My DD22 has the opportunity to earn her BS & MS in Biology or a similar field in 4yrs from a state school. She does plan to attend medical school. She’s still waiting on a few RD before deciding where she wants to go. Only one school would she be able to get her BS/MS because of the 2yrs of college credits she has that the state school will accept. Would having her MS give her any edge up when applying to med schools?
No not really. Sometimes students do a masters to boost their undergrad GPA before applying to med school. For AMCAS the undergraduate GPA is king (and more specifically the science GPA).
However having a masters is useful as a fallback in case she does not get into medical school. So that should be considered.
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Nope. Won’t help with med school admission.
Undergrad GPA and grad GPA are listed separately on AMCAS/ACOMAS. Only the undergrad GPA is used for admission consideration, though a weak grad GPA (<3.75) will hurt a med school applicant’s chances. A weak GPA represents a downward grade trend (always bad), also because adcomms know that most grad programs have significant grade inflation.
The only grad program that make a difference for med school admission is a SMP. Special Master’s Programs are 2 year high- risk/high-reward grad programs that are basically an last ditch audition for medical school used by students whose uGPA is not med-school worthy.
The usefulness of a MS in the post graduation/non health care job environment will depend on the area of specialization and whether the MS is thesis (research) based or not. Non-thesis MS degrees are big money-makers for many colleges but really don’t offer much of a boost in the employment market.
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback.
Also note there is a glut in the market for PhD level biology degrees. Very hard to get tenure track positions in academia.
If med school doesn’t work out, it may be a better option to shift towards a Masters degree in something else (CS, Data Science, Computational Biology, Statistics, etc). Getting another masters in biology really won’t help her job prospects.
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If your daughter does decide on her state U, she should consider whether she wants to graduate early or not. Early grads face special challenges w/r/t med school admissions.
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The med school admission cycle takes a bit more than a full year. (Students apply in June to begin classes in August-Sept of the following year.)This means your daughter would be applying at the end of her freshman year if she plans to continue directly on to med school. One year is very little time to get her ECs done, develop relationships with professors who will write her strong LORs and study for/take the MCAT. I would strongly recommend she wait at least until she graduates to apply–which would mean taking at least 1 gap year between undergrad and med school.
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Younger than typical college grads face deeper scrutiny than do older applicants. Adcomms will rightly question their maturity and their commitment to medicine. The onus of proving they have all the socio-emotional core competencies and maturity expected of a med student fall squarely on the applicant.
If your D does choose to attend her state U, perhaps adding a couple of minors or a second (more employable) major might be a better choice than graduating 2 years early.
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Yes, she could graduate early (if she chooses the stateU) if she didn’t do the MS but I had researched some and saw it could possibly make it harder when applying to med school since she’d be 19. That’s a good idea, adding in another major or some minors if she doesn’t do the MS. I think she’ll be very torn if she happens to get into either of the other two schools she’s waiting on. She loved both when we visited but with the OOS costs I don’t know that they will be in budget.
When she’s making her decision, remind your D that pre-meds need to minimize their undergrad debt because they will taking between a quarter and a half million dollars in unsubsidized loans for med school.
Good luck to your daughter whichever college she chooses.
Pre-med is a very long slog with no guarantees of success at the end.
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No, the MS won’t help in applying to medical schools. BUT I still think that the state school might be the best bet for her. Likely cheapest option, likely an easy place for her to get A’s in her premeds and her other classes, likely that she could double major in something that makes her a more interesting candidate for a med school - usually some humanities subject that sets her apart from the sea of Bio and Chem majors applying. Also likely that she can be ready to study for her MCATs earlier in the process, and she could apply by the end of her junior year, to begin right after she’s done with college.
I don’t think that there is an advantage for her in trying to cut college down to 3 years and enter med school 3 years after having been graduated from high school. Too much risk of burnout.
Another consideration: would she be interested in an MD-PhD program? The issue with them is the extra time, and of course one has to want to get the PhD. But they are free, with stipend.
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