Post Bac or Masters Program? Which is better?

[j11e011991d]

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I'm looking to repair my GPA and show an upward trend on my academic record. My grades suffered a lot due to some family losses and I ended my undergrad career with a 2.9 gpa. What should I do? A pre Med Post bac program or a special masters program?

 

[kyamh]

I have a friend who swears by the Tufts post-bac. Says it was the best decision of her life.

What do you mean by special master's?

 

[j11e011991d]

Thats good! Did that post bac program help your friend get into medical school?

A special masters program is a type of postbac program that also allows you to take science courses. Students who are qualified medical school applicants but who have not yet been successful in matriculating may want to consider participating in a special master’s preparatory program (a type of post-bac) to further strengthen their academic credentials for the re-application process. So you get to take classes and earn a masters at the same time.

 

[Drhigh]

A SMP would be best but the more competitive ones require an undergrad gpa of 3.0 unless you have a stellar mcat. However you must make sure you can handle an SMP. It is basically your last chance to show adcoms that you can handle med school classes. If you do poorly you can say goodbye to your med school chances.

In your case I would do some extra classes to get your undergrad gpa to a 3.0 to improve your chances to get into an SMP. In addition some med school screen out those below 3.0 even if you do amazing in the SMP

 

[j11e011991d]

A SMP would be best but the more competitive ones require an undergrad gpa of 3.0 unless you have a stellar mcat. However you must make sure you can handle an SMP. It is basically your last chance to show adcoms that you can handle med school classes. If you do poorly you can say goodbye to your med school chances.

In your case I would do some extra classes to get your undergrad gpa to a 3.0 to improve your chances to get into an SMP. In addition some med school screen out those below 3.0 even if you do amazing in the SMP

So I should do the pre med post bac right now since I graduated this past may? I don't know how to raise my GPA. If I take post bac courses would that improve my 2.9 GPA if I do good? I didn't know that taking extra courses could have an effect on my current GPA.

 

[Drhigh]

Certain postbac programs go towards your undergrad gpa. I'm not sure which ones though. So if you do a postbac for a year with a 4.0 your gpa won't improve drastically. If you took another 4 years of post bac with a 4.0 your gpa would be below a 3.5 which is really low for MD schools. So an SMP would be needed. However if you want to do DO. You can probably just retake some of your classes to boost your gpa since they do grade replacement and their standards are lower.

 

[j11e011991d]

Certain postbac programs go towards your undergrad gpa. I'm not sure which ones though. So if you do a postbac for a year with a 4.0 your gpa won't improve drastically. If you took another 4 years of post bac with a 4.0 your gpa would be below a 3.5 which is really low for MD schools. So an SMP would be needed. However if you want to do DO. You can probably just retake some of your classes to boost your gpa since they do grade replacement and their standards are lower.

Ok thank you so much. I will start doing research to see if I can find those schools that go towards my undergrad GPA.

 

[Drhigh]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=71

Take a look at the threads in this section. There is a list of many of the programs you might be interested in

 

[alpinism]

All postbacc programs will increase your undergrad GPA (as long as you're taking UG classes). The vast majority of medical schools (w/ the exception of some DO schools) require a minimum 3.0 undergrad GPA to even apply.

OP, you need to first do a postbacc to get your GPA above 3.0. Then do an SMP program.