Online Graduate Programs: Quick Question

[sunmoon6689]

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Are online graduate programs in areas such as public health frowned upon by admissions committees? Does anybody know of an individual who has had success gaining admission to medical school after completing such a program? Thank you for the help.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

I'm not an ADCOM member, but I doubt an online degree will buy you anything in ADCOMs' eyes. I would think it wouldn't help or hurt you (unless you did poorly in your online classes) and your application would be evaluated based upon how you did in your "live" undergraduate classes. So, while I don't know anyone personally that has been accepted after completing an onlice degree, I'm sure it has happened (so long as their undergraduate stats were satisfactory.) If you are looking to make up for lackluster undergraduate performance, I wouldn't choose an online graduate program, but would instead go for a formal PostBac program or just take upper-division BCPM classes at your local 4-year University.

 

[relentless11]

I agree with Jota_jota. Personally, I didn't even know you can get an MPH from online. Ultimately, the best is to look at it from an adcom's perspective. These people got their MDs, MPHs, PhDs, and MD/PhDs through traditional methods. At best they would just not think any less or any better of the degree, at worse they could think of it as inferior to what they did (or what their colleagues did). Thus they may focus on your more traditional work, such as undergrad, and if that is not competative either, then that certainly does not look good.