Serious advice, 5th year or Masters

[PreMedAK]

Hi, Ill be brief 1st 2 years at UOIT Hsc, 2.1 GPA, 3rd year 3.4 GPA, 4th year starting in YorkU specialized Honors (reason for transfer, commute is now 1.5hrs TOTAL compared to 4.5 hrs TOTAL).

 

Red Flags: F in Physics I, F Organic I. The rest of my science pre-reqs sit in the C- - A- Range.

 

I can graduate by next summer from YorkU. I was thinking initially of doing 2 years at YorkU and than applying with a 2 years of 4.0, Research and lab work, some more stellar volunteer ECs, and a stellar MCAT. I scored a 38 on my MCAT the first time (this year), I want to hit the 40 wall. The 5th year is just to get Physics repeat and taking upper level science courses and repeating other pre-reqs that i think im weak in, Im going to invest next summer completely to acing organic I and II.

 

My question is this, do I not do the 5th year and just apply for a Masters based on my stats OR do i finish the 5th year and apply. My reasoning is this that if I will get rejected after my 5th year and have to do a masters either way why not save a year. FEEDBACK WOULD BE HELPFUL. Thanks.

[t0ny]

In my opinion i would do a 5th year in either case. You need to boost up your GPA and a masters would not accomplish that. After having completed a 5th year, i would strongly suggest comparing the pros and cons of doing a masters vs doing a 2nd undergrad degree. The 2nd undergrad will boost your GPA assuming you do well as well as giving you the chance to utilize the weighted GPA system from certain schools utilizing your best few years. Thats just my 0.02$

[rdiddles]

fix the problem: GPA. 5th year definitely.

[seeking1]

5th year fix GPA /thread.

[iyin0991]

Come on. Fix the GPA STAT! Leave the mcat alone

[blizzah]

Just be careful that your MCAT won't expire with whatever route you plan on following.

 

There should be no reason to ever retake a 38 unless it is 15/15/8 and even then I'd be hesitant.

 

Masters won't really help with GPA, so like others have said, 5th year should be your plan.

[PreMedAK]

There is hardly a difference between a 38 and a 40 and on the MCAT. What possible advantage could you even gain just by improving your score by a little points even when it is high enough? It seems to me this guy is either trolling or doesn't want to come to terms with the fact he will need to do extra years of schooling to improve his GPA.

 

I never said I was aiming for a 40, I was stating I would like to get a score higher than that on the MCAT. If you wish to be specific, a score like a 42-43 was my intention, precisely for the reason that is cubersomely difficult to attain scores like that on top of it being extremely rare the score being generated by a person with a low GPA. The purpose, if you still cant grasp it was to allow for my MCAT to somehow deter some of the negativity from the GPA.

 

The reason why I asked to do a 5th year or a Masters is due to the fact that a graduate student is approached differently than an undergrad from an ADCOM's perspective. I do have evidence of this as one of my friends who did his Masters in Neuroscience at UBC got in this year at Queen's when he had a 3.2 overall undergrad GPA.

 

I hope this clarifies any loopholes in your understanding. Potentially might prevent you from being a condescending AHOLE to the next person who asks a genuine question. Thanks.