Graduating in 3 years - what to do next?

[teekay1]

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I'm an undergrad attending a top technical school and will have finished my undergrad degree in bioengineering in 3 years (by this May). I will definitely be applying to MD and MD/PhD programs this coming cycle for matriculation in 2016. I have a couple of options to spend my last year before I matriculate and wanted to get some opinions on what to do.
(1) masters at UCSF/Berkeley - strong translational medicine masters that typically orients graduates to medical device development
(2) masters at UPenn - more research-heavy masters program where you take alot of classes and can opt for a thesis
(3) staying as an undergrad and working as a researcher here at my undergrad institution. I consider this as a good option because I can do a good amount of research here, still maintain my social community, and can spend alot of time working on my apps/interviews.

Anybody have ideas about what advantage either of the two masters programs would give me? Is it worth staying around as an undergrad, perhaps taking grad-level classes and doing more research?

 

[itsogre]

If you do the masters, you will have less time to do research and publish (because of the graduate classes), which is what your goal should be if you want to pursue a combined degree. You'll also have to break into new fields, which will make it significantly harder to be productive as a scientist.

Your masters will become irrelevant if you pursue further graduate education... I think you should stay at your undergrad with a minimum course load, strengthen your connections with faculty for recommendation letters, and most importantly, publish/present your research.

 

[teekay1]

Bump on this

 

[snowflakes]

If you do the masters, you will have less time to do research and publish (because of the graduate classes), which is what your goal should be if you want to pursue a combined degree. You'll also have to break into new fields, which will make it significantly harder to be productive as a scientist.

Your masters will become irrelevant if you pursue further graduate education... I think you should stay at your undergrad with a minimum course load, strengthen your connections with faculty for recommendation letters, and most importantly, publish/present your research.

Agreed. Plus, enjoy being with your friends. You want any time you have before starting med school to be relatively laid back.

 

[teekay1]

Hm gotcha. Thanks for the replies, guys!

 

[NeuResurgens]

The third option sounds like it's what you're leaning towards anyway. I would do that. Besides, you won't be losing time since you would graduate in 3 years instead of 4 anyway.

 

[ranob]

I'd recommend option 2. If you plan on doing research and/or taking graduate level classes anyway, there's really no reason not to get a masters degree while you're at it. It may not help your application much, but it definitely can't hurt. Also, as long as you take graduate courses that overlap with your area of research, the time commitment really shouldn't be all that much...