1 yr or 2 yr post bac?

[businessmd06]

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Hello All,

I am a non trad trying to figure out what is the best route to take to gain first time acceptance. I can either do a 1 yr post bac (June - Aug) at NYU or Hunter, or a 2 year track at these schools or Columbia. I am coming from a very successful career in financial services (ran my own company), however I will need to do the following:

1. Volunteer / Shadow
2. Do well in Post Bac classes
3. Kick butt on the MCAT
4. Apply Early

My questions is will the one year program enable me enough time to shadow / volunteer / study for MCAT and get my apps ready? Also when do schools start accepting apps? If I wish to have the best chance I have read people suggest applying early. Does this mean I may have to take the MCAT before I am done all my post bac classes in order to get an early app? (Gen Chem in Summer) Ochem / Bio - Fall / Ochem Phy or Bio Spring / either all Phy next summer or one Phy one Bio)

With the new MCAT schedule coming out, maybe this would not be so bad... I would prefer the one year track, but obviously everthing is condensed rather sharply. What date is still considered early for application?

I have a 3.4 in MSIS / Compsci graduated 2001 from a tier 1 University.... the post bac should get me close to a 3.5 assuming all goes well. I have strong LOR possible and very strong work experience.

Thoughts?

 

[blee]

From my experience, most of the people who take two years do so because of financial issues. I personally completed my post-bacc courses in one year and still had time to do a little shadowing and MCAT prep.

 

[Law2Doc]

Hello All,

I am a non trad trying to figure out what is the best route to take to gain first time acceptance. I can either do a 1 yr post bac (June - Aug) at NYU or Hunter, or a 2 year track at these schools or Columbia. I am coming from a very successful career in financial services (ran my own company), however I will need to do the following:

1. Volunteer / Shadow
2. Do well in Post Bac classes
3. Kick butt on the MCAT
4. Apply Early

My questions is will the one year program enable me enough time to shadow / volunteer / study for MCAT and get my apps ready? Also when do schools start accepting apps? If I wish to have the best chance I have read people suggest applying early. Does this mean I may have to take the MCAT before I am done all my post bac classes in order to get an early app? (Gen Chem in Summer) Ochem / Bio - Fall / Ochem Phy or Bio Spring / either all Phy next summer or one Phy one Bio)

With the new MCAT schedule coming out, maybe this would not be so bad... I would prefer the one year track, but obviously everthing is condensed rather sharply. What date is still considered early for application?

I have a 3.4 in MSIS / Compsci graduated 2001 from a tier 1 University.... the post bac should get me close to a 3.5 assuming all goes well. I have strong LOR possible and very strong work experience.

Thoughts?

Sort of disagree with the prior poster. While it certainly could be done in the one year and two summers pace you are proposing, and I know quite a few folks who did this, if you are coming from a totally different field (non-sci), you are going to want ample time to do some health related ECs, and also are likely going to want to have the entire set of prereqs under your belt and some time to study BEFORE you tackle the MCAT. You theoretically could finish your classes just in time to take the August MCAT, but that would put you in a position of taking compressed summer classes, putting together AMCAS and studying for the MCAT at the same time. I know lots of folks who did this, and MOST did fine, but it certainly was less than the ideal pace. In most cases either your grades or your MCAT will suffer if you try this. Most of the formal postbacs will recommend against doing this.
And you certainly don't want to attempt the MCAT before you have taken all the prereqs -- science is hard enough without trying to teach yourself an entire subject (or several halfs of subjects) - bad idea.

 

[relentless11]

I agree with Law2Doc. My suggestion is see how fall quarter goes (summer may be not be a good model) with OChem/Biochem. You may also want to consider taking more than 1-2 class per quarter or semester if you are not working. Your undergrad GPA seems to be decent though so the workload factor may not be an issue. However I knew a people who didn't get in because they only took a few courses as post-bacc. Its clearly easier to get an A when taking one class at a time compared to taking 4. But as stated if you have to work fulltime or something then thats good reason, just somehow include that in the personal statement.

In regards to your OChem course. Is that the only OChem course offered? Make sure there aren't two types of courses. If there is a harder one, it would be suggestive to take that. Some schools encourage taking the more "rigorous" option.

Pretty much Law2Doc hit it right on the nose. Take the MCAT when you are ready. You really only want to take that test once, even if the new test is shorter. Some people have felt that it is better to take a few elective classes (like physiology) to help them on the test. Its certainly not required, and people have done well without elective courses, but it depends on the person. Don't underestimate the amount of studying you will do for the MCAT, even if the new one has less questions. You will find rushing into things like applying and the MCAT might end up hurting you. Apply when the time and conditions are right. The med school's aren't going anywhere. 😉

 

[kimmcauliffe]

I know it's tempting to rush into it and knock it all out, but I personally think it's best to do it at a comfortable pace and one in which you won't comprimise your grades or your preparation for the MCAT.

I know how you feel, though- I'm a returning student and at 27, I'm taking classes with CHILDREN practically. While I have a (distinguished) streak of gray in my hair, they are partying til 3am...

Don't rush it, though. Slow but steady gets the A's! 👍

 

[businessmd06]

Thanks for the replies....

I definitly see the benefit of the 2 year track, what I could do is take all my pre req's as follows: (Summer Session Gen Chem) Fall Session (O CHem / Bio 1) Spring Session (Ochem / Bio 2) and then summer session (Phy 1) and either Phy 2 or wait till fall. This would get me all my pre reqs out of the way with the spring semester to do MCAT prep course, apps and LOR. I would then be able to take the Earliest MCAT and get my app in ASAP in June. This track would also allow me to shadow and volunteer during the fall / spring and also during my application time in the 2nd spring semester. I probably would not do too many EC stuff during the summer session if I am taking classes.

This is my first hard science, as my field (Merchant Banking) does not use it, however, I do have the advantage of having a great tutor (my wife) who is a Micro Bio PHD at Columbia (5th yr) and who also majored in Chem in undergrad 🙂

I am 27 now, so obviously I would like to get moving, and to wait 3 yrs to matriculate at med school seems far off, but then again whats one year.

If I do this way, I will rule out Columbia, as they require 2 years of classwork for the pre req's with no summer session. This would mean I would still be taking 2 classes and trying to prepare for MCAT etc. There is no advantage to their program as far as getting my plate clean the spring I will take the MCAT. Their only advantage is a 94% placement 1st app to Med School (I am not sure how, with all the students only taking Aug MCAT, and not getting apps in till Sept) but this does count for something. It would leave me with Hunter, or NYU were I can tailor my schedule as I see fit.

Sorry for the long message.. any thoughts with this new info is appreciated!

 

[blee]

Good grades over two years are probably preferable to marginal grades over one year. That said, I say my post-bacc year as more than just an opportunity to earn some As. It was also a chance for me to judge my academic reserve and stamina. Even three simultaneous classes, science or not, only amount to about 12-13 credits in a semester. That's not even the average number of credits required per semester to get an undergrad degree from most universities. At the same time, med school is going to have a significantly harder workload than the typical undergrad semester. I reasoned that if I were to be at all successful in med school, I had better be successful at "only" three science courses in any given period.

I admit, my strategy was a little risky, but I believed in myself and went for it. One of my close friends from the program was an econ major who had never taken hard science classes. He pursued the same strategy anyway, and came out with the same GPA as I did. Just some food for thought; I won't claim that my way is the best way for everyone, but it definitely worked out for me.

 

[profstudent]

I just wanted to add that a one year post-bac really isn't *much* more coursework than an "average" premed student takes. From my experience, first semester premeds normally take Bio I, Chem I, and Calc I (and other gen eds). Substitute the last two for Ochem I and Physics I (assuming you took Gen Chem I and II over the summer) and you have the fall semester of a one year post-bac. Trying to fit in some shadowing and MCAT studying may be difficult, but I really don't think it's *much* more work than your fellow premeds are dealing with. As blee mentioned, proving that you can hack a rigorous science load will go a long way with adcoms.