hi, everyone!

like many, i'm torn between nyc (cuny-city college) and harvard extension. there're a lot of posts on HES and hunter. i could only find posts here and there about city college. is it organized? classes large? do they help you find research positions? do people get into top 10 schools? (i know some of these questions have been answered last year but i was wondering if there had been any developments!)

a few things which i'd appreciate everyone's input on: i've talked to a lot of current med students with post bacc experience and it sounds like as long as you do your post bacc work (i.e. EVERY science credit - i was a music major) at an accredited school - it doesn't matter what school that is, especially because, as i've heard, your undergrad cumulative gpa will end up changing to include your post bacc work (am i correct on that?) and the cum gpa and your science gpa are what med schools pay attention to. what do you guys think?

i've also heard it might be a good idea to enter into a less competitive atmosphere (unlike columbia, which i now have a new reason to be scared of other than the price tag :scared: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/archive/index.php/t-185437.html) because what's most important are numbers. i'll admit, getting into a top 10 school is a goal, but i'm certainly not viscious about it!!

i live in brooklyn so i'm trying to decide if it is worth it to pick up and move to a new city where i know no one when i could easily achieve the same results and stay where i'm happy :p .

I'm a huge advocate for the City College/HUnter program. I did City College. The education is excellent. My first year has been a breeze cause they kicked my ass in my post-bac. Personally, I would say go to HUnter because that's where Lolita Wood-Hill is now. She is the key to getting into med school. But if you are in the Cuny System you can take classes at City College too. I would say take classes at both campuses to make sure you get all the important classes. But you need to be best friend's with Lolita. All east coast med schools know her very well. I mean, HArvard is Harvard and you might be fine that route too, but at all my interviews, I was know as one of Lolita's kids. But they weren't top 10 schools... so that's my advice. Any questions just PM me.

I loved City College but also in part because of Lolita Wood-hill. There is a huge, supportive post-bac community at CCNY. The question becomes do you have to work because Hunter's program was all day classes when I was a post-bac and CCNY and York had night and weekend classes. York's Chemistry Class on Saturdays with Dr. Rossi were outstanding. Even if you go to Hunter-- make sure to get a permit to take his class.

Be careful about assuming that the post-bac at the CUNY school are less competitive-- they are not. Many people like you are choosing the option because you can complete all the post-bac requirements for 10K instead of 75+K at Harvard and Columbia. My group of post-bacs had grads from Hopkins, Cornell, Columbia, Yale (me), Harvard, Penn and had an assortment of engineers, lawyers, teachers, musicians, computer scientists. There are certainly other students who did not attend these schools in the program but I am just mentioning those who were at the top of the class with applications and such.

As far as research, if you want to do Emergency Department clinical research, contact Mike Radeos at radeos@aol.com, he is the head of research in the ED at Lincoln hospital in the South Bronx. For other opportunties, they are always posted in the pre-med office. That is a little difficult though if you are taking only night classes.