What would you recommend?

[PreMedMissteps]

A 5th year senior premed has come for advice. The 5th year is because he’s a double major. One of the maors is biology

Anyway, he has a 3.5 cum and 3.6 science GPA. The other major’s courses actually hurt his GPA more than premed prereqs did. He’s getting all A’s this semester, so his GPA may bump a tiny bit. Next semester may also bump his GPA.

Took the MCAT last summer, got a 508, and was disappointed because his state can be difficult. It has a few public meds, but it also has a lot of applicants. He is studying and preparing to take it again. He hopes for at least a 510, but hopefully a 513,

His premed advisor has advised him to apply to med school this summer, but also spend this summer and the next school year getting a masters in biology.

I think this is terrible advice for several reasons:

Masters degrees have little value to med schools.
When he applies this June, he won’t have any grades from grad school as he will have just started summer classes. And grad school grades don’t mean a lot anyway.
It’s doubtful that he could complete 30 grad credits in 1 summer plus 2 semesters.
He already had to borrow a lot of money for his 5th year of undergrad, so adding debt for an unneeded masters seems risky in light of the fact that he’d also be taking on $200k-300k of debt for med school.
He’d have a hard time writing secondaries this summer while also balancing summer grad classes.
Interviews may conflict with grad school obligations.

I think grad school has too many negatives.

I gave him some ideas of how he may want to do after May graduation, but what do you all think?

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[efle]

Agree with the debt aversion. Go work a job to fund the cycle, don't add tens of thousands of unnecessary debt for a master's degree that he hopes to never use.

 

[thegreengreatdragon]

I could see maybe a post bac if he's really concerned about GPA/does poorly on the MCAT retake, but getting a full Master's degree seems like overkill, not to mention a waste of time and money. I agree with efle, a job seems like the best option.

 

[PreMedMissteps]

Great! I thought job, too, along with continuing volunteering, etc.

 

[HomeSkool]

He should not retake the MCAT unless he is virtually certain he can break 515. A 510 is close enough to a 508 that it would likely hurt him -- i.e., he studied another year and didn't make any meaningful improvement.

 

[Goro]

Agree with the debt aversion. Go work a job to fund the cycle, don't add tens of thousands of unnecessary debt for a master's degree that he hopes to never use.

This. The guy does nOT need any more schooling.

A good school list is more important. I suggest:
U VM

U Miami (maybe)

U Toledo

Rush

NYMC

Creighton

Tufts

Albany

Rosy Franklin

Drexel

Temple

MCW

SLU

WVU

Wayne State

Tulane

Loyola

Wake Forest

Loma Linda (only if you are SDA or a very devout Christian)

VCU

Netter

Seton Hall

EVMS

Oakland-B

Gtown

GWU

Uniformed Services University/Hebert (just be aware of the military service commitment)

Nova MD

Your state school(s).

Any DO program. I can't recommend Touro-NY, Nova, Wm Carey, LUCOM, for different reasons. MSUCOM? Read up on Larry Nasser and you decide. LMU has an accreditation warning, which concerns me.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

LUCOM

I don't want to derail the thread, so I can PM you if you want, but do you say you don't recommend LUCOM because of the really strict student code, or is it a performance on boards/in the match issue?

 

[Goro]

I don't want to derail the thread, so I can PM you if you want, but do you say you don't recommend LUCOM because of the really strict student code, or is it a performance on boards/in the match issue?

Here's why I can't recommend LUCOM: I have a profound distaste for the politics of their parent organization; their Faculty make blatant attempts to twist facts to match their theology.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Here's why I can't recommend LUCOM: I have a profound distaste for the politics of their parent organization; their Faculty make blatant attempts to twist facts to match their theology.

Fair enough. Was just curious, since I actually don't know anything about their board pass rates or match rates.

 

[doc05]

Funny that you're averse to more debt. Then why on earth did this kid spend 5 years in school just for the sake of a useless "double" major.

Even so, score and GPA are good enough. And a masters in biology is a waste of time and money, adds nothing of value for either med school or the real world.

 

[PreMedMissteps]

Funny that you're averse to more debt. Then why on earth did this kid spend 5 years in school just for the sake of a useless "double" major.

Even so, score and GPA are good enough. And a masters in biology is a waste of time and money, adds nothing of value for either med school or the real world.

This isn’t my child. It’s someone who came to me for advice while the 5th year is in progress. If he had come to me much earlier, I would have said “no” to one of the majors. I think it was naive/foolish to borrow for that 5th year to complete a double major. In fact, I’m pretty much against double majors unless a student is certain that it won’t affect grades and can be completed without additional costs.

Anyway, I was stunned when the student told me that the premed advisor (one of the many idiots out there) advised doing the masters program because “the continuation of education is a positive.”
I doubt that the advisor considered that the program would mean more worthless debt, that no grades would be available at the time of AMCAS application, and that the statement is just naive in context.

 

[Skeletorr]

For medical school admission purposes, I’ve never understood the fascination with double majoring. For many, it seems to do more harm than good. Maybe I’m missing something.

 

[PreMedMissteps]

For medical school admission purposes, I’ve never understood the fascination with double majoring. For many, it seems to do more harm than good. Maybe I’m missing something.

I believe that those students think that adcoms will be impressed by double majors, some minors, blah blah blah. For awhile there, it seemed like many premeds were choosing Biomedical Engineering because they thought that adcoms would be impressed.

 

[freedoctor17]

I believe that those students think that adcoms will be impressed by double majors, some minors, blah blah blah. For awhile there, it seemed like many premeds were choosing Biomedical Engineering because they thought that adcoms would be impressed.

Yeah i know so many people who do this and it blows my mind. Why they think it's a good idea i have no idea. Personally i chose a major i liked that i knew i could do well in, then i made sure to do well in it. Simple as that. Didn't even bother with any minors despite having fulfilled the requirements for two of them just because I've never seen any use to them... My transcript has all my classes on it and i have had two interviewers ask me about some. Didn't need the minor for that.