Masters of Public Health while applying to MD schools

[coomassiered]

Hi all,

I am applying to medical school for the 2nd time this cycle (2017 matriculation). Currently I'm working on revising my personal statement. I am simultaneously going to be attending the UCI MPH program. Does anyone have any thoughts about the timing of my application? I had some doubts about whether my experience at the public health program will positively affect my application because my grades/LOR from the MPH program won't be affecting my application as much (since I start in September for MPH).

For the past year since last application, I've done some neuro research, continued ER scribing, and volunteered in low SES educational setting. I feel that it is significant and that my main weakness was applying late last cycle (september) and doing poorly on interview. Let me know what you think! Thanks.

Best,
CR

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[coomassiered]

Just out of curiosity, aren't MPH programs usually 2 years? If you apply this cycle, I don't think you would be done with your MPH program by the time of matriculation in 2017?

Thanks for the observation, and good point. The UCI program is designed for 5 quarters for those applying to med school.

why did you go to MPH?

I think an MPH is a good idea because it would complement any medical knowledge with a broader knowledge on how diseases work at a community/society level which is also important for being a doctor. The knowledge is very applicable and has a lot of public interest (e.g. 'everything' increases your chance of getting cancer). Maybe most importantly, I think it will increase my attractiveness as an applicant and open up other career opportunities if I did not get into medical school this upcoming cycle. Most UC PRIME programs have a public health component as well.

 

[coomassiered]

Particularly, an MPH GPA will not help support a weak sGPA. There is historical reasons for such. Prior to proliferation of postbacs and SMPs, about 15-20 years, there was a trend of weaker applicants to use MPH programs to bolster their applications. This rather mushroomed between 2000-2005 or so when applicant pools started to grow. The trend was noticed by many adcoms and thus weakened the overall impact of MPH programs. So while completing an MPH will be seen as an accomplishment, unless it is accompanied by other evidence showing motivation and commitment in public health, it wont have a tremendous impact.

Thanks goniff. Actually, I did a post-bacc program and got all A's at a pretty good public university. It was a GPA boosting post-bacc, so I took all upper div science classes and taught by med school faculty. Undergrad sGPA was low (3.3) but showed a strong upward trend. I think my major weakness was applying late (september) and having a mediocre interview and personal statement. So I would be going into this MPH interested in mostly to get more applicable skills in interpreting data, knowledge of how health/medicine is on the community level, and making contacts for research/etc if I don't get into med school. I would maintain the same A/A+ average that I did in the post-bacc however.

 

[neekzg]

Hi all,

I am applying to medical school for the 2nd time this cycle (2017 matriculation). Currently I'm working on revising my personal statement. I am simultaneously going to be attending the UCI MPH program. Does anyone have any thoughts about the timing of my application? I had some doubts about whether my experience at the public health program will positively affect my application because my grades/LOR from the MPH program won't be affecting my application as much (since I start in September for MPH).

For the past year since last application, I've done some neuro research, continued ER scribing, and volunteered in low SES educational setting. I feel that it is significant and that my main weakness was applying late last cycle (september) and doing poorly on interview. Let me know what you think! Thanks.

Best,
CR

As someone going into a PRIME program, I think you have some great reasons for entering an MPH program during this cycle and you've chosen one that specifically caters to those applying to med school. Going in, I think you know that your MPH grades/LORs won't have a huge impact on your cycle but you will have stuff to talk about for interviews as to why you sought to gain public health experience before going into med school.

I'm not sure what help you need when it comes to the timing of your application? As I'm sure you know, you should submit your AMCAS asap and fill out secondaries accordingly. You'll probably be done with most of them before starting at UCI. (However, for what it's worth, my secondaries for UCSF/UCLA PRIME/Charles Drew came much later than the others, around Sept after submitting my primary late June) Hopefully the program is flexible enough to allow you to take days off here and there for interviews. When would you expect to complete your MPH?