Master's : Thesis or Non-Thesis

[utmed07]

Hello all,

I'm a nontraditional student,3 yrs out of college, who decided to take a "year-off" from applying to med school. Obviously, things did not turn out as previously mentioned. Since undergrad I've held jobs as a substitute teacher and as an Analytical Chemist. The yearnings for academia and working towards my dream of becoming a doctor hit very hard, so, I recently quit my job as a chemist and began graduate school. My ugpa is good, nothing stellar. I thought that by enrolling in a Master's program before I intend to attend medical school I would enhance my record a little more, especially, since I've been out of college for a few years.

The thing is, I was just informed by my grad. coordinator that i can expect to spend at least 6 semesters working on just my Master's thesis. To add to that, almost half of the Master's students are about to begin their 7th or 8th semester! Some via no fault of their own! (By their own admission of course) I had no idea of this situation before accepting my "acceptance" but I also have no intention of quitting either. There is a silver lining to this situation, though. (I think?) My program offers a non-theis option that can be finished in two years or less. It is coursework intensive and I expect to continue faring very well. I think that a thesis will definately catch some eyes amongst the adcoms but I'm not sure that a thesis over a non-thesis will make too much of a difference. Some of my target schools are research intensive but I'm not applying for an MD/Phd. Can someone give some insight into how adcoms view this type of situation?



Thanks in Advance🙂

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[scottyT]

You may need to assess whether this program is the right thing for you at all. Sure, a graduate degree may help you a bit ... but it can hurt you a lot if you don't do well in it. How bad is the GPA damage? Depending on your GPA you may need to enroll in more undergraduate classes to fix that first. A masters program will NOT make up for a poor GPA. The bottom line is that MD programs evaluate mainly based on LORs, uGPA, and MCAT.

FWIW, I would say that if you aren't truly interested in this degree then you may want to evaluate why you're doing it rather than worrying about thesis vs. non. My opinion is that the thesis based one may make you a more competitive applicant but you need to be otherwise well-qualified enough to be considered. Is this program the best thing for you and your goals?

 

[sawood]

Ha ha, this is hysterical because I wish I had asked the same question a year or two ago. I am currently FIGHTING to get my thesis done.

Here's the thing: Med school is my goal, not getting a masters degree, yet if I don't finish on time with the masters program then the acceptance to med school goes away. A very stressful situation....i am not the kind of person to slack off, but lets just say there were several things "thrown" at me during the process....you just have very little control sometimes, and if your advisor wants you to do something, or if your data doesn't work out the first time...guess what, you have to handle it even if it puts you way behind.

If you choose the thesis option: choose your thesis advisor very carefully. Mine is great, but he doesn't really care about time frames, etc. Sorta difficult when your on a tight time frame.

Certainly, the research experience is good, and possibly attractive to schools. Just pick an advisor that has a lot of experience getting students through the process in a timely manner.

 

[Blade28]

Unfortunately a Master's degree won't help much with med school admissions. If your undergraduate GPA is significantly below the mean for matriculants (3.65) then I would do post-bac work to improve it. A Master's counts only as a "nice" extra-curricular.

AMCAS treats your undergrad and graduate GPAs as separate.

 

[QofQuimica]

If you're not planning to go into research for a career, get the non-thesis MS and get on with your life. Having done a thesis won't impress adcoms unless you're applying for a research program with the goal of becoming an MD or MD/PhD physician scientist. If you do want to be an MD physician scientist, then it might be worth your while to finish the thesis and build up your research record. But there's no point in doing an MS thesis unless you want to go into research; that's what a graduate research degree is designed to train you to do.

What was your UG GPA like? If you're at 3.5+, you're probably good to go. Also, have you taken the MCAT yet? Clinical experience? Community service? All of these things are going to affect your chances way more than whether or not you do a thesis.

to you. 🙂

 

[utmed07]

Adcoms view graduate work as something akin to extra-curriculars?? Wow...
Well, I do know that a "life" in academic research is not for me. My ugpa is ~3.58 and I got a lot of community service and extra-cur. experience during undergrad. I just felt that with my "profile" being a little dated some recent academic activity (good, of course) would show that I'm still capable of tackling the work.

Thanks for the advice/opinions!👍

 

[med737]

I have completed my BE with 72% from India
My MS GPA is 3.9
How can I improve my Undergrad GPA?
I recently took Chem and OChem classes(Freshman yr) and have a GPA of 4.
Please let me know. I am applying next year.

 

[wado2]

Go for the thesises. Its much tougher but its worth it all in the end because you have the publication in the library for it all.

 

[Instatewaiter]

Unfortunately a Master's degree won't help much with med school admissions. If your undergraduate GPA is significantly below the mean for matriculants (3.65) then I would do post-bac work to improve it. A Master's counts only as a "nice" extra-curricular.

AMCAS treats your undergrad and graduate GPAs as separate.

I have to disagree with blade. While an SMP (special masters program) is better than a traditional MS, the MS can really boost your application. Saying it is just a nice extra curricular is absurd. So while under grad GPA is more important, a solid performance in graduate school can make the difference

Hello all,

I'm a nontraditional student,3 yrs out of college, who decided to take a "year-off" from applying to med school. Obviously, things did not turn out as previously mentioned. Since undergrad I've held jobs as a substitute teacher and as an Analytical Chemist. The yearnings for academia and working towards my dream of becoming a doctor hit very hard, so, I recently quit my job as a chemist and began graduate school. My ugpa is good, nothing stellar. I thought that by enrolling in a Master's program before I intend to attend medical school I would enhance my record a little more, especially, since I've been out of college for a few years.

The thing is, I was just informed by my grad. coordinator that i can expect to spend at least 6 semesters working on just my Master's thesis. To add to that, almost half of the Master's students are about to begin their 7th or 8th semester! Some via no fault of their own! (By their own admission of course) I had no idea of this situation before accepting my "acceptance" but I also have no intention of quitting either. There is a silver lining to this situation, though. (I think?) My program offers a non-theis option that can be finished in two years or less. It is coursework intensive and I expect to continue faring very well. I think that a thesis will definately catch some eyes amongst the adcoms but I'm not sure that a thesis over a non-thesis will make too much of a difference. Some of my target schools are research intensive but I'm not pplying for an MD/Phd. Can someone give some insight into how adcoms view this type of situation?

Thanks in Advance🙂

4 years for a masters... really?

Unless you feel you can get the research done, do the non-thesis option. Make sure you dont get an MA instead of an MS though, b/c w/o a thesis I would be very surprised if they would give you an MS.

 

[sawood]

4 years for a masters... really?

Unless you feel you can get the research done, do the non-thesis option. Make sure you dont get an MA instead of an MS though, b/c w/o a thesis I would be very surprised if they would give you an MS.

Yeah, a thesis project (not including coursework) shouldn't take longer than a year.

Please, please, please choose the non-thesis option. Unless you have a desire to do research (in that case it may help?). Also, as I mentioned previously, the advisor is the key. Some are reasonable and you'll get out just fine. Some.....aren't.....and won't care if you are accepted to med school.....oh, and I was informed that no one will ever read the thesis reports in the library. Its not a publication, technically, no one cares, they just get lost in the abyss.....

My school offerred an MS with an exam option instead of the thesis. They are trying to do away with it, but it wasn't an MA. its worth checking though.

Also, the benefit I had to my Masters program is that I was able to take a ton of undergrad coursework (in addition to grad), fulfill prereqs I didn't have in my undergrad, boost my BCPM and undergrad GPA, and get a Masters degree....all for the same tuition, which was cool. Sure, I lost my sanity, but it was a small price to pay....

 

[Haemulon]

I agree with the above. Unless you have a genuine interest in researching or publishing in the field, definitely go non-thesis. And do it fast!

I struggled with a 4-year masters my first time in grad school all because I was naive early on and didn't realize what a crappy project/advisor I fell into. Basically the agenda of the PI was to keep grad students working as RA's to generate funds so he could do something completely different. Despite making some good progress, there just was no way that the project could be completed respectably even with another couple of years of work. So I switched non-thesis and bailed. I did manage to get a pub and had some other interesting experience to talk about, but it was huge nightmare trying to escape that black hole.

After working a few years, I went back for a second MS in a different field, but was more wise this time. I developed the appropriate allies and went about my project in a way that kept my goals (graduating on time) clearly up front. It STILL turned out to be a very stressfull finish, but I managed to finish on schedule. Unfortunately I think there was still some hard feelings left behind (one comes to mind).

Bottom line: grad research can be very messy and needlessly stressfull unless you really plan carefully. The whole process can be sloppy and open ended, depending on the advisor, lab, and project, so don't fall into any traps! The non-thesis route is clean and neat, and best of all has a pretty set schedule for completion. It really does not matter for med school admissions which one you pick, so that makes it a no-brainer from my perspective. 👍