Post-bac/Master's program question!

[Floersh]

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Hey all,

Tulane Medical School has a very enticing program in pharm that I'm interested in for my gap year. The program bills itself as a sort of "med school prep" that improves your application credentials, and the stats for students who apply to med school the following year are pretty outstanding. However, you do graduate with a MS degree. I have been told time and time again by advisers that doing a master's program is a waste of time and money, especially if I'm looking to eventually obtain an MD/PhD. I'm more inclined to get my PhD in neuro, not pharm, but they insist that I might as well just go ahead and get a PhD if I'm going to get a master's in anything. I suppose the main question I pose is this: have any current med school students gone through a similar program with successful results, or are any of you pre-meds also looking to apply to something like this? And should simply opt to take more undergrad classes instead to boost my UGPA (it's currently around a 3.4)? Even if I got a great MCAT score, I just don't think my GPA is where it needs to be to apply right now and I would like to improve it.

Sorry if this is a little confusing; all my thoughts are a bit jumbled. Thanks for your help!

 

[armybound]

the ultimate goal is to get in to the MD program, since it's harder to get in to than an MS or PhD program. for the MS degree to be worthless it would have to both not improve your chances at getting into medical school and not improve your future job prospects. I don't know what kind of job you can get with an MS in pharm but I bet the job opportunities are better than with a BS in whatever you have already. With a good performance, it should also improve your chances at getting in to an MD program, and it takes a lot less time and effort than the PhD.

either way, worry about the MD acceptance, not completing the PhD.

 

[235788]

Hey all,

Tulane Medical School has a very enticing program in pharm that I'm interested in for my gap year. The program bills itself as a sort of "med school prep" that improves your application credentials, and the stats for students who apply to med school the following year are pretty outstanding. However, you do graduate with a MS degree. I have been told time and time again by advisers that doing a master's program is a waste of time and money, especially if I'm looking to eventually obtain an MD/PhD. I'm more inclined to get my PhD in neuro, not pharm, but they insist that I might as well just go ahead and get a PhD if I'm going to get a master's in anything. I suppose the main question I pose is this: have any current med school students gone through a similar program with successful results, or are any of you pre-meds also looking to apply to something like this? And should simply opt to take more undergrad classes instead to boost my UGPA (it's currently around a 3.4)? Even if I got a great MCAT score, I just don't think my GPA is where it needs to be to apply right now and I would like to improve it.

Sorry if this is a little confusing; all my thoughts are a bit jumbled. Thanks for your help!

is that the tulane SMP? If so, do it. If you're going to do an irrelevant masters, at least do one with a linkage (accept x% of students into their medical school)

 

[Floersh]

You are correct. To my knowledge, for whatever reason, Tulane doesn't bill this program as an SMP (as opposed to other institutions).
Anyone know folks who have gone through this program with successful acceptance into MD school?

 

[Nyemt72]

The Tulane secondary asks if you're in one of their special programs and lists the science graduate programs. I called earlier and they said they are referring to the Master's program. I don't think it's considered an SMP but it seems they do recognize if you're in their program.

 

[dweji16]

You are correct. To my knowledge, for whatever reason, Tulane doesn't bill this program as an SMP (as opposed to other institutions).
Anyone know folks who have gone through this program with successful acceptance into MD school?

I know someone who did the Pharmacology program at Tulane and matriculated to Tulane directly after graduation from the program...

 

[Floersh]

Awesome! Do you know if they think it helped greatly in their acceptance or if they were already a borderline applicant who just needed a little extra boost? It's just a lot of money to put down if it's not immensely productive...

 

[Floersh]

The Tulane secondary asks if you're in one of their special programs and lists the science graduate programs. I called earlier and they said they are referring to the Master's program. I don't think it's considered an SMP but it seems they do recognize if you're in their program.

That's great! So you're applying to Tulane for the 2013 cycle?