More than 1 MALS

[lawqueen04]

Ive been looking into different Masters programs including Western New Mexico University, Fort Hayes SU and Columbia University. Im wondering do you think it would be foolish to study 3 different types of Masters in Liberal Arts degrees even if they are in different fields? Like the WNMU would be Psychology and Poli Sci. and Columbia would be American Studies.

I also looked into Amberton U Master of Professional Development. Might it be smarter to do a MALS and the MPD instead of just MALS?

These are all subjects that interest me so it would be for fun as well as for academic accomplishment.


Thank you

[Yenisei]

What is the endgame for you, i.e., why do you want to do an MALS in the first place? Since you are interested in law school, perhaps an MALS is superfluous and concentrating on getting the highest LSAT score possible would be the best use of your time and money. If youa r interested in medical school, you will need a strong enough background in chemistry, biology and physics and do extremely well on the MCAT. I don't see where an MALS, much less an additional master's degree would be anything but a distraction for you.

[sanantone]

At WNMU, it's an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies. You can study psychology, political science, and history in one degree. I looked at Fort Hays' MALS program before because they offer it in several different concentrations, but you waste 10 credits taking bs courses. WNMU doesn't require you to waste time and money taking courses that are basically about nothing. If you're going to get two degrees, one should be a major in an actual subject. I really think it would be more practical, though, for you to major in social science where you can take all of those courses in one degree and you won't have the stigma of having a liberal arts degree.

As Yenisei said, it really depends on what you want to do. If you want to go to medical school, you need to have the prerequisites and do well on the MCAT as Yenisei mentioned. If you want to go to law school, you should concentrate on the LSAT. If you're worried about not getting into a law school, some people do get a masters first to improve their GPA. You can also look into getting a certificate in legal or paralegal studies.

[lawqueen04]

Thank you for your replies, although not what I wanted to hear, kind of what I expected. My ultimate goal is to go to medical school. I am pursuing a BA psychology from TESC through testing so after I finish that degree, I wanted to try for a masters such as WNMU while I am taking my Med school pre-reqs at a B&M school. So, in reality, I wouldn't need 3 masters degrees. It just seemed like it might be something "fun" for me to do. But, I can see where it might come off as silly, as they most likely won't even be relevant to my end goal.



Thank you.

[burbuja0512]

Thank you for your replies, although not what I wanted to hear, kind of what I expected. My ultimate goal is to go to medical school. I am pursuing a BA psychology from TESC through testing so after I finish that degree, I wanted to try for a masters such as WNMU while I am taking my Med school pre-reqs at a B&M school. So, in reality, I wouldn't need 3 masters degrees. It just seemed like it might be something "fun" for me to do. But, I can see where it might come off as silly, as they most likely won't even be relevant to my end goal.



Thank you.

If you're interested in something that will help your career, what about an MBA or an MHA while you're doing pre-reqs for medical school? Business know-how would be extremely helpful if you ever want to own or help run your medical practice. It would also set you apart if you wanted to advance your career at a hospital. Many hospital CMO's have business or healthcare management masters degrees.

Business isn't as interesting as an MALS, but I can't imagine that a liberal arts degree will help you at all with your career goals. Not that life is 100% about career, but if you pay the $$$$ for a graduate degree, you should at least get a little bit of a return on your investment.

[lawqueen04]

That is true. Thank you for that reply. I recently found out some information on an MBA at Western Governors University Healthcare Management or just the MBA. That could be an option.

[Yenisei]

That sort of degree should be taken after one does their residency, not while one is doing prereqs for medical school- these courses are not easy, after all.

I'd like to hear cookderosa's take on this since she has taken a significant number of med school prereqs, but I'd imagine that she would tell you to focus like a laser beam on them rather than getting distracted with extraneous stuff.

[ryoder]

Getting into med school is not that easy. You might find it hard to do so with a test-out degree without labs.
An MBA is nice for someone with a career behind them but makes a little less sense IMHO for someone with no technical experience in a field. It is such a general business degree and is not that easy to complete.

I think taking some undergrad business CLEP exams is an absolute pre-req to doing an MBA anyway since most MBAs (not WGU) will require an undergrad business degree or some required courses. If you don't have those courses, they will put you in 6 months of foundation classes for 1 cr each. That happened to a guy I work with.

[burbuja0512]

I think taking some undergrad business CLEP exams is an absolute pre-req to doing an MBA anyway since most MBAs (not WGU) will require an undergrad business degree or some required courses. If you don't have those courses, they will put you in 6 months of foundation classes for 1 cr each. That happened to a guy I work with.

This is the reason I chose the biz concentration.. the MBA program I wanted had 4 pre-req classes. I figured if I was going to do them anyhow, I might as well major in business.

I agree with everyone about focusing totally on the pre-med.. the MBA/MHA suggestion would only be if you absolutely HAVE to study something different right now. It would be a heck of a lot more useful than a MALS, but no, not a practical use of your time on the way to med school.

[alleycat]

My daughter is a third yr Bio Chem major. She has completed everything for her pre med, pre req's as of this spring. Let me tell you this was not easy. The sciences and the maths are alot of work. She also has much of her degree already done. She is applying into a PharmD program this fall. She also wants an MBA. She has decided when she is in between the two programs she will do her MBA. She does have 10 pre requ's for the MBA also. She figured she can get them done in about three months. The MBA program is is looking at can be done in 1 yr.