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Okay here we go, a thread about my master’s degree experience BUCKLE UPPPPP https://twitter.com/demoncouncil/status/1343650732369711108
I finished undergrad in 2015 with a super low GPA. Not 3.2 kind of low, but a 2.1, so I had literally no other choice but to do another degree or post bacc. I started looking on the AAMC site at the post bacc programs and from there,
I narrowed my search to schools in the Northeast US that had medical schools associated with them, bc I figured they might have stronger linkages than schools that didn’t/I wanted to take classes that were similar difficulty and taught by same profs as medical school classes.
I applied to 7 or 8 schools. I took the GRE because while I had already taken the MCAT, my score wasn’t perfect, and I did super well on the GRE so this made sense to make me a competitive applicant. I also wrote a good essay about why my grades sucked and why they would improve
I ended up getting into one school outright and one provisionally; the provisional acceptance said that if I did well as a non-matriculated student during the first semester, they would let me matriculate fully for second semester.
I ended up going with the school that accepted me outright. The program was 30 credits of hard sciences and included biochem, which I needed for the new MCAT; it was focused on people who needed to improve their GPAs and prove they could do the work.
Some things I was misled about: the linkage, and the work. We were told that the program was meant to be finished in one year and that if we achieved a certain GPA in our first 20 credits and got an MCAT that was slightly above average, we would get a guaranteed interview.
Out of 250 people, only 4 of us finished in a year and it was grueling, truly not meant for only a year. Most finished in 2-2.5 years. They also moved the goalposts for the interview, increasing the GPA req and increasing the MCAT composite score while
Also increasing the subsection points to a 127 minimum in each. They also neglected to tell us that there was a group of applicants who would interview before the ones who got the guaranteed interview, and we were pressured to apply differently to be included in the first group.
It was all a little disingenuous and a lot of us were salty AF about not being grandfathered into the old requirements that were in place when we started the program. Overall, though, the VAST majority of us are in med school now. The program worked as it was meant to for us.
I recommend a master’s program that caters to career changers or low GPA people, with a strong, legitimate linkage to a medical school. I can recommend some programs privately that I know of. However, if you have a GPA above 3.0, I do not recommend a master’s and here’s why:
-you are still within range for essentially all med schools.
-these degrees are EXPENSIVE. I dropped $40,000 on mine.
-they’re not always a guaranteed way into med school. Mine wasn’t, and while I did get accepted somewhere, I am going international, not to the school I went to.
-these degrees are EXPENSIVE. I dropped $40,000 on mine.
-they’re not always a guaranteed way into med school. Mine wasn’t, and while I did get accepted somewhere, I am going international, not to the school I went to.
Explore all of your options before committing to it, because above all, these programs are difficult. They really do require a higher degree of effort and work than undergrad did. May the odds be in your favor 
