Active Duty Member in Need of Help

[SaltySailor]

Hello all,

I'm currently an officer in the US Navy and I'd like to go to medical school. I'm not interested in being a military doctor, (no HSPS).

I'm an English major with no prior science background, so I really feel a post-bac program would really help me prepare for medical school.

I have 2 years left on my commitment than I am getting out. Ideally, I'd like to attend a post-bac program right after I leave the Navy. I'm not sure how I'd earn an income while making the transition between military and civilian. Does anyone believe this is possible on a military lifestyle? (that is, applying for post-bac programs while serving in the military).

Also, has anyone used the post-9/11 GI Bill to pay for their post-bac program? What about the Yellow Ribbon Program? What was your experience with this process?

Anyone's input on these issues would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

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[BigNavyPedsGuy]

Hello all,

I'm currently an officer in the US Navy and I'd like to go to medical school. I'm not interested in being a military doctor, (no HSPS).

I'm an English major with no prior science background, so I really feel a post-bac program would really help me prepare for medical school.

I have 2 years left on my commitment than I am getting out. Ideally, I'd like to attend a post-bac program right after I leave the Navy. I'm not sure how I'd earn an income while making the transition between military and civilian. Does anyone believe this is possible on a military lifestyle? (that is, applying for post-bac programs while serving in the military).

Also, has anyone used the post-9/11 GI Bill to pay for their post-bac program? What about the Yellow Ribbon Program? What was your experience with this process?

Anyone's input on these issues would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

The problem you'll run into is that an English major didn't have many of the prerequisite classes for medical school (LOTS of science classes). And most graduate degrees (I think that's what you mean by post-bac) won't offer these since they are part of an undergrad science major. You could use your GI bill for a couple of years to get your prereqs out of the way and apply to medical school.

 

[Qurmish]

I'm an English major with no prior science background, so I really feel a post-bac program would really help me prepare for medical school.

So the first thing to note is that there are actually quite a few ways you can go about completing a post-bac. There are formalized programs like at Bryn Mawr, Columbia University, John Hopkins, etc. that will allow you to complete all of your requirements in the course of two years (or one in accelerated programs like Bryn Mawr). These programs are generally EXTREMELY expensive and are kind of a cash cow for the universities. Your situation will certainly be a bit different using the GI Bill, but there is a very distinct possibility that you will have to pay a fair bit out of pocket or through loans if you choose this route. The advantage of these programs is that they often have linkage programs to specific school and have a staff dedicated towards pre-medical advisement

The other option, which is available at many public universities, is to enroll as a "second degree" student and take all of pre-reqs on your own À la carte. This option would be completely 100% paid for with the GI Bill. There is a possibility through this route that you may not be able to sign for classes when you want and may be given lower priority than the normal undergraduates for registration. The academic advisement might also be less robust.

I'm not sure how I'd earn an income while making the transition between military and civilian. Does anyone believe this is possible on a military lifestyle? (that is, applying for post-bac programs while serving in the military).

If worst comes to worst you can always draw unemployment during the gap from military to school. But that may very well be unnecessary. While in school you will collect BAH through the GI Bill, which depending on the zip code of the school can be more than enough to live on. For example, I attended a school in New York City where the E-5 with dependents BAH was $3,300 a month. I paid about $750 a month in rent and utilities and was able to pocket the rest. This is a rather extreme example, but you can kind of figure out what your exact situation using the BAH calculator (http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/site/bahCalc.cfm).

A lot of the post-bacs won't require interviews and will be fairly straightforward to apply to. Depending on when you are separating from the Navy it might be a bit tricky to coordinate beginning all of the intro classes (like Intro to Biology) if you have to start in the spring. There would certainly be ways to work through that though. I don't think there would be ANY reason why you couldn't have a post-bac lined up for when you get out. I actually applied to a program when I was still in the Army two full academic years before I started (one of the years as a consequence of being stop-lossed). I told the program upfront that I was going to apply early, but that I was going to defer for a year while I still had a military commitment. The program was extremely accommodating and helpful. I transitioned immediately from active duty to school (which I'm not 100% sure I would recommend tbh).

Also, has anyone used the post-9/11 GI Bill to pay for their post-bac program? What about the Yellow Ribbon Program? What was your experience with this process?

The GI Bill will pay for a post-bac program as long as it offers some sort of certificate or diploma at the end of a course. This simply means that you do have to enroll in either a formal post-bac program or as a second degree student. Both are very common options and are really simple to do with the GI Bill.

The Yellow Ribbon Program applies only if you pursue a post-bac at a private school, but it definitely is available at a lot of schools. If you attend a private school the VA will pay a maximum of $17,500 a year, after which you will need to pay the rest out of pocket. Some schools will offer you more to help mitigate the amount of loans you would need to take and a full list of the schools participating can be found here (http://www.gibill.va.gov/gi_bill_info/ch33/yrp/yrp_list_2013.htm). Essentially the VA will match whatever the school offers. If you were to attend a private school that cost $30,000 a year and they offered $5,000 for the YRP then you would receive a total of $27,500 per year and owe $2,500 out of pocket. Of course, any public school would be 100% free regardless of the YRP.

I can tell you some more specifics about my experience via PM, but needless to say it was super easy and enjoyable. I was able to spend 100% of my time focused on academics and E.C.s that I enjoyed. I walked away completely debt free, with an acceptance to a really solid M.D. school

 

[Apollyon]

Back in the mid 90's, my cousin was an officer of Marines. I don't know how (luck or whatever), but he was stationed in California for his final duty station. He was an ROTC scholarship guy, so he had an ADSO to fulfill. While he was a motor pool officer in CA, he did his pre-reqs on his own (before these post-bacc things were in vogue) while on AD. I don't know how he did it, but he did (and got into 4 schools, 3 of which were in common with his then-fiancée, and, after he was discharged, she and he attended med school (and residency) together). His undergrad was computer science.

 

[Qurmish]

To add on to the post-bac progrmas---I think a lot of them are pretty suspect. They love to brag about how successful their graduates are at gaining admission to medical school, but they prescreen like crazy and have very harsh requirements for continuing in a program (like having at least 3.3+ sGPA and never getting below a B in any of the science classes). So, yeah, a lot of them do have pretty good percent of students getting into medical school, but the students would have likely found their way on their own without that kind of structure and would have not had to pay 10x the price for a few intro level classes that are taught almost identically everywhere.

 

[SaltySailor]

Wow, thanks to everyone for your advice.

I really feel I need a good post-bac program to help me gain the science knowledge necessary for medical school and to help with my low GPA issue.

One other question: Is anyone aware of any post-bacs with a linkage program, (I think that's what they are called...), that do NOT require the applicant to take the MCAT? I've heard stories of applicants to medical school who never took the MCAT. Is this even possible?

Thanks again.

 

[Special Delivery]

One other question: Is anyone aware of any post-bacs with a linkage program, (I think that's what they are called...), that do NOT require the applicant to take the MCAT? I've heard stories of applicants to medical school who never took the MCAT. Is this even possible?

(2 years old) List of Carribean Med Schools and MCAT requirements

I won't go into the pitfalls of that route as there are dozens of threads already that you can find with the search function.

If you like the cold and speak french well, University of Ottawa and Northern Ontario School of Medicine do not require the MCAT because there's no french language equivalent.

Johns Hopkins has a post-bac program that links into Brown U. or U of Rochester med schools and waives MCAT. There are probably others.

I expect most people will tell you to just take the MCAT.

 

[notdeadyet]

And most graduate degrees (I think that's what you mean by post-bac) won't offer these since they are part of an undergrad science major.

Just wanted to correct this. Some post-bacs are Master's level programs, but many are "certificate" programs in which they structure the classes for folks without science backgrounds to take their prereqs quickly and effectively (they tend to use "certificates" to make them eligible for federal financial aid). Postbacs, regardless of level, tend to assume you've done little to know prereqs. I think what BNPG is thinking of are what are called "Special Masters Programs."

The community college vs. state school vs. organized postbac has been done to death and the OP should read up about the options on the Postbac forum here on SDN, which has better info than he'll be able to get here on this thread.

The big determinant is going to be cost. Community college is the cheapest, but conventional wisdom is that for someone with no science background, having only JC classes to show is not a good application strategy. State schools are better, but getting the classes you want when you want them (prereq classes tend to be impacted) is a challenge. Organized postbacs are the best bet, as classes are usually scheduled to maximize your time and you get better interaction with faculty and opportunities for volunteering and research. But they're expensive and not all are created equal.

One STRONG suggestion is to take a year of General Chemistry via whatever mechanism you can (with lab). If you have this done, you can get your prereqs done in a demanding but not suicidal one year schedule. No one will care where you did one sequence of your prereqs.

I was a lit major with a lot of years on my tires in a non-medical career and I opted for the post-bac route from one of the name programs. It took a long time for me to decide that route, but even with my Gen Chem done, there was no way I could finish my prereqs in one year otherwise (both the community college and local state program had classes overlap even assuming I could get in to them). My decision was based on a postbac bettering my chances of getting into med school on my first go and cutting a year out of the process. The extra year's salary as a physician will make up for the extra cost of the program. Or at least that's what I tell myself as I cut checks.

Check out the Postbac forum. This has all been discussed in great detail and you'll hear the latest and greatest.