I wanted to create a thread for those applying to academic enhancer postbac programs for the Fall of 2006 - I know it's early and a lot of people don't bother thinking about applying until after the med school application cycle, but I'm getting a head start since I wouldn't get into med school this round anyway. I'm 21 and going to be a senior this fall...right now I'm takin summer classes/preparing for the August MCAT to try and bring my 2.8 GPA above a 3.0 by the time I submit applications this spring. I took Kaplan for the April MCAT but didn't feel quite prepared. So, assuming I can break that 3.0 mark by January and get a decent MCAT score next month then I'm planning on applying to these programs (most of which I found out about on the wonderful SDN):

Boston University MA in Medical Sciences
Drexel University IMS Program
Eastern Virginia Medical School MS in Biomedical Sciences
Georgetown University SMP in Physiology
Harvard University Health Careers Program
Rosalind Franklin University MS in Applied Physiology
UMDNJ MS in Biomedical Sciences
University of Connecticut Post-Baccalaureate Program B
University of Pennsylvania Special Science Program
Virginia Commonwealth University Pre-Med Certificate Program in Anatomy

I'll be sure to post any new info I find out about any of these programs over the next year, and hopefully come Spring a few of these programs will like me...it's going to be a long (but hopefully not too long) road to med school from here considering my stats so it'd be nice to hear from anyone in the same boat...

Hey you and I are almost in the exact same positions. I'm a senior right now graduating in December. My overall gpa is about 3.5 but my science gpa is hovering around a 3.0 so I'm not confident in my chances of getting right into a med program. I was also planning on taking the april MCAT and took Kaplan but didn't feel prepared (which I kind of regret looking back), but I feel like I'll have a chance to do better with the August test. My plan is to begin applying to the programs as soon as I get my MCAT scores back in August, having used the waiting period to get all my letters and applications ready to be sent out. I would love to have an acceptance to one of the programs as early as possible b/c I would like to do some volunteer stuff for an extended time in latin america after I graduate (spanish major). I plan on applying to most of the same programs as you, I guess my first choices would have to be Georgetown for its prestige, but I'm also very interested in the virginia programs b/c I'm from Florida and I would like to stay as close to home as I could and still be in a good program. Thanks for starting this post, now back to studying for the MCAT...

Good to know I'm not the only one...although you do sound like you're in a better position than I am. I suppose if I had to rank the list, Georgetown would be up there with RFU...I really like that program a lot. I don't understand the stigma behind its medical school because the match list last year was really impressive. I compared it to the match list from some of the top schools in the country and to be honest there wasn't a huge difference in terms of the distribution of specialties and the quality of the residency programs...plus doing rotations in Chicago would be awesome (this is all based on the assumption that the >3.0 = CMS unofficial linkage will still apply next year). But honestly I'd be happy if any of the selective programs on the list take me...

On a different note...your volunteering sounds awesome. What kind of work will you be doing?

A lot of the volunteer stuff I've done has focused on the hispanic community. As a physician I want to be able to gear my work towards that group of individuals so I've tried to get as much experience as possible with it. I've done some medical mission type things to some latin american countries and i spent some time in mexico recently studying and doing some other things. What I'd like to do after I graduate is get my TEFL certification (teaching english as a foreign language) and hopefully go back to Latin America (i'd prefer Mexico) and teach English or do some other type of volunteer work with it. I don't know why I've just always had a passion for it and have been pretty good at it, and IMO regardless of what people choose to think we live in a spanish speaking country so we as future health professionals need to be adequately prepared to help all of the people of the country.

FYI: I'm planning to post a thread on some postbac enhancement programs on this forum. Most of these are at the graduate level. I have most of the programs I know listed--it's just a matter or organizing them into a logical fashion, checking some of the links, etc. It's by no means complete (that would be impossible :p), but it's pretty extensive and I hope it will be helpful for those shopping around for postbac enhancement programs. I'm not sure when I'll get around to posting it, but it'll definitely be up by the time you guys get around to applying. =)

I tried to keep away from disadvantaged/URM/reapplicant programs (another SDNer mentioned the possibility of helping me out make a listing of these too).

Good luck to all of you