PCOM Biomedical Science Program or One Year Plus MPH Program at TJU?

[Housefan89]

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Hello, I have to decide whether I want to choose to attend the One year plus program for Masters in Public Health at TJU, Jefferson School of Population Health or the Biomedical Sciences Program at PCOM by April 7th. I am pre-med and plan to attend medical school in either 2012 or 2013. I have already gotten all my recommendation letters through my undergrad school, and applied to DO programs last summer, and taken the MCATs. Unfortunately, my GPA is only a 3.3 and my MCAT score was a 22. I plan to retake and restudy the MCATs this summer...

Pros of TJU One Year Plus
- location
- can be completed in only one year
- mph helps with competitive residencies

Pros of PCOM Biomed - 2 years
- easier to get into PCOM?
- degree is more valuable in industry
- higher paying jobs

 

[Jack1919]

I live in Philadelphia. In my opinion, I would go for the PCOM route. Take the upper level courses there and then take the next step. Focus focus focus and retake your MCAT. Score well. I know it sucks. It may take longer but the turtle will beat the hare(sp?). Get in MD/DO - who cares which one - after you're actually working, you and your peers will likely not care.

I worked at CHOP and a few attendings, after they were attendings, went and did the MPH or the Master's in clinical research online or over the course of a year or two at U Penn. Take one step at a time. Get in to med school first, pass USMLE's, get through residency, ~maybe a fellowship~, work, get the smell of work out of you, and finally get some reward for all that you just went through. Then maybe, and only then, if it strikes you to go for the extra-curric. stuff and - GO FOR YOURS. Just kidding, you can do it... Just hold your horses. All this stuff changes quickly. One day/step at a time.

 

[TheNotoriousMPH]

Hi, I earned an MPH a while ago, and I'm applying to school right now.
Are you good at math? If you want to go to MD schools, it's most likely that the only MPH courses that you will take that will count towards your crucial biology/chem/physics/math GPA are your biostats courses. If you are certain that you can rock them and you want to go to an MD school, than an MPH will do you good. The thing is, unless you are a biostats major, you won't be taking too many courses that count towards the science GPA as calculated on your MD school apps.

For DO schools, they count epidemiology courses towards calculating your science GPA. In an MPH program, you are likely to take quite a few epidemiology classes.

For me, I took 3 biostats classes for my MPH. One of them I took without the pre-requiste course, and I kinda bombed it. MD schools think that I have something like a 3.2 science GPA in grad school, so they aren't so interested. I took buckets of epidemiology classes, and I was really good at them. So, DO schools think that I have ~3.8 grad school science GPA.

I love public health, and I've built my career around it, so I can live with the consequences of having a bummer grade drag down my grad school science GPA. If you want an alternative career possibility, if you really want to make sure that public health is a component of your future career, if you looove biostats, or if DO schools are the only schools on your radar, maybe MPH is the better choice.

If your main focus is getting into med school, and you particularly want an MD school, a biomed program might serve you best. I think that those programs often help you prep for the MCAT better than an MPH program could, either through a formal MCAT prep program, or just through studying some related material and having a network of peers who are also working on their MCATs (MPH programs won't do jack for your MCATs). Biomed programs also help you establish connections with a school and its professors, making it easier to get in.
Not sure how much MD schools rank biomed programs at DO schools, though. Either way, good luck!