Joint B.S./M.S. program

[vener0l0g]

Hey people

I'm thinking about getting an M.S. in Biochem before going on to the med school.
The question is whether it is going to affect my chances in the admission process... I don't think my gpa needs a boost, so this is just an extra year spent in school
Just can't decide if I should take this extra year

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[jlee9531]

so you want the MS just to impress adcoms?

 

[vener0l0g]

partially in a hope to impress, but i see a few other benefits:
-you get to know your M.S. advisor really well, so he or she can write a good LOR
-learn to do some work on your own
-maybe do well in graduate coursework

i don't know if all these are worth an extra year
if it is useless and unimpressive i would rather not take the time to do it

 

[jlee9531]

well if you would like to continue doing research and gaining something from it then go for it....

however if its just trying to impress and to get a LOR...hmm seems like a lot of time and commitment just to get those.

if your gpa is not bad and you have a good mcat with a good supporting cast of ECs and such...you should be a good applicant.

would you like to do research in med school? i guess it depends what your future goals are in med school.

there are many people here that are applying that have a masters and tho it might have been something that might have distinguished you years ago....now not too much.

but like i said...if you want to do it to enhance your research background....why not if it is only going to take a year? a good number of people take a year off before going into med school anyway so this could be helpful....

 

[vener0l0g]

i am not sure whether i want to focus on research, i was thinking that an extra year spent in the lab would help me to make up my mind
anyway, i've got the idea - can't impress anybody with it

 

[jlee9531]

Originally posted by vener0l0g
i am not sure whether i want to focus on research, i was thinking that an extra year spent in the lab would help me to make up my mind
anyway, i've got the idea - can't impress anybody with it

cool...id do it...if i had the opportunity.

id always wanted to see what long term research was like and to see if i wanted to do it in med school....

but now i am going to have the harder task of finding an opportunity to do research while in med school...

 

[arod]

Judging from your location and description of the program I'd guess you were talking about the BS/MS program here at the U of A. I seriously considered doing this and talked a lot about it with Dr. Grimes. Eventually I decided against it for a number of different reasons but I would suggest you go talk to him if you are considering it. If you want to get it to stand out I would agree with jlee and say it wasn't worth it. But if you want some meaningful time to do research and chill out for awhile it might not be a bad idea. If you are a junior I would suggest taking a grad class in biochem to check it out. I find graduate classes much cooler than undergrad, you learn cool stuff and they don't bog you down with busy work. Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide to do.