How Mac considers a grad degree

[Guest avarrin2001]

"Those applicants with a completed and conferred

graduate degree at the time of application will receive the

following advantage on their GPA, to be included in the

formula determining likelihood of invitation to interview:

Master's Degree holder +.01; PhD Degree holder +.04. Based on past years' experience, this will provide a significant, albeit not decisive, advantage for graduate degree holders."

 

Is that it? For a Master's degree only 0.01 will be added to the GPA? It doesnt seem like very much of an "advantage"

[Guest MDWannabe]

I haven't looked at these criteria recently, and your post notes an interesting change. In the old days, your completed grad degree was counted at the average of the applicant pool, only if it helped you. So if your undergrad GPA was 3.4 and the average of the applicant pool was 3.6, your grad degree would be counted as one year at 3.6. If under the same circumstances your GPA was 3.8, your grad degree would not be used to LOWER your GPA. The idea was to help those late bloomers who screwed up undergrad but got some good graduate experience. I agree that the new change probably would not provide a huge benefit.

[Guest weerdo]

That's right, 1% for one (or more) masters , and 4% for one (or more) Phds. This was clearly stated at the info session last week. No correlation with average gpa's this year, so the benefit is marginal.

[Guest pazas]

Are the graduate marks and the undergrad marks all averaged out together to get the GPA? Or is it just the undergrad marks averaged out, and then they add on the 1 percent?

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hey there,

 

Given the above, it would appear that: 1) Mac has a large range of GPAs, for which the addition of 0.01 or 0.04 could make a difference; 2) they don't really value graduate degree experience in their medical students.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest weerdo]

Just to clarify one thing. The 1% and 4% is not applied to your entering gpa. It gets added on the score they give your application. So, if you get a total score of 76/100 (as an example), they will make it, 80/100 if you have a Phd, bettering your chance for an interview.

[Guest MDWannabe]

It sure doesn't look that way from the Mac website. It appears to be added to the GPA...

[Guest pazas]

so they don't look at your actual grad marks at all, correct? just your undergrad average?

 

what if instead of doing a grad degree, you started another undergrad degree? would the years you did be averaged into your old undergrad gpa?

[Guest satsumargirl]

yes MAC just uses any and all undergrad courses ever completed, all equally weighted.

[Guest pazas]

thanks sats. and would this include professional undergrad programs such as dentistry?

[Guest MDWannabe]

It includes ANY undergraduate work you ever do. Law, dentistry, architecture, even another medical degree are all averaged in.

[Guest MedSchoolGirl2005]

Actually...and i may have mentioned this elsewhere. But I know for a fact that Mac adds a year of 4.0 to your average for every year of grad school you've completed (if you've earned the degree or will be by June of the year before you start med).

 

So if you complete a 2 year masters....average years 1-4 plus 2 years of a 4.0 gpa.

 

Also, NOMS adds 0.2 to your gpa if you've completed a graduate degree.

[Guest blinknoodle]

Does anyone know whether Mac requires you to finish your grad degree before starting in meds?

[Guest MDWannabe]

MedSchoolGirl2005:

 

Re: "I know for a fact..."

 

Please do not be misled. This information is clearly incorrect. I can tell you, first hand, "for a fact", that each completed grad degree was in the past counted as a SINGLE year at the average of the applicant pool. I know this because I had 2 such grad degrees before going to Mac and this is how it was done. This is now changed, according to the website, so that a few hundreths of a grade point are added to your GPA for every degree completed. There is NOTHING in the site information to suggest that you get a year of 4.0 GPA averaged into the total for every grad year completed.

 

By the way, in answer to a later query, you do not have to complete the grad degree before you go to Mac. But if it is not complete, it will not be counted in any way towards calculating your GPA.

[Guest MedSchoolGirl2005]

I happen to know a few people who were involved in the interview process this past year. This is my only reason for letting you all know about this since I know people completing graduate degrees need to know what their GPA will be counted as by the admissions committee...

 

If this policy changed since September, then so be it, but I know it to be true for the last year.