Second Bachelor's vs Post-Baccalaureate Program

[Amber1243]

Hello all!

I am looking for advice as I decide the next steps of my pre-med journey. I have a B.S. with a GPA of 2.92. Unfortunately I was very sick throughout my undergraduate studies and my GPA suffered. This only further instilled my desire to work in the medical field and after taking a year to recover I enrolled in a Master's program. I am in my final semester of courses and have maintained a 4.0 throughout the program. It is a M.S. in education as I have a strong desire to work as a physician and serve in a medical school. Knowing that my MCAT score and the GPA from my pre-requisites will be critical to medical school admission, would it be best to complete a post-baccalaureate program or instead complete a second bachelor's degree to further show my academic recovery?

I have researched a number of programs and with my previous undergraduate work could complete a second bachelor's in 2.5 years, which is not much longer than the majority of the post-bacc programs I have reviewed. My main concern is that my previous bachelor's GPA will result in medical school immediately disregarding my application. I have a great deal of pre-requisites to complete so regardless of the path I'm committing to at least 2 years of courses. Do medical schools view completion of a post-bacc program in a more favorable light?

Appreciate hearing any feedback and/or stories from those with similar experiences.

Thank you!

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[bluepeony]

Postbacc to get your GPA to 3.0, then SMP.

Edit: Just re-read that you have alot of prereqs to complete. You should calculate your cGPA and sGPA with those courses factored in and decide whether or not doing a SMP is worth it.

 

[DNAJB6]

Technically you need not complete either a formal post bacc program or a second bachelor's degree. Rather you need to take multiple undergraduate level classes to (1) boast your GPA and (2) take upper level science classes and do well to demonstrate you can handle a rigorous science based curriculum. With that said enrolling in a second bachelor's degree program will open up more financial aid if you need it. You can drop out once you've met your goal.

 

[Amber1243]

Postbacc to get your GPA to 3.0, then SMP.

Edit: Just re-read that you have alot of prereqs to complete. You should calculate your cGPA and sGPA with those courses factored in and decide whether or not doing a SMP is worth it.

Thank you for your response!

I have done the calculations and following the completion of my pre-requisites, assuming I do extremely well (which I understand is critical) my stats would be: cGPA ~3.25 and sGPA ~3.6. I understand with my current Master's being in high ed my 4.0 GPA will do little to nothing to demonstrate my ability to handle a medical school curriculum, but will instead likely be seen as EC experience. Having already completed a 45 hour Master's program though, I'm hesitant to complete an SMP. (Mainly due to the financial commitment.) I know SMPs are high risk, high reward and can do a lot to demonstrate your capabilities, but would prefer to avoid another Master's if possible.

With my undergraduate stats, do you think an SMP is likely critical for MD acceptance? I am willing to explore that option, if it's indeed what it will take. Thank you again for your response.

 

[Amber1243]

Technically you need not complete either a formal post bacc program or a second bachelor's degree. Rather you need to take multiple undergraduate level classes to (1) boast your GPA and (2) take upper level science classes and do well to demonstrate you can handle a rigorous science based curriculum. With that said enrolling in a second bachelor's degree program will open up more financial aid if you need it. You can drop out once you've met your goal.

Thank you for your response. I should have been more clear: with the number of pre-requisites I need to take, I'll only be a few courses shy of a B.S. in Biology. There is a 4-year university very close to me that washes the core curriculum requirements for anyone who has previously completed a bachelor's. I am leaning toward this option, but am unsure if post-bacc programs are seen in a more positive light by adcoms. I know many post-baccs come with additional support, guidance, cohorts etc., but beyond those benefits is it's completion viewed as superior to earning a second bachelor's? Does it speak more into your ability to handle the medical school curriculum?

 

[Select All That Apply]

@Amber1243 Why are you wasting your time & income pursuing a masters in education if you know that it will be meaningless to a medical school application. I understand you wrote that you are hesitant to pursuing a formalized SMP program due to financial commitment, but I don't understand to what extent finances are of immediate concern if you are blowing off money on a masters program.

 

[DNAJB6]

Thank you for your response. I should have been more clear: with the number of pre-requisites I need to take, I'll only be a few courses shy of a B.S. in Biology. There is a 4-year university very close to me that washes the core curriculum requirements for anyone who has previously completed a bachelor's. I am leaning toward this option, but am unsure if post-bacc programs are seen in a more positive light by adcoms. I know many post-baccs come with additional support, guidance, cohorts etc., but beyond those benefits is it's completion viewed as superior to earning a second bachelor's? Does it speak more into your ability to handle the medical school curriculum?

From an adcom perspective, it won't matter if you choose a second bachelor's versus a formalized post-bacc undergraduate program/certificate.

 

[Amber1243]

@Amber1243 Why are you wasting your time & income pursuing a masters in education if you know that it will be meaningless to a medical school application. I understand you wrote that you are hesitant to pursuing a formalized SMP program due to financial commitment, but I don't understand to what extent finances are of immediate concern if you are blowing off money on a masters program.

I understand your question. My two main passions are medicine and education, so my dream career is where these two meet. With that goal in mind I don't view the Master's as a waste of time or money as it will further equip me for a career in medical education where both an M.D or D.O. and an educational degree/experience are essential. I have viewed this degree as essential to my long term goal, where it is obviously non-essential to medical school admittance. Additionally the degree allows me to work in a medical education setting where I can gain experience in both my areas of interest.

 

[Select All That Apply]

I understand your question. My two main passions are medicine and education, so my dream career is where these two meet. With that goal in mind I don't view the Master's as a waste of time or money as it will further equip me for a career in medical education where both an M.D or D.O. and an educational degree/experience are essential. I have viewed this degree as essential to my long term goal, where it is obviously non-essential to medical school admittance. Additionally the degree allows me to work in a medical education setting where I can gain experience in both my areas of interest.

You can do medical education without a masters in education. The value add for a masters in education is limited, but mostly comes if you fail to get into a medical program and have to teach within a K-12 environment. Almost none of the professors who teach in medical school have a formalized degree in education and most of them are either professors of the subjects they are teaching e.g. immunology or biochemistry or are physicians. Then there is education in the sense that you work for a company like Kaplan or McGraw Hill and even then they don't require you to have a Masters in Education to become a tutor or instructor as long as you score within the top percentile of whatever test you are teaching. Then there is outreach which is going to a clinic or a low income population and providing them with diabetes education and connecting the with social work which utilizes different skills outside of formalized education degree. And finally, there is nursing which you are expected to provide patients with education on their conditions prior to discharge.

If the goal is that you want to be an educator within the medical field, then you don't need to hold formalized degrees in either medicine or education in order to pursue it as a career. If you are telling other people that you are interested in pursuing medical education as a means to get into medical school then you are still taking an unnecessary branch by pursuing a masters in education because it is a largely unnecessary degree in many applications of getting a job within the "education space". I am also not sure if there is a consensus on this, but there is an opinion within academic circles that quite possibly one of the least rigorous majors is education. A trend that has been occurring and noted in 2016 by Collegeboard was that people going into education scored 26th out of 38 listed majors, however end up consistently graduating in the top percentile of their class. Putting resources into a field that will not be conducive to success (unless you have a master plan) is a waste of time and money. Especially when you could be sorting that investment into Plan A rather than already relying on Plan B.

 

[Goro]

Postbacc to get your GPA to 3.0, then SMP.

Edit: Just re-read that you have alot of prereqs to complete. You should calculate your cGPA and sGPA with those courses factored in and decide whether or not doing a SMP is worth it.

This.
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