Basically, I need some insight into my situation from other people further along in their careers than myself. My story is that in 2007 I graduated from a liberal arts college with a BA in Liberal Arts, with emphases in philosophy, math and the history of science, with an overall GPA of 2.79. Ouch, I know. For all four years I was on medication (i.e. I had a prescription) for ADHD that I later realized I did not need to take. The side effects at the time made my life quite difficult, but I assumed that I had other unrelated troubles. This was not the case, as I have been medication free and happy since 2008.
Shortly after this realization came the realization that I wanted to be in biology. Now, I am at Johns Hopkins doing a part-time MS in Biotechnology and am carrying a 3.8 average. The pros of this program: the coursework is rigorous and I am really learning a lot. Furthermore, there is an option to complete a thesis. I am taking as many academic courses and hands-on laboratories as possible. The cons: the program is specifically meant to provide additional education to professionals in the field. Consequently, there is no internship component, no rotation/frequent research/publication opportunity component to this program at all - it assumes that you are at your job, having all of these opportunities professionally. For most people, this would be true. For me, it is not.
Now the problem: I want a full career in molecular/molecular cell biology. Realistically, that means pursuing an education to the point of a PhD, which I would gladly do, as I am happiest knee-deep in subject matter. To this end, I plan on pursuing the thesis option (I do not need to declare my intention until the end of the summer). However, my concern is that my application to any graduate school (top-tier or otherwise) will look unpromising, given that it is composed of a rather poor undergrad degree and a thesis-culminating but non-research master's. To fix this, I am applying to several internships for the summer; while it is still early, the only communication I've had so far has been one rejection. On the whole, this is quite worrying.
What do you all think? Assuming that I kept the same GPA at Hopkins, based on what you all have seen, are there schools/a tier of schools to which I might reasonably apply? All the promotional materials I have read, even for mid-tier schools, says something about 3.0 undergrad GPA. Furthermore, many of my competitors would be applying with either research, internship or even publication experience, to my mind making myself an even less compelling candidate.
Alternatively, I know several people who went from medicine to research. I would happily go through med school instead, and then move to a drug/treatment discovery role afterwards. Here, however, I run into a similar problem: same background. I know there are a number of post-bacc's to which I could apply, but I don't know whether the post-bacc or MS would be more useful for med school (and that's assuming that the post-bacc's would take me, given that most of the good ones seem to require a 3.2 GPA).
So, in closing, I am at a crossroads and would appreciate anyone's insight here, as my educational background prepared me to learn biology very well, and to navigate this kind of decision making not at all.
Thank you everyone!
