Weight of Graduate Degrees in Admissions

[ts73]

Hi everyone. Very new to SDN. One topic that is not discussed widely in med school admissions is how much weight having a graduate degree carries. I ask b/c I am a tenured professor with a Ph.D. from a top research university and two Master's degrees. Around 30 publications.What weight do these carry or is just down to GPAs and MCAT? Thanks in advance. Glad to have the support. Best of luck to all!

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[Nymphicus]

Welcome to SDN.

In your case, the degree itself isn't as important as the (successful) career you have now. A tenured science professor to pre-med is very unusual indeed.

 

[ts73]

Thanks for quick reply. Just to clarify, I'm not a Ph.D. in sciences. My UG is in foreign languages and my graduate work is in international development fields.

 

[DrMidlife]

Unfortunately, like the rest of us who changed careers into medicine, your career is now an EC. An Extra Curricular Activity. That's how it will get presented when you apply.

The good news is that you have one of the more interesting ECs that the med school admissions folks will have seen in a while. All of your experience with teaching and research is definitely a positive. You'll be fun to interview.

But you have to get into med school on the same terms as the kiddoes: undergrad GPA (cumulative & science) and MCAT. Your grad work in foreign languages & international development aren't part of the mix. Your old undergrad grades will be averaged in with your new undergrad grades.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Law2Doc]

Unfortunately, like the rest of us who changed careers into medicine, your career is now an EC. An Extra Curricular Activity. That's how it will get presented when you apply.

The good news is that you have one of the more interesting ECs that the med school admissions folks will have seen in a while. All of your experience with teaching and research is definitely a positive. You'll be fun to interview.

But you have to get into med school on the same terms as the kiddoes: undergrad GPA (cumulative & science) and MCAT. Your grad work in foreign languages & international development aren't part of the mix. Your old undergrad grades will be averaged in with your new undergrad grades.

Best of luck to you.

Agree 100%.

 

[DrMidlife]

Periodically, I wonder how stupid an AdComm needs to be to overlook the amount of work and time it took to get a PhD or to downgrade it to a fancy extracurricular. Do the conversations go like this?

"Hey Larry, we have a PhD in (noun) applying. Gosh, maybe that degree means he has the drive to finish something complex and academic."
"Well this 21 year old totally volunteered for 400 hours at an ER during college."
"Oh. Yeah, that's a lot more impressive. F*** the PhD."

You just have to make it to the review phase where somebody's looking at your whole app. You have to squeeze yourself through the traditional premed-sized hole before Larry & friends ever see you. You have to assume that somebody or something screens your app for GPA/MCAT before your app ever goes to Larry & friends to look at the usually-painfully-boring EC list or the usually-excruciatingly-cloying PS in the context of the whole app.

And then if you are a classically trained pianist or you grew up in Tanzania or you got a PhD in anthropology, Larry & friends have a lot more fun.

Point being, PhD in (noun) only impresses if traditional premed assets are impressive first.

Best of luck to you.

 

[TriagePreMed]

Periodically, I wonder how stupid an AdComm needs to be to overlook the amount of work and time it took to get a PhD or to downgrade it to a fancy extracurricular. Do the conversations go like this?

"Hey Larry, we have a PhD in (noun) applying. Gosh, maybe that degree means he has the drive to finish something complex and academic."
"Well this 21 year old totally volunteered for 400 hours at an ER during college."
"Oh. Yeah, that's a lot more impressive. F*** the PhD."

More stupid than comparing the accomplishments a 21 year old can have vs someone that age/Ph.D?

 

[gyngyn]

Periodically, I wonder how stupid an AdComm needs to be to overlook the amount of work and time it took to get a PhD or to downgrade it to a fancy extracurricular. Do the conversations go like this?

"Hey Larry, we have a PhD in (noun) applying. Gosh, maybe that degree means he has the drive to finish something complex and academic."
"Well this 21 year old totally volunteered for 400 hours at an ER during college."
"Oh. Yeah, that's a lot more impressive. F*** the PhD."

There is no comparison. Each applicant is evaluated on their potential return to society, not on that individual's accomplishments.

 

[HoltMD]

I love SDN!!!

 

[Law2Doc]

It's just amusing that everyone I know says, "Oh, that PhD must mean something," and I get to say, "nope!" because more is riding on the genetics class I took in 1997 than the degree I have on my wall. Gotta love it. Oh wait, no.

It's basically like bringing dice to a card game -- advanced degrees are useful, just not for this. So you'll get some added respect for being a "gambler", but it's not really going to impact the current game. Hence the EC valuation.

 

[Scottish Chap]

Hi everyone. Very new to SDN. One topic that is not discussed widely in med school admissions is how much weight having a graduate degree carries. I ask b/c I am a tenured professor with a Ph.D. from a top research university and two Master's degrees. Around 30 publications.What weight do these carry or is just down to GPAs and MCAT? Thanks in advance. Glad to have the support. Best of luck to all!

Welcome.

The weight of a graduate degree largely depends on the medical school. The medical school to which I was ultimately accepted noted an extremely successful graduate record, and beyond--much like yourself--and it helped enormously (I walked away from an offered faculty position at Stanford to go to medical school, BTW). Then there are medical schools like the University of Toronto (where I also won an interview) which have a separate application process for PhDs with publications (they request that you send in your CV and publications to a separate office).

In general, as others will tell you, the average medical school in the U.S. wants a strong undergraduate GPA with no red flags, and will pay less attention to the graduate GPA. Many schools use a computer to screen undergraduate GPA and if that is a problem for you (not saying that it is), a stellar graduate record will not be seen.

Medical school applicants with a PhD are plentiful now, and it's harder to gain admission. I suspect the biggest hurdle for you is 'why medicine, and why now'. Medical school interviewers are very suspicious people and there is bias against some applicants with red flags in their undergraduate record and with an otherwise successful present career. Where I was a resident, there was an Ob-gyn who was a tenured professor in molecular biology who got into GW's medical school at age 50, and there was a tenured immunology faculty member at Columbia who go into Mount Sinai's medical school at age 38. It happens.

Good luck.