Masters Program vs. Post Bac

Post-bacc courses count towards your overall undergrad GPA. Graduate courses (e.g., in a masters program) count towards graduate GPA. Undergrad courses are usually more weighted given that most people apply with JUST undergrad courses.

Doing well in a masters program can never count against you. However doing poorly in a masters program can, and doing a masters program to offset a poor undergrad GPA may not be as effective as doing post-bacc.

Med schools can't really compare and contrast grad vs. undergrad. They are apples and oranges. Just like comparing MCAT vs. GPA. Some on these forums claim that grad school grades are inflated, or grad school is easy, etc. Hardly true, since many of these claims are made by people who never went to grad school, or god forbid a less rigorous program. Anyway, a grad degree is essentially just another thing to ADD to your application. How it compares to undergrad really depends on everything else you're applying with and what you want to do. Again, if you are trying to boost undergrad GPA, then post-bacc is the way to go (or Special Masters Programs). Most schools advise one to not do grad school if you have GPA issues.

 

I agree with relentless. If you have major GPA issues, a masters may not be for you.

I feel SMPs or other graduate programs specifically designed to get you into medical school give you more bang for your buck as compared to post-bac but it really depends what your Ugrad gpa was. If it is really low, you should probably work on it with a post-bac before considering graduate schools.