In 2021, is undergrad GPA still weighted more than graduate GPA for non-trad?

[SystemFailure]

Hello,

I have been out of undergrad for two years working FT as a clinical research assistant, and recently PT as a vaccination assistant at the mass vaccination sites in my state. I am currently getting my EMT license to work FT on an ambualnce, while dropping back to PT at the hospital. The pre-med track was dropped in undergrad due to my low cumulative GPA (<3.0), and having to take a semester off due to personal reasons. I was able to successfully show an upward trend between junior summer and senior year/summer, keeping a GPA of around ~3.5 for those semesters. However, the damage was already done thanks to my freshman/sophomore year grades.

Now, thinking about medical school, I'm at the age-old crossroad: DIY post-bacc or master's degree. I understand that SMPs are high risk, high reward, but I simply do not have the finances to get a degree that will be worthless in the real world if med school doesn't pan out. I'd much rather cut my losses on my uGPA and do a bio heavy master's program that I'm interested in/is worth something on the job market.

I guess this is a very wordy way to ask if graduate GPAs are barely weighted against undergrad during applicant review. A lot of forums across reddit/SDN/CC back this up, but I feel like that can't be right. Isn't a master's a way to show med schools that you can handle advanced coursework?

Thanks for the read

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[DocJanItor]

Graduate GPAs are almost meaningless in your med school app unless it is an SMP or some sort of official post-bacc from a known institution. The reason is because there are many degrees and institutions with grade inflation and no one can keep track of which ones are good and bad. I can say that personally, I got an MBA while playing World of Warcraft 12 hours a day in a top 1000 raiding guild. There's no way I could've done that during my SMP.

 

[stepways]

For me, I'm kind of screwed if graduate GPA isn't weighted heavily outside of SMPs. I'm not a candidate for an SMP because I was a liberal arts major in undergrad and don't have the prereqs. I've missed the cutoff for career changer post-bacc applications this year, and since I'm already older, it makes sense to just take my prereqs at a local university rather than doing diddly squat (other than MA work and volunteering) waiting for the chance to throw 20k at a post-bacc that's outside my state of residence in the first place.

I've seen plenty of non-trads in the WAMC forum with substantially better graduate GPAs from non-SMP institutions. Maybe one of them can weigh in here?

 

[Bonne Nuit]

For me, I'm kind of screwed if graduate GPA isn't weighted heavily outside of SMPs. I'm not a candidate for an SMP because I was a liberal arts major in undergrad and don't have the prereqs. I've missed the cutoff for career changer post-bacc applications this year, and since I'm already older, it makes sense to just take my prereqs at a local university rather than doing diddly squat (other than MA work and volunteering) waiting for the chance to throw 20k at a post-bacc that's outside my state of residence in the first place.

I've seen plenty of non-trads in the WAMC forum with substantially better graduate GPAs from non-SMP institutions. Maybe one of them can weigh in here?

Medical school prerequisites taken at a local university on a do-it-yourself, postbac basis are not considered graduate courses for GPA purposes. These will be factored into your undergraduate GPA and will be listed under the "post-baccalaureate" category on the AMCAS application.

It is accurate to say that graduate coursework (e.g., master's or PhD level coursework) is not very heavily weighted in medical school admissions due to extensive grade inflation in such programs. SMP GPAs are the exception. But, fortunately, none of this applies to your situation.