MPH candidate applying to Medical School

[sassy24673]

Hey guys,

Thanks for your responses in advance. I was wondering what the outlook was on an MPH candidate in Epidemiology applying for medical school, and how the MPH degree looks regarding the application process to medical admissions committes? (Does it look good/bad/etc).

Thanks!

PS- Getting a MPH at UCLA (Epi)
Graduated with a Bio major in undergrad at UCLA

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[eram]

I think it depends a lot on your GPA more than having the degree for most schools.

I'm a re-applicant from like 2003, getting my MPH in May from a Pass/Fail program (ugh), and it pretty much didn't help me at all in getting any interviews...then again, my GPA is horrendous.

 

[eram]

I think it depends a lot on your GPA more than having the degree for most schools.

I'm a re-applicant from like 2003, getting my MPH in May from a Pass/Fail program (ugh), and it pretty much didn't help me at all in getting any interviews...then again, my GPA is horrendous.

The interviews this time around did ask me about my research, but didn't really bring up the MPH...

 

[tara14]

I already have my MPH in epi, and during the first application round (this is my second) - having the MPH didn't seem to help. I did much better in grad school than in undergrad (3.7 vs. 3.2), but my grad school GPA did not factor in at all for med school applications. Now if I could do it all over again I would've listened better to my pre-med advisor when she told me to take classes at my grad school's nursing school. Take some upper level science classes (A&P, micro, etc...). Now those will look good on your application because some of the comments that I got back when I was rejected to med school the first time around was - "you have a good grad school GPA, but where are the science classes in this? You should've taken some upper level science classes". So no - having a MPH in epi alone did not help me. It may give you a little bit of an edge but I don't think it will do much. But if you do well on the MCATS and have a good undergrad GPA it can help - and it will come up in interviews.

 

[DrVanNostran]

Hey, Im a current MPH student, and about to reapply for med schools in 2007. Some of the admissions people I talked to all said that a strong GPA in the MPH program would look great and should help me out.

good luck to ya

 

[tennismn]

I've got my MPH now, and during my interviews last year, I got a lot of questions about why I was switching from public health and focusing on the population, to medicine and focusing on the individual. Be prepared to answer why you think it'll help you be a better doctor, etc., than someone without the degree.

 

[Adcadet]

Agree with Tara and Tennismn. In my med school interviews the MPH only seemed to help because I could explain how I wanted to use my MD and MPH together to do research (mostly). The whole line about looking at problems differently because of my previous public health focus didn't seem to resonate with any of my interviewers, but perhaps this is because they were all basic science PhDs. I think the MPH can help make an MD applicant look stellar or do next to nothing.

 

[ValidPoint]

Hey, Im a current MPH student, and about to reapply for med schools in 2007. Some of the admissions people I talked to all said that a strong GPA in the MPH program would look great and should help me out.

good luck to ya

hey... just a question...when doing the mph... what did u write in ur essay as to y u wanna do an mph... since i know they ask... also the docs say its good for med school huh?