Would A Post-Bac or Master Help? Any Advice Appreciated!

[mscandy]

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Hi my fellow SDNers,

One of my friends applied last cycle and did not have much luck. She is very determined to pursue medicine and is willing to spend a year improving her resume. She will apply to both MD and DO schools next cycle. Her stats are:

Major: Chemistry from a state school.
cGPA: 3.8 with a strong upward trend.
sGPA: 3.4
MCAT: ~495
Clinical: 40 hours
Volunteer: 1500 hours

She is a nontraditional applicant and has a lot of relevant experience with mental health. I think her sGPA and MCAT are holding her back. She is currently looking at postbac and master programs. However, since it's already March, most programs are not open for recruitment now. She's currently considering these programs:

1. Masters of Biomedical Science, 2 year, Western University
2. Masters of Business and Science, 2 year, Keck Graduate Institute

Do you think these programs can help strengthen her application? Or do you have other programs in mind that might be helpful to her? Any advice on how to improve her application is very much appreciated!

Thank you!

@Goro @LizzyM @HomeSkool

 

[HomeSkool]

Hi my fellow SDNers,

One of my friends applied last cycle and did not have much luck. She is very determined to pursue medicine and is willing to spend a year improving her resume. She will apply to both MD and DO schools next cycle. Her stats are:

Major: Chemistry from a state school.
cGPA: 3.8 with a strong upward trend.
sGPA: 3.4
MCAT: ~495
Clinical: 40 hours
Volunteer: 1500 hours

She is a nontraditional applicant and has a lot of relevant experience with mental health. I think her sGPA and MCAT are holding her back. She is currently looking at postbac and master programs. However, since it's already March, most programs are not open for recruitment now. She's currently considering these programs:

1. Masters of Biomedical Science, 2 year, Western University
2. Masters of Business and Science, 2 year, Keck Graduate Institute

Do you think these programs can help strengthen her application? Or do you have other programs in mind that might be helpful to her? Any advice on how to improve her application is very much appreciated!

Thank you!

@Goro @LizzyM @HomeSkool

You're right about what's holding her back, particularly the below-average MCAT. She needs to figure out what went wrong when she took it previously, then prepare very well and retake it. She absolutely needs to do that before reapplying.

Master's programs generally don't do much for your competitiveness unless they're SMPs, which are specifically designed to assess your readiness for a med school curriculum. Even then, they're a high-risk-high-reward type of program. My opinion is that post-baccs are safer unless you're absolutely certain you're ready for the med school furnace. A 495 MCAT doesn't convince me she's ready for that kind of heat.

Whatever she decides to do, your friend should not apply in the coming cycle. She's done nothing to address the biggest holes in her app, and applying again before doing so would almost certainly make her one of those statistics @gonnif cites. I recommend she delay gratification, do what it takes to kill the MCAT, and kick butt in a post-bacc before reapplying.

 

[Pathdocmd]

Hi my fellow SDNers,

One of my friends applied last cycle and did not have much luck. She is very determined to pursue medicine and is willing to spend a year improving her resume. She will apply to both MD and DO schools next cycle. Her stats are:

Major: Chemistry from a state school.
cGPA: 3.8 with a strong upward trend.
sGPA: 3.4
MCAT: ~495
Clinical: 40 hours
Volunteer: 1500 hours

She is a nontraditional applicant and has a lot of relevant experience with mental health. I think her sGPA and MCAT are holding her back. She is currently looking at postbac and master programs. However, since it's already March, most programs are not open for recruitment now. She's currently considering these programs:

1. Masters of Biomedical Science, 2 year, Western University
2. Masters of Business and Science, 2 year, Keck Graduate Institute

Do you think these programs can help strengthen her application? Or do you have other programs in mind that might be helpful to her? Any advice on how to improve her application is very much appreciated!

Thank you!

@Goro @LizzyM @HomeSkool

The MCAT is the biggest problem by far. Work on that before trying to improve the GPA.

 

[mscandy]

You're right about what's holding her back, particularly the below-average MCAT. She needs to figure out what went wrong when she took it previously, then prepare very well and retake it. She absolutely needs to do that before reapplying.

Master's programs generally don't do much for your competitiveness unless they're SMPs, which are specifically designed to assess your readiness for a med school curriculum. Even then, they're a high-risk-high-reward type of program. My opinion is that post-baccs are safer unless you're absolutely certain you're ready for the med school furnace. A 495 MCAT doesn't convince me she's ready for that kind of heat.

Whatever she decides to do, your friend should not apply in the coming cycle. She's done nothing to address the biggest holes in her app, and applying again before doing so would almost certainly make her one of those statistics @gonnif cites. I recommend she delay gratification, do what it takes to kill the MCAT, and kick butt in a post-bacc before reapplying.

Thank you HomeSkool! I showed your answer to my friend and she really appreciated it! I was wondering if you know a few good postbac/SMP programs that will not screen her out due to her current MCAT score?

 

[efle]

She needs to redo that mcat BEFORE paying out the huge SMP costs. It's simply too low right now to predict success in the SMP. She should spend a couple months devoting all her effort to MCAT prep and take it again, before deciding about an SMP or reapplying this summer.

I really don't even think an SMP is necessary, she has a 3.8cGPA and the sGPA, while on the low side, isn't nearly as big a problem as the sub-500 MCAT is. With a better score on retake (say, 505+) she should be good to go for DO applications without sinking all the time and money into an SMP.

 

[Forever Geebs]

Retake MCAT. Since many schools avg scores, you’ll want the avg of the two to be >505.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Goro]

The MCAT is the biggest problem by far. Work on that before trying to improve the GPA.

100% agree

 

[HomeSkool]

Thank you HomeSkool! I showed your answer to my friend and she really appreciated it! I was wondering if you know a few good postbac/SMP programs that will not screen her out due to her current MCAT score?

Unfortunately, that's not something on which I'm knowledgeable, so all I could do is Google it. You mentioned that most formal post-bacc programs aren't recruiting right now and I'll take your word for it; however, your friend always has the option of a DIY post-bacc. I agree with the above posters, though: her MCAT is the biggest reason she got no love this cycle, and retaking that (and crushing it) should be priority #1.

 

[Alejandro]

The greatest challenge with the MCAT I feel is that its not like the medical boards where its mostly fact/recall, but rather an application of the information. Thus, I think a practical way of getting there is teaching. Tutoring helps. It forces you to master the concepts rather than just reading a bunch of books and praying it sticks.

The MCAT will be a challenge, but retakable. By in my hayday (like the other adcoms/physicians here), it was still on the 45 point system and I scored a paltry 24. Retook it to get a 35. Things can turn around, but you gotta work for it, and do something different that will help you get there.

I don't know what other people think, but when I interview premeds, I really don't care about the hours. I care about what you learned in those hours. If you learn from osmosis, and just being present, and reaching out to patients, that gives me a better idea that you're ready to be a physician, than someone who just racks up hours to shove in my face. A large amount of medical training isn't just racking up hours, but its learning all of the nuances of being in the hospital and patient care. Just "showing up" doesn't get you far at all if you want to survive.

 

[FroYoOreo]

You're right about what's holding her back, particularly the below-average MCAT. She needs to figure out what went wrong when she took it previously, then prepare very well and retake it. She absolutely needs to do that before reapplying.

Master's programs generally don't do much for your competitiveness unless they're SMPs, which are specifically designed to assess your readiness for a med school curriculum. Even then, they're a high-risk-high-reward type of program. My opinion is that post-baccs are safer unless you're absolutely certain you're ready for the med school furnace. A 495 MCAT doesn't convince me she's ready for that kind of heat.

Whatever she decides to do, your friend should not apply in the coming cycle. She's done nothing to address the biggest holes in her app, and applying again before doing so would almost certainly make her one of those statistics @gonnif cites. I recommend she delay gratification, do what it takes to kill the MCAT, and kick butt in a post-bacc before reapplying.

So I did a BS/MS program, therefore I received BS and MS degree at the same time. In the 5th year (supposedly the master year), I took a mixture of both undergrad and grad level classes. Should I list the 5th year as graduate, undergrad, or post-bacc in the GPA system? I am not sure since I did not receive my Bachelor degree until I completed all classes.