Non-traditional candidate- post bac or cc?

[ElleMo12]

Hi everyone! This is my first post to this forum so I apologize for any redundancies.

I am 2 years out of undergrad with a B.A. in theatre (3.46) and have decided to begin preparing for medical school. It's something I have always seriously considered pursuing since I have gone through extensive hip surgeries myself. I would love to be able to help people in the way my surgeon helped me!

So my question is this, does it make me more competitive to undergo a post bac program to complete my required science/ math or can the same be accomplished at a community college? Is my gpa competitive enough to get into a post bac program?

Thank you so much in advance!

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[thatwouldbeanarchy]

You'd have to look at individual formal postbacs to see what their GPA requirements are. Your current GPA isn't bad so I don't imagine you'd have trouble getting into one. But just throwing it out there that you don't necessarily have to do a formal postbacc program. You could do an informal program at a 4-year university - where you'd basically just enroll as a nondegree student and take the courses you need for med school. I chose this route myself when I realized that I had a 4-year school close to home that had a continuing studies department that allowed me to take classes at night for roughly the same price as my local CC. It might be worth it to do a cost comparison because formal postbacs can be $$$$.

 

[GreenDuck12]

Personally, I am not a fan of formal post-bac programs. The ones that have a track record of getting students into medical school are largely filled with students who will matriculate to medical school due to prior academic accomplishments. There is a perception that CC classes are less rigorous than 4 year university classes. Regardless, grading is highly subjective from class to class, let alone university to university. Your best bet is to take classes where you can do well, avoid taking out loans, etc. I chose to start at a CC (25 person general chemistry/bio classes were too good to pass up) but I will switch to a four year university for bio chem, orgo, physics, genetics, and cell bio. This is my own way of "hedging the bet" with the CC vs 4 year debate while trying to cut costs.