MPH or caribbean med?

[reappMD]

I have a predicament. I need to let the U of MN school of public health know next week if I want to enroll in their master's program. This opportunity would perhaps give me a good grad GPA and gain some experience. I would need to retake the MCAT and reapply to US med school in 3-4 years.

However, I am on the waiting list for Duluth Med and SGU in the caribbean.

My stats are 3.1 and 28.

Advice???!?

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[BeardedRunner]

I have a predicament. I need to let the U of MN school of public health know next week if I want to enroll in their master's program. This opportunity would perhaps give me a good grad GPA and gain some experience. I would need to retake the MCAT and reapply to US med school in 3-4 years.

However, I am on the waiting list for Duluth Med and SGU in the caribbean.

My stats are 3.1 and 28.

Advice???!?

From what I hear MPH is not medically related. You don't actually do hands on healthcare. It's more paperwork and a lot of Excel. You just have to calculate a lot of statistics and stuff.

I'm a minor in Global Health and we mainly spent time calculating the prevalence of diarrhea in Sub Saharan African countries.

 

[funkydrmonkey]

Do the MPH and then Reapply...

 

[Nukanuba]

I'm no expert, but I'd say if you have a good shot of getting off the waitlist for U of MN duluth, I'd do it because (you probably know this) but the U of MN has a dual MD/MPH where you can get your MPH in only one additional year between your second and third year of med school. Otherwise, to do the MPH and then med later seems like a waste of a year and the money ( I think if you're a med student doing the MPH they might pay for a big chunk of it too...could be wrong on this though). Unless of course the only reason for the MPH is the GPA boost and not for later use.....then IDK

 

[engineeredout]

MPH sounds boring to me. One of my majors is applied math and statistics, and they've offered five year combined mph programs. As said above its lots of paperwork and disease statistics.

It'd definitely look good though to have it when you re apply for american schools, so if thats really what you want, give it a shot

 

[Character]

a majority of the mph students (that arent already health professionals) at dartmouth have been accepted to a bunch of allo med schools this year

 

[reappMD]

I'm no expert, but I'd say if you have a good shot of getting off the waitlist for U of MN duluth, I'd do it because (you probably know this) but the U of MN has a dual MD/MPH where you can get your MPH in only one additional year between your second and third year of med school. Otherwise, to do the MPH and then med later seems like a waste of a year and the money ( I think if you're a med student doing the MPH they might pay for a big chunk of it too...could be wrong on this though). Unless of course the only reason for the MPH is the GPA boost and not for later use.....then IDK

I'm on the bottom half of the waiting list. I want to do primary care so MPH might be good for that. However, I wouldn't be satisfied with just MPH. I want to do patient care (with an MD). I didn't realize the one year option was available in med school. I know it's offered online to people with RN or MD degrees already...

 

[Law2Doc]

I have a predicament. I need to let the U of MN school of public health know next week if I want to enroll in their master's program. This opportunity would perhaps give me a good grad GPA and gain some experience. I would need to retake the MCAT and reapply to US med school in 3-4 years.

However, I am on the waiting list for Duluth Med and SGU in the caribbean.

My stats are 3.1 and 28.

Advice???!?

The advice is simple. Your issues are your UNDERGRAD level GPA and your MCAT. So you need to address those things. Not do something to give you a graduate GPA which doesn't get factored in to the calculations. Unless your goal is to go into public health, an MPH is not a particularly high yield tool to make yourself a better med school applicant.

 

[reappMD]

The advice is simple. Your issues are your UNDERGRAD level GPA and your MCAT. So you need to address those things. Not do something to give you a graduate GPA which doesn't get factored in to the calculations. Unless your goal is to go into public health, an MPH is not a particularly high yield tool to make yourself a better med school applicant.

very good advice! i suppose undergrad and grad will be separate and MPH won't likely change my BCPM unless I decide to take science classes for my elective courses. it would take a lot of classes to increase my undergrad gpa though

 

[REL]

The advice is simple. Your issues are your UNDERGRAD level GPA and your MCAT. So you need to address those things. Not do something to give you a graduate GPA which doesn't get factored in to the calculations. Unless your goal is to go into public health, an MPH is not a particularly high yield tool to make yourself a better med school applicant.

Amen, in fact you if MD is your goal, you need to do a full-time MS in a basic science discipline and do very well. An MPH, while a good degree for being "around" medicine and medical topics, is poor for actually getting into medical school if you need to improve your SGPA and MCAT because there is little basic science in an MPH. Check with an admissions office at a med school to which you recently applied to get their opinion.

 

[Nikki2002]

how about a 1 year special masters program that is specifically aimed at students who are trying to get into med school??

 

[Perrotfish]

how about a 1 year special masters program that is specifically aimed at students who are trying to get into med school??

This is a good idea. Or you could just do more undergrad. Or retake the MCAT to break a 30. The point is both the options you gave (Carribean and MPH) aren't generally considered winning bets if you want to eventually be a board certified US Doctor with your stats. Read through the postbac forum, starting with the low GPA thread.

a majority of the mph students (that arent already health professionals) at dartmouth have been accepted to a bunch of allo med schools this year

Not necessarily causitive. Some MPH programs, especially at top schools, have entering class statistics that are VERY high.

 

[Character]

This is a good idea. Or you could just do more undergrad. Or retake the MCAT to break a 30. The point is both the options you gave (Carribean and MPH) aren't generally considered winning bets if you want to eventually be a board certified US Doctor with your stats. Read through the postbac forum, starting with the low GPA thread.



Not necessarily causitive. Some MPH programs, especially at top schools, have entering class statistics that are VERY high.

i dont know, but from what ive heard (we have a discussion forum/ website for dartmouth mph students) the majority of their interviews were focused on their time in the dartmouth mph program..