satch surfer said:
Thanks for the responses, everyone. I really appreciate all of your input.
-I have been accepted to BU; in fact, I was accepted both years. Here's why I don't think it's a good investment: 1) It's a Master of ARTS--No way am I paying 50K for an MA. 2) The degree is fluffy sounding--what's 'Medical Sciences,' anyway? Say this plan goes south--any employer is going to wonder what the heck that is. I know that a good number of people are accepted to medical school from this program, but I'm suspect of a program that has a fairly high dropout rate (there is some contention about this, however, so please correct me if you have more accurate info).
-Georgetown's program is, IMHO, the best because 1) It's one year and 2) It confers an MS (not an MA) in a bonafide, hard science discipline--Physiology and Biophysics. That could be of considerable value, even outside of the medical application process. The rest of these programs have fluffy sounding degree names and/or are two years, which is why I feel uneasy about investing in them.
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The MS versus MA makes no difference and Medical Sciences is the department name i.e. if you want a PhD in neuro, it is through the graduate medical sciences department. The classes are essentially the same at BU as Gtown, where u take Physio, histology, Endo, Immuno, Biochem with the medical students (same class) and a couple GMS only requirements like biostats (with the PhD and MD/PhD students). It is expensive (they all are), and the grading scale is made over sevaeral years and includes the med students (they dont jsut give out A's, A-'s etc to boost GPA). I finished the BU program and my entire study group got into medical schools the next year (BU, NYU, NYMC, Tufts, and a few others..) If you do well, you will get in, if you end up with mediocre grades (too many B's/B+'s) it wont help at all. This goes for any of the similar programs.
RE the dropout rate: plenty of people leave the program because they cant do it. It is not easy, Histo alone is silly hard-- the medical students have a much easier time because it is all pass/fail for them, for grad students a B is useless and a B+ is decent (while most fall into the B/B+ range) but you really need an A range grade. If everyone does very well, the entire class could presumably get an A because the grade cut-offs are historically based.. no stupid bell curve grading where a certain percentage of the class has to be in a certain grade range. Some cant do the work and cant pass the classes, so drop out (if u cant pass the medical school classes, you dont belong in medical school anyway..)
1 or 2 years: Just about everyone finishes the coursework in a year, after which most apply/reapply and use the second year (which ends up costing about 4k for year 2) to do the thesis. You can also finish the thesis in the summer after the first year so that the program only lasts 1 year...that is what students who are entering medical school immediatly following the 1st year of the program do. --as well as anyone else who wants to get the thesis out of the way--
If the plan goes south... I dont know what you can really do with any of these degrees.. They are not designed to be terminal degrees. The point of all these programs is to get into medical school (or dental).. although i do know of some people that used it for PhD programs.. Honestly, if you work hard and stay in the A/A- range for all the classes, you will most likely get in somewhere.
It is a lot of work, but well worth it if you put the time in. The MA med sci does sound stupid and not as cool as physiology and biophysics.. but they are the same thing.. it is only semantics.. either way, when you are a Dr, no one cares if you have an MA or an MS.. as long as you get the MD or DO.
