Summary: Episode 42: When you should go back to school and get a Pre-Med master’s degree. And when you shouldn’t; a listener question. Audio transcription by rev.com: Post-Bacc PreMed Programs We’re going to take a listener question here. It’s a long e-mail that was kind of unique in nature. It’s someone that’s in the military, just like I was, transitioning out and getting into medical school and not coming from the background where there was a physician in the family or even the kind of resources that are out there now. I’m going to go ahead and just make this e-mail response anonymous, I don’t know who exactly who this is, but I’m generally going to read sections of Should I get one? this long e-mail. Because I think this generally applies to a lot of other people that have gone to college, taken a break, more of a non-traditional path which I tend to cater to in the Medical Mastermind Community. Then I’ll explain each section and get to this question and answer session. I figured I would rather do it this way with a podcast, it’s been a while since I’ve done podcasts, and then we’re going to reignite this whole thing and I’m back in Facebook and then doing video responses as well. If you’ve got questions, go to the Medical Mastermind Community and check that out. The question starts off like this. “Hi, Dr. Dan. I just found the MMC this month.” That’s the Medical Mastermind Community. “As well as your podcast. I’m thrilled at the wealth of resources available on the site. “I’m working my way through your success strategies right now, and I wanted to get your thoughts on some things regarding my situation. I like you were … am in the army and stationed in the States. This is an army bandsman. Someone that’s plays in the band, that has two bachelors degrees and a masters degree in music.” Essentially she goes on in a longer paragraph to come later, that in the undergraduate work there were some life stressers like her mother having cancer, and she had a GPA in undergrad side of 3.4. But when she went back and got the masters degree in music, the GPA was 4.0. That’s a masters degree in music with a 4.0 GPA. She gets into … “I guess what I’m asking in regards to post-bacc programs”—those are post bachelors programs that you could go into, such as a masters degree program in maybe biotechnology or something else that kind of get you back into the Science groove if you have a bachelor degree and it’s been a while since you’ve been in school. It also serves as a jump start for you just to get back to practicing some basic Science stuff, especially because you have to go take the MCAT. The question is, first one here, “How competitive are the post-bacc programs?” Keep in mind that universities and institutions create masters degree programs not to be a platform for someone that’s been out there working in a field and deciding later in life to go back into medical school. In other words, if you walk in the door, to a post-bacc program that has a masters degree in something, you say, “I just want to come here to this program, only to get this masters degree and do well, and I want to go to medical school.” That might not be received very well, they might not like that. For example, I worked … When I didn’t get into medical school the first year and was waiting a year to reapply, I worked out at a research facility that offered a masters degree in biotechnology. And I thought that was a pretty good backup if I didn’t get into medical school. I had regular hours, it paid okay, I can use a science knowledge, at least it would be in my field. That’s what I was thinking, but the people that went to that program, the program directors and such, they’re looking for people that are going to stay in that field. In terms of how competiti[...]
