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Meh... "You have to change stuff, but you don't have time, so wait at least 2 years before reapplying. Alternatively, give up." :scared:

To be fair, though, I waited a year in between apps, so I can't really disagree. The last point kinda rubbed me raw, though; I'd encourage a long-shot applicant to pick one school to really work on, although this does run counter to the prevailing SDN wisdom.
 
I am a first time applicant currently on the wait at a couple of schools. At this point I am unsure whether to pursue one of these 1 year Masters in Medical Science, which is a degree which other than for the purposes of improving your academic record/showing you can handle Medical School classes, is just a minor 'means to an end' -- unless you plan on continuing to develop a career as level 1 or 2 research associate; Or, instead of the 1 year MS in Medical Science, doing a 1 year accelerated bachelors in nursing degree.

Both carry the consequence of a 2 year window before potentially matriculating (1 year to earn a new degree+additional meaningful ECs ALONG with 1 year of the application cycle). Most resources on the internet including schools recommend following this route of a 2 year time off to polish your application.

Alternatively, I'm tempted to just resubmit my AMCAS and study for the MCAT for a couple months more and see if I can improve my score -- I know I can with some more time with practice exams.

Any suggestions?
 
gonnif said:
There is some thought/evidence that adcoms taking nursing degree and then directly applying to medical school shows lack of commitment (ie do you want to be a doctor or do you want to be a nurse). The conventional "wisdom" that advisors and admissions officer suggest is to work as few years as a nurse prior to applying to med school. If your ultimate goal is to be a doctor then the masters in medical science, or SMP should be looked as a prep school/audition for that. I would suggest that masters would be more appropriate.
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Thank you for the advice. I thought perhaps the RN might A.) Set you apart from other reapplicants who likely do the SMP or MS, and/or B.) Say something about the student's desire to expand their knowledge and experience in the medical field. So would going this route unintentionally send a mixed signal to most schools?
 
SoccerDocker said:
I am a first time applicant currently on the wait at a couple of schools. At this point I am unsure whether to pursue one of these 1 year Masters in Medical Science, which is a degree which other than for the purposes of improving your academic record/showing you can handle Medical School classes, is just a minor 'means to an end' -- unless you plan on continuing to develop a career as level 1 or 2 research associate; Or, instead of the 1 year MS in Medical Science, doing a 1 year accelerated bachelors in nursing degree.

Both carry the consequence of a 2 year window before potentially matriculating (1 year to earn a new degree+additional meaningful ECs ALONG with 1 year of the application cycle). Most resources on the internet including schools recommend following this route of a 2 year time off to polish your application.

Alternatively, I'm tempted to just resubmit my AMCAS and study for the MCAT for a couple months more and see if I can improve my score -- I know I can with some more time with practice exams.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

If you are not willing to wait for two years and do a SMP or other post-bacc. I will suggest this.... try to do a post-bacc as an unclassified student (you can apply to grad school and medical school at the same time). People on SDN might disagree with me on this since the grad school admissions will think this is bad. However, this is better than doing nothing. If you don't get into medical school but get into a masters program, you can transfer the credits from post-bacc and finish the masters in one year (do the non-thesis, thesis is too long). This way you can still apply to medical schools for two years without the problem of committing to a graduate degree.

FYI, I have done this.
 
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