Hey all, I finished the HCP about a half year ago, and I wanted to give an review of the program and my experiences for anyone considering coming to the program. I hope this is helpful to people searching for post-baccs like I was a couple years ago.
Me - I started the program in fall 2009, finished in spring 2011 and am currently in the middle of my glide year.
What the program consists of - The HCP is only semi-formal. Owen Peterson and Dr. Fixsen don't hold your hand during the whole process. Their main purpose is for the composite letter that they submit to AMCAS. You can ask them questions about medical school and applying, but I never found them any more useful than SDN and other resources.
Getting sponsored vs. just taking the classes - Unlike most post-bacc programs, you are totally free to sign up and take the classes on your own, without sponsorship. This will save you about $600 in fees. There are only two downsides to this. The biggest downside is that you wont get the composite letter. With sponsorship, Owen Peterson will take all your letters of recommendation and package them together along with an overall recommendation of you. This composite letter is actually quite useful for medical school applications. About half of the secondary applications I filled out required an explanation for why you would be sending individual letters rather than a composite letter from your school. The medical schools want to have one composite letter, although its certainly possible to send in individual ones.
The other downside to not getting sponsorship is not being able to have a Harvard ID card. This is only available if you never took any of the medical school pre-reqs before. The card is certainly not necessary to enjoy your time at the HCP, but it is nice. You can use all the libraries, use the gym for a small fee, and there is the M2 shuttle that you can use for free that goes to from the Harvard undergrad campus (where you take your classes) to Harvard medical school, which is close to three hospitals. Many many people take advantage of this for research or for volunteering.
Cost of the classes - $1150 for a semester class during the year. Youll need 8 classes to do all the pre-reqs, so for less than 10K you can do the whole premedical education. This is a minuscule cost compared to many of the other post-baccs. Considering how good the program is, this is a huge draw for coming here.
The teachers and classes - Gen chem with Dr. Tucci: This will be one of the best classes of your life. His classes are often hysterical with his chemistry humor abounding. The class is well run too. Everything he writes in class are up on powerpoint slides on the website. The head teaching fellow, Justin, explains all the concepts in the Friday reviews, and the teaching fellows for the course are generally pretty knowledgeable and will try to help you out. This class will prepare you quite well for the MCAT, with only one or two MCAT relevant topics youll need to study on your own.
Physics with Rueckner: This class is pretty much the opposite of Tuccis class. It is poorly run, confusing, and boring. Although Rueckner is a decent guy, he has no idea how to present ideas to a group of premeds who havent taken a science course in years. The textbook is even confusing. The teaching fellows often do not understand the material and sometimes dont even show up to their own helprooms and labs. This class will be unpleasant at the best. However, if you struggle through all the homework and the textbook and do some independent learning of the concepts, you will be prepared for the MCAT. I even had one MCAT passage that came almost exactly from a problem we did in class which I hadnt covered in any of my MCAT practice.
Bio with Anderson: I took this class the first time Anderson taught it after Fixsen quit teaching it. Some people didnt like it, but I thought it was decent. Although most of his lectures were powerpoint summaries of the textbook, Anderson does like teaching and is willing to help people during office hours and after class. His exams that first year were sometimes confusing and his answers were sometimes wrong. I think hes fixed the class up since then. Nevertheless, I did learn a lot and felt like I had a foundation for the MCAT, but since biology is the most important topic for the MCAT, I still had a lot of studying to do.
Orgo: I took this over the summer with Dr. Logan McCarty and Dr. Melissa Grachan. Most people take it during the year with Dr. Matchacheep and Logan, but I think Logan is going to stop teaching it soon and Dr. Matchacheep will do it alone. Summer orgo was the hardest class of my life, and one of the hardest experiences Ive ever had. It was 10 hours of lab a week, 3 hours of lecture a day, and constant, never ending studying and memorizing. A chill still flows over me every time I hear the word Orgo. Fortunately, it is much easier to deal with if you take it over the year. The course is well run, and the teaching fellows are helpful. However, the course is only decent good practice for the MCAT. The MCATs material is much more based around carbohydrates, proteins, and nomenclature, all which are covered only somewhat during the course. But, as most organic chemistry classes dont emphasize what the MCAT tests, you most likely wont be any better off going elsewhere.
Grades - It is possible to get straight As while youre here. Is it easy? No, but your grade is limited by your own ability, not by any arbitrary limit of the number of As that the teachers give out. The classes are difficult, but all of them (except physics) teach the material well enough that it is up to you to sit down and study what youve been given until youve learnt the material.
Finishing the program in 1 year vs. 2 years - If you havent completed any of the science pre-reqs, and you have no or just a small amount of medically relevant ECs, I highly recommend finishing the program in at least two years. I did it this way, and even with spending two years doing volunteering and having some research, I still thought my ECs were a low point in my application. In addition, without a science background, it is difficult to do very well in the classes if you take three at a time, especially if you need to work during the program. Considering how important getting good grades is, I dont recommend rushing to complete the program. However, if you already have experiences in medically related fields, and you have completed some of the pre-reqs, then it would probably be okay to finish it quickly.
The location - Boston is awesome for being a pre-med. There are so many famous hospitals and opportunities for volunteering and research even if you have no prior experience. I, like many others, volunteered at MGH. I was a patient escort there and had a great time getting to know patients. I also was able to start a research internship at a hospital. I was pretty much working for free in a hospital, but since I had no experience in research before, it was a great opportunity.
Living can be a little expensive here depending where you are. The closer to Harvard you are, probably the more expensive it will be. I live here with my wife, and for a one bedroom, its about $1250 a month. This is on the cheaper side.
For that little time youll have free, there are plenty of bars around Harvard and elsewhere. The only bad side is that the weather sucks. Rain, snow, and cold.
Opportunities during the glide year - There are plenty of things to do here in the glide year. Im working full-time doing research in a lab, and a few of my friends are doing clinical research. Im hoping on getting my first publication in a few months. Harvard Extension School has an impressive amount of upper-division biology classes, so a bunch of us are taking a class each semester while we work.
Do I recommend the HCP? Definitely! Im mid-season in the application process, and I am already holding multiple acceptances at schools Im very happy with. I had to work hard to get where I am, but it was worth it, and Im not in huge debt as some of the more formal programs put you in. I highly recommend coming here.
