What should I do a Masters in (pre-med Forum)

[Sugarplum94]

Hey Everyone!

It's been a long time, hope you are all doing well. I wrote a forum on the nontraditional section, but go no response as of today, so I thought that I might try writing one on this forum, since, from my personal opinion, a lot of pre-meds know much more about the process.

I am currently completing a post bacc, with the intent of having all my pre-reqs for medical school done, but I just found out from a couple friends that they are doing OT school, then planning on medicine. Although I try not to compare myself with them too much now, (there was an old post about the insecurity I felt) but I am now questioning whether that is a good option.

You see my friends' reasoning was that if by chance they did not get in to medical school with a biological sciences Masters, it would be heart breaking because they would've spent so much money and time for nothing, but if they went and got an OT masters, even if by chance they did not get in, they wouldn't worry too much because they would be able to find jobs and not be left hanging like they were during their bachelors.

My questions to you all are; is this something people do? Like, is there a good majority of students who do OT or maybe some other professional masters program then apply to med school? Will that help their application? Are there any other masters programs like OT, where you can get clinical skills you may need, attempt med school, but if everything fails you can find a job easily?

I know medicine is everyone's passion here, and I might sound somewhat dispassionate, but I don't come from a home that's stable enough financially to help me pursue many degrees/careers to get to Med School. Like I knew a lady who got two Masters degrees and got in 1 med school in the mid west. I am not really giving up hope, because regardless of GPA/MCATS/ECs, there is a lot to admission process, but I do want to have a good back up plan, in which I can work in a good job that can be substantial for my own survival and growth, as I moved towards medicine. So guys are there any other masters degrees out there that are better than Biomedical sciences? I know two OT and maybe clinical psychology, but I was a psychology major and I did not like it very well.

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[gyngyn]

Generally speaking, Master's degrees have little effect on improving candidacy for MD schools.
The grades from these programs do not remediate a weak undergrad performance and are not averaged into undergrad gpa's.
The exceptions are SMP's designed to address these deficiencies.
DO schools see things differently.

 

[Sugarplum94]

hmm...I see. I can see that having a weak undergrad regardless does not do much anyway, but medical schools many times do take in to consideration your success in post bacc/masters. So I mean, I am not trying to undermine the powerful impact a low GPA can have, but at the same time, I can kinda see how advantageous it would be for some students to not do SMPs, but opt for a program that can give them clinical experience, masters, career, and even a very different application from the rest. But I can definitely see your point of view, coming from a GPA/score-based standpoint.