Post-bacc vs Master's

[EmmyK]

Hello,

I graduated with a B.S in Biology from my undergrad. I used to be pre-med but I have recently made up my mind to go into the PA route as that is what aligns with my future both financially and personally. 

I graduated undergrad with a cGPA of 3.31 and a sGPA of 3.0. After undergrad I still was pushing myself to go into med school, so I went into a linkage program, but realized I absolutely wanted nothing to do with med school. My sGPA only rose to 3.1 after the program. I was wondering what my best options were to raise my sGPA to become a competitive applicant. I still need to take anatomy/physiology, and I received a C in organic chemistry that I am not proud of. Most of the schools i'm looking into require a 3.0 cGPA and sGPA, and 2 of the schools require a B- or better in all science courses. 

Would the best route for me be to go into a Master's program, where I can take upper level science courses in addition to anatomy/physio and boost my sGPA? Or should I just do a post-bacc to take anatomy/physiology, and perhaps retake orgo?

Any advice or sharing experiences would be greatly appreciated! 

[UGoLong]

I don't see a universally right answer to your question. From what I've seen, a large number of applicants do post-bacs and at a variety of schools ranging from community colleges on up. 

There is a certain "overhead" associated with getting a masters degree. You usually have to take additional classes that don't necessarily help you in applying to a PA program and it can be more costly than a targeted post-bac. You've already started to follow a career path that you later changed (not a criticism: lots of people do that), so you probably would like to be as efficient as you can this time -- in both time and money -- in case your interests change again.

The question I would ask is, is there a masters out there that would help you down the road in a job you think that you would enjoy, whether or not you ever become a PA? If there is, then I would consider going that route. If not, I would just take the classes that you need. 

I'm not sure if this applies to you, but enrolling to take isolated classes as an adult student can have its advantages. As an adult student, I was able to just take the courses I wanted to without having to take the college's recommended prerequisites for each course. As an adult, I was responsible if I took too big a bite and failed a class. (Heck, as an adult you're responsible for all the consequences of your actions anyway!) That didn't happen and it saved me time.

Good luck!

Edited September 4, 2021 by UGoLong

[Christine616]

If you don’t need to retake a ton of classes I wouldn’t do a post-back program better to retake at a community college to get a higher grade and/or up your clinical experience. 
 

for me, I also had a lower than average GPA at a 3.7 non science and a 3.3 science and I repeated classes mostly due to expiration limit than grade booster but I know that it looked really good that i had an almost 4.0 while working full time as MA. 
 

I had no idea MBS program existed until I started PA school as my school has one and I know of a couple of students who did their MBS at my school then got into the PA program. Idk if it increased their changes but it doesn’t hurt to see if any of the schools you are interested in have that type of program.