online class before/during MPH and uGPA

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Hi everyone,

I'm a soon to be graduated senior over at UC Riverside. I'm a Biology major with a statistics minor with current aspirations of doing an MPH after a gap year working in a health department then maybe going into medicine afterwards. My cGPA will end up being about 3.5, with a 3.2/3.3 sGPA (haven't actually calculated it myself but basing it off my universities probably inaccurate degree audit tool). I have a lot of the basic premed things like hospital volunteering and also have research (in a non-health field) and a lot of free clinic type stuff.

Based on what I've read on these forums my MPH grades won't count towards my uGPA (which I'm fine with, the MPH is more out of personal/career interest rather than just a means into med school). If I do end up going to med school I'm pretty dead set on doing a specialty that's related to PH (infectious disease, family med, etc).

My main question is, if I take undergrad level science courses online/at an extension center/community college after completing my bachelor's before and after starting my MPH would med school adcoms count these courses into my GPA and more over see them in a positive light? Im particularly unsure how they'd view online classes (tho I'd imagine a large part of it depends on the institution I do them with).

Also just so I don't clutter the forum with additional threads, I've also been considering perhaps forgoing doing the MPH until after completing MD and instead do an SMP (Been looking at USC's one year master's in global med in particular). My biggest apprehension for going this route is that I'm not sure the MS will be of any use if I decide I no longer want to pursue medicine, especially compared to the MPH which is considered a professional degree.

Sorry for such a long post! Thank you in advance for any advice you can muster.

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[wholeheartedly]

Hi everyone,

I'm a soon to be graduated senior over at UC Riverside. I'm a Biology major with a statistics minor with current aspirations of doing an MPH after a gap year working in a health department then maybe going into medicine afterwards. My cGPA will end up being about 3.5, with a 3.2/3.3 sGPA (haven't actually calculated it myself but basing it off my universities probably inaccurate degree audit tool). I have a lot of the basic premed things like hospital volunteering and also have research (in a non-health field) and a lot of free clinic type stuff.

Based on what I've read on these forums my MPH grades won't count towards my uGPA (which I'm fine with, the MPH is more out of personal/career interest rather than just a means into med school). If I do end up going to med school I'm pretty dead set on doing a specialty that's related to PH (infectious disease, family med, etc).

My main question is, if I take undergrad level science courses online/at an extension center/community college after completing my bachelor's before and after starting my MPH would med school adcoms count these courses into my GPA and more over see them in a positive light? Im particularly unsure how they'd view online classes (tho I'd imagine a large part of it depends on the institution I do them with).

Also just so I don't clutter the forum with additional threads, I've also been considering perhaps forgoing doing the MPH until after completing MD and instead do an SMP (Been looking at USC's one year master's in global med in particular). My biggest apprehension for going this route is that I'm not sure the MS will be of any use if I decide I no longer want to pursue medicine, especially compared to the MPH which is considered a professional degree.

Sorry for such a long post! Thank you in advance for any advice you can muster.

The MPH is an awesome degree if you have some plans for how you intend to use it, which it sounds like you do. Epi would be great with your background/interests.

The big question then is when is the best time to do the MPH if you do it. Advantages of doing it in med school or after, sometimes you can get the degree paid for. If you do residency or fellowship it an academic center with an affiliated school of public health they often have the option to do the degree during fellowship and it's not rare for it to be paid for, especially fellowships like ID. Grad school isn't cheap. During or after medical school also allows you to tailor your degree around your specific medical interests which will probably be much better defined at that point. You can align things better with your future career needs at this point.

One disadvantage as you noted, is that you can't as easily use it as a backup if medical school doesn't work out. Another is that things can be rushed when fitting a normally 2 year degree into an off year during med school or being rushed during a busy fellwship. The MPH courses are valuable in and of themselves, but the extra curriculars and field experiences, masters project, and volunteering, etc are where a huge amount of value from the degree comes in. Having time to more fully devote yourself to participate in/explore these things can be pretty great.

Side note, while the graduate GPA from an MPH probably won't have a dramatic impact on med school admissions (unless you do poorly) it can give younsome pretty great extra curriculars to talk about.

As for how taking other classes will be viewed, first anything after you finish UG is going to be listed as a postbac GPA. Showing an upward trend here will be good. How online classes and cc classes are viewed seems to vary quite a bit by med school, the school offering the classes makes a difference too. MSAR might have some info on this. An online class from something like a for profit university of phoenix type program is probably viewed a bit differently than an online class offered by a public 4- yr state school. Often the 4 yr school will not even note anywhere the class was online or anything.

With community college classes, people do go that route for some of their classes and get in. Thoughts generally seem to be that you shouldn't take your pre reqs at a cc if at all possible, if you are geographically or financially restricted with no good 4 year options nearby you can probably take some classes that way. You need to be cautious not to give the appearance of trying to take cc classes just to get easier A's. Again though, how these things are viewed is pretty variable by school and individual situation.

In your case, you are trying to take extra classes to bump your GPA and schow med schools you can give a strong performance, so its probably best to avoid the CC route. A formal postbacc is one option, an informal postbac is another. Could you take some evening science classes while working this gap year job or while working on your MPH?

 

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Hello! I know this was written long ago but I kinda lost track of things while finishing up my last year of uni. I definitely think itd be possible for me to take night time classes, though im unsure how much of an impact they'll make on my GPA. Thank you so much for your very detailed response!

 

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Also if anyone else would like to share their two cents don't hesitate! I need all the advice I can get!