Would getting a Master's degree be helpful?

[polf]

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How much does having a MS in biology rather just a BS help in landing research spots with professors in dental school? or for getting externships? would the additional year of hard sciences come in use in dental school?

I would rather stay in school for another year than work during my year off, but not sure if there's enough justification in another $30,000 of loans...

 

[Mennkid]

Director of admissions at Baylor told me straight up that my MS was not that impressive. She said that the type of classes given in a masters degree program are more discussion based, and that dental school classes are more lecture based. This meaning that having a 4.0 in grad school doesn’t give them a proper prediction on if I would be able to handle dental school.

Take that with a grain of salt, other schools were impressed with me having a masters. PM me if you have any other questions.

 

[purduephigam]

Director of admissions at Baylor told me straight up that my MS was not that impressive. She said that the type of classes given in a masters degree program are more discussion based, and that dental school classes are more lecture based. This meaning that having a 4.0 in grad school doesn’t give them a proper prediction on if I would be able to handle dental school.

Take that with a grain of salt, other schools were impressed with me having a masters. PM me if you have any other questions.

That's the first I've heard of that. I'm in a non-thesis program and it's everything but discussion-based. Basically it's all reading, understanding concepts, and taking rediculously hard exams. Regardless, it impressed the schools I applied to. And I just recently got in to my first choice.

Also keep in mind a master's program will at least give you some sort of direction. If you plan on reapplying, a master's program would be much more credible than taking old classes over, or even worse, taking community college courses. Nothing spells "I want to get there as easy as possible" as doing those two.

 

[t man]

i applied to some teaching fellowship programs. they're usually 2 years long (i don't know what you're looking for) and offer a subsidized masters. plus you get a teacher's salary with full benefits. it's a little off-track as far as dental school goes, but it's good public service, good money, and you'll have to take graduate level science courses (assuming you'd want to be a science teacher).

 

[polf]

Thanks for the replys, though I wasn't looking for the Masters to help me get into dental school. I was wondering if it would help improve my chances of specializing down the road, through ways like maybe getting me research spots with professors or externships in dental school.

 

[drpduck]

I will be finishing my M.S. this May, I went straight to grad school out of undergrad. I got into my state dental school this application cycle after being rejected 2 cycles ago. My undergrad GPA was not fantastic, but I worked my butt off in my masters and did very well. My DAT did not significantly improve so the only possibility I can think of is that they like my masters grades.

It certainly can't hurt you, but there are a couple different types of masters. Make sure you pick the one right for you (coursework based, non-thesis vs. research based, thesis), schools ususally prefer the first one.

 

[pre-dentalguy]

I'm actually finishing up my MBA this May with a 3.6 gpa. I'm also taking physics and ochem now to fulfull the requirements. Hopefully I'd be extremely competitive... we'll see.

 

[dp_PRIME]

DO IT!

It only helps. My stats were about avg compared to national stats of students that get accepted, and i didn't get in the first time i applied. I got a Masters busted a 3.9 GPA and didn't even re-take my DAT and i got accepted this cycle to every single school i applied too. At the very least it can only help you, since it shows u can handle grad level classes. But make sure ur masters prgm is more didactic based rather than research, dental schools want to see more lecture-based classes than anything else.

Good Luck.

 

[SugarNaCl]

That's the first I've heard of that. I'm in a non-thesis program and it's everything but discussion-based. Basically it's all reading, understanding concepts, and taking rediculously hard exams. Regardless, it impressed the schools I applied to. And I just recently got in to my first choice.

Also keep in mind a master's program will at least give you some sort of direction. If you plan on reapplying, a master's program would be much more credible than taking old classes over, or even worse, taking community college courses. Nothing spells "I want to get there as easy as possible" as doing those two.

I have my masters too, and this is exactly the reason grades received in graduate school don't usually mean much to ADCOMS...but research experience may. Some masters programs are discussion based, some are lecture based, some are combination (mine was), some have thesis (mine did) some don't have thesis. There is no straight way to determining who had which experience.