Masters in Bioinformatics worth it?

[wazgood]

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I applied late this cycle and unfortunately did not got into any medical schools despite a 3.6 GPA and a 31R MCAT (still waiting on some interviews but the outlook is bleak). I am planning to retake and am aiming for 35+.

I am graduating in June with a B.S. in Biology, Biochemistry and French. Given this, my school currently offers a masters degree in Bioinformatics that takes (12-16 months) to complete and begins in the summer. I am thinking of applying to the program and attempting to finish it in 12 months (I believe this is very possible as I am highly efficient with my time).

Meanwhile, I would also apply to multiple MD/PhD programs NEXT cycle. Does this seem like a good idea?
Or am I better off just doing volunteer research and increasing my shadowing/clinical experience?

 

[red doctober]

This really depends. I think with your GPA, a masters won't significantly improve your chances at MD programs and probably isn't worth the cost. It might improve your chances at MD/PhD programs if you want to go into informatics or computational biology for your PhD, but still might not be worth the cost. If you don't want to do something related to it, I'd say it definitely isn't worth the cost and to just continue working in a wet lab, shadowing, and volunteering. Maybe you could try to negotiate some sort of pay with the PI.

 

[uniqenam]

This really depends. I think with your GPA, a masters won't significantly improve your chances at MD programs and probably isn't worth the cost. It might improve your chances at MD/PhD programs if you want to go into informatics or computational biology for your PhD, but still might not be worth the cost. If you don't want to do something related to it, I'd say it definitely isn't worth the cost and to just continue working in a wet lab, shadowing, and volunteering. Maybe you could try to negotiate some sort of pay with the PI.

I totally agree, I wouldn't do it. I'm currently working on a Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering during a gap year; although I think some of the material is interesting, I'm not sold on it as my future PhD field, so it's going to be a nice and expensive, ultimately worthless piece of paper once I finish this semester. I think I would have been better served as a future physician scientist in just getting more research experience.

For your case, however, a master's in bioinformatics may have some use...bioinformatics training is nice to have because of the great power of bioinformatic tools that many biologists can't (and don't want to make the effort) to understand; I think it could be a nice leg up on the competition, assuming you'll be able to keep your bioinformatics knowledge current during your training. However, if you're just doing it as something to do, I would advise against it; just focus on intensive research (hopefully as a paid position) and studying to improve your MCAT score.

Also, don't worry about your clinical/shadowing/volunteering experience. I had basically the bare minimum when I applied (something like 50-100 hours shadowing, basically 0 volunteering), and only one school was particularly agitated by that; most MD/PhD adcoms care most about your ability as a physician-scientist first and foremost.

 

[Neuronix]

Forget the master's degree. It would not be helpful and it would contribute more to your debt. Raising your GPA somewhat might be marginally beneficial, but the impact you can make with 1 year of coursework on 4 years is small mathematically. Further, a lot of people assume they will get a 4.0 in their masters programs, but more typically they continue a similar trend of 3.5 - 3.8 or so. If anything, masters programs focus on coursework and writing a thesis, while MD/PhD programs will be interested more in original research that you won't have time for in a 1 year masters.

Keep doing research full-time and try to publish or at least present at national conferences. Retake the MCAT.

If you are still at a 3.6/31 when time to apply next year, consider applying to MD only. Shadowing/clinical experience may be useful for MD only programs, but it depends on what you have already. Make sure you apply early next time regardless.