Regular Masters vs SMP

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FLGatorMed

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Hello,

I am torn between doing a special masters program in a field like physiology, or just doing a regular one year masters in healthcare policy/administration. My issue is that I do ultimately want to go to medical school, but fear that a healthcare administration masters will not help me combat a low undergraduate GPA at all. However, I feel that in general, an MHA degree is much more useful to have than a special masters... Should I just stick with the special masters to boost my medical school chances, or would taking summer post-bacc science classes + a masters in healthcare administration look good enough for strengthening an application?

I appreciate any advice.

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An MHA degree is useful for what? Your end goal is to become a doctor, and if you need a boost in GPA, that MHA degree will not help.

I would recommend taking post bac courses
 
The MHA won't have many science classes. I would imagine it would have no science classes. Therefore, med schools won't care about it.

Post bac or a true SMP would be your best options. An MS with all science classes and a research thesis would be second best.
 
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By "low" how low do you mean?

SDN standards of low could easily be 3.5-3.6: that GPA would be fine.

If your GPA is something like a 3.1 though? Then yeah I would recommend an SMP.

If it is in the 3.3-3.5 range I would probably recommend some post-bacc work over an SMP.

A traditional masters isn't going to do anything worthwhile to boost a low uGPA. The SMP and post-bacc are what you need to look at unless your GPA is only "bad" in SDN type standards and not actually bad at all.
 
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What's your gpa? Please consider cost: a free thesis masters may not help you as much for admissions, but may offer more options than an administration degree while providing research, etc. SMPs are commonly expensive compared to postbacs, and are often the last resort choice. If your gpa is at a low, but salvageable level, a postbac would help at less cost, and retaking the lowest classes would help you if you applied DO.
 
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