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Masters, grades and med school


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I have a number of questions

Do medical schools pay any/as much attention to Masters grades as they do to undergrad grades? Say I wanted to pursue a Masters after having not gotten in after fourth year, do Masters grades count for much?

 

 

And, do Masters programs prefer specialist programs or are majors fine (no preference)?

 

Thanks guys.

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I have a number of questions

Do medical schools pay any/as much attention to Masters grades as they do to undergrad grades? Say I wanted to pursue a Masters after having not gotten in after fourth year, do Masters grades count for much?

 

 

And, do Masters programs prefer specialist programs or are majors fine (no preference)?

 

Thanks guys.

 

unfortunately no. few schools if any really give a bit of a leg-up by taking into consideration your grades from a MSc program. off the top of my head, i can only think of u of c, toronto, and queen's. with the latter two, you must meet the MCAT cutoffs first, whereas u of c is really a crapshoot on how they evaluate your academic portion of the file.

 

it's actually really good that you asked this question. if you're looking to boost your gpa, i would recommend going back and doing more undergrad vs grad school. but, if you like research, want a MSc, and can see yourself in academia than go for the MSc. i went into grad school thinking it would give me a legup on the competition, but sadly, at most schools, it does not. i have enjoyed the experience and feel i have grown tremendously as a person. whether this helps with the whole med school thing or not, i guess i'll find out this time next year (fingers crossed).

 

sorry, i cannot answer your second question. that really depends on the supervisor and program.

 

good luck with whatever you choose, but think hard and understand your goals.

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Thanks for your answer, it helped clear some things up.

Yeah I was considering doing a Masters as an opportunity to gain experience. I haven't yet decided if research is for me.

If I was to pursue another (fifth) year of undergrad, would the courses I choose still have to be in line with my program, or could I pursue any courses on interest - ones I would not have had an opportunity to take - such as music or art?

As for UofT, how do they take an MSc into consideration?

 

Thank you! :)

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Thanks for your answer, it helped clear some things up.

Yeah I was considering doing a Masters as an opportunity to gain experience. I haven't yet decided if research is for me.

If I was to pursue another (fifth) year of undergrad, would the courses I choose still have to be in line with my program, or could I pursue any courses on interest - ones I would not have had an opportunity to take - such as music or art?

As for UofT, how do they take an MSc into consideration?

 

Thank you! :)

 

np. u of t basically looks at how productive you were doing your grad studies (publications, conferences, abstracts...etc). i am not sure about the courses, again, that's something that varies by each school. i would get in touch with the schools you're most interested in applying and would want to attend, ans ask them about how they would evaluate an additional year of study.

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The sticky thread at the top of the forum provides a list of what advantages you gain at each school for having a graduate degree: http://www.premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39007

 

In addition to what is stated there, schools tend to look favourably upon research experience, publication, amongst various other qualities that attending graduate school can improve.

 

If you were contemplating going to grad school in order to better your application I'd advise against it- as you really need to love what you're doing in order to make it through with your sanity. If you're genuinely interested by research then getting your masters before med school certainly isn't going to hurt you imo- provided you have competitive undergrad grades to begin with.

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