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Masters vs 5th year undergrad courses

In2Infinity

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In2Infinity Newbie

In2Infinity

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HI guys, just wanted to see if people here could give me some advice on this matter. I am interested in medical school, my GPA is about 3.83 after my 4 year undergrad taking my top 3 years.

 

Now for next year, I wanted to do a masters, as it boosts your gpa a bit, you make a bit of cash (not a big deal) and perhaps it looks good on an application. But it would take at least 3 years to get in, 2 for the masters, 1 year for the wait after masters is completed. I know Ottawa doesn't give a masters boost which is disheartening for me.

 

Now over the last few weeks, I thought about doing a 5th year of undergrad courses. This would of course bump up your gpa, say if you get 3.9 for this new year, would only take 2 years to get into a school, 1 year for the wait after the year of courses is complete.

 

Has anyone thought of this or weighed the pros and cons? Any advice would be great!

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Prothrombin Newbie

Prothrombin

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HI guys, just wanted to see if people here could give me some advice on this matter. I am interested in medical school, my GPA is about 3.83 after my 4 year undergrad taking my top 3 years.

 

Now for next year, I wanted to do a masters, as it boosts your gpa a bit, you make a bit of cash (not a big deal) and perhaps it looks good on an application. But it would take at least 3 years to get in, 2 for the masters, 1 year for the wait after masters is completed. I know Ottawa doesn't give a masters boost which is disheartening for me.

 

Now over the last few weeks, I thought about doing a 5th year of undergrad courses. This would of course bump up your gpa, say if you get 3.9 for this new year, would only take 2 years to get into a school, 1 year for the wait after the year of courses is complete.

 

Has anyone thought of this or weighed the pros and cons? Any advice would be great!

 

Looks like you already have a solid GPA. In my opinion I would rather do a Masters over an extra year of undergrad. Yes it might help boost your GPA and make you more competitive, but usually those that choose to do an extra year of undergrad do so because they need a better GPA to be competitive. Sounds like you're also from Ottawa, correct? If so the wGPA for Ottawa residents is 3.70 which would mean you already meet the cut-off.

 

I think it'd be more beneficial to do a Masters because of the research experience you'd get, the possibility of opening up other career alternatives, the fact that you would be making money, and the fact that doing an extra year of undergrad when you already have good enough marks could possibly bite you in the ass.

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Prothrombin Newbie

Prothrombin

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I am not actually from Ottawa, I have always wanted to live there/around there but the cut off was 3.85 for this year apparently, and I don't meet that cut off! which is pretty bad... ughh

It's understandable to want to do another year of UG. If you want to go to UOttawa and want to really boost your GPA then I would go for it. The only downside would be obviously if you were to not do as good as expect in which case you'd have messed up everything. I wouldn't worry about that though because you have a good GPA so you'd probably rock another year. Masters programs can be beneficial and do provide more research experience and life experience which can be useful on an application.

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jmatt1122 Newbie

jmatt1122

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This is actually something similar to what I've been thinking (as I'm going into fourth year and if I don't get in to uOttawa or McGill this round, I'll be left with a year to fill).

 

I think my plan might be to just take a year off, though. You've already got good grades, so why not just build ECs for a year while you apply to schools?

 

I thought about doing a masters, but that's two years (usually). Do I really want to postpone med for an extra year to get a (more or less) useless degree?

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In2Infinity Newbie

In2Infinity

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Ya I'm not sure about these one year masters - perhaps they are online or arts based, I doubt you can do a one year masters in bio or chem that involves research for example.

 

Secondly, people saying to not ruin the GPA with a lower year, well I thought for sure it would raise it as I would take "easier" courses than I did during my undergrad - for example, I can take some first year, even second year courses as well.

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In2Infinity Newbie

In2Infinity

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I think my plan might be to just take a year off, though. You've already got good grades, so why not just build ECs for a year while you apply to schools?

 

 

Sorry, another question - do you mean to volunteer and stuff while you apply to schools, so your application is already in but your still volunteering? would this actually help though because if your app is already in, whats the point of doing more volunteering? Just in case you don't get in for the next year?

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jmatt1122 Newbie

jmatt1122

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Sorry, another question - do you mean to volunteer and stuff while you apply to schools, so your application is already in but your still volunteering? would this actually help though because if your app is already in, whats the point of doing more volunteering? Just in case you don't get in for the next year?

 

I guess it would be good for if you don't get in that year. Also, I feel like it would show a strong commitment to community involvement and volunteerism when discussed in an interview.

 

Personally, there are a lot of things I'd love to get involved in, but schoolwork and research takes up a lot of my time and doesn't leave a whole lot of room for ECs.

 

I'm still unsure of what I'd do for that gap year though. So more discussion/suggestions would be wonderful.

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Prothrombin Newbie

Prothrombin

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Ya I'm not sure about these one year masters - perhaps they are online or arts based, I doubt you can do a one year masters in bio or chem that involves research for example.

 

Secondly, people saying to not ruin the GPA with a lower year, well I thought for sure it would raise it as I would take "easier" courses than I did during my undergrad - for example, I can take some first year, even second year courses as well.

 

Taking 1st and 2nd year courses in a 5th year won't look good with admissions committees. They want to see that you're challenging yourself and not simply taking bird courses to boost your wGPA. UWO requires at least 60% of your classes to be at your grade-level in order for that year to qualify for your GPA. In the case of 5th year it would be considered 3rd year and up.

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