As a physician you really won't need it, if you want to focus on autism then focus on it.

But I would tell you that if you get into medical school your focus and efforts should be directed 100% to your medical school education. They say that medical school is 40+ credit hours worth of material per semester. You could also put it in terms of hours, 3-5 hours of study time per credit hour for your class you want to take and you are already going to school 40 hours per week and need to do more studying (30+) on your own.

So I would just focus on being a great student now and worry about that stuff in four years. Get those prerequisites out of the way and stay focused and committed and you will succeed.

 

[psychgirl95]

So first off you are young and have lots of time to change your perspective on things. So if in four years autism is still your passion and willing to pursue the cert then it's not going to hurt you. It is just not really necessary if one you do well in undergrad and two you do research in it. Certs are really there for people who need to prove that you can handle grad level course work because of lower grades in undergrad. As a physician you really won't need it, if you want to focus on autism then focus on it.

But I would tell you that if you get into medical school your focus and efforts should be directed 100% to your medical school education. They say that medical school is 40+ credit hours worth of material per semester. You could also put it in terms of hours, 3-5 hours of study time per credit hour for your class you want to take and you are already going to school 40 hours per week and need to do more studying (30+) on your own.

So I would just focus on being a great student now and worry about that stuff in four years. Get those prerequisites out of the way and stay focused and committed and you will succeed.

I figured that. Thank you. 🙂

I only want the certificate because the courses go in depth on the topic of ASD assessments and specific differences seen in autistic individuals, which I'll need to know since I want to assess children for ASDs in the future. (One of the problems now that people face is that so few people are actually knowledgeable about autism and its assessments, especially when it comes to people of certain ages being assessed, so I figured the certificate would help me in that area.) I'm interested in being a pediatric neurologist, so I suppose either way, the certificate could help.