Am I a candidate for a post-bac?

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julius30591

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I am an anthropology major, with a 3.6 gpa and 4.0 in major. I will be a junior in the fall. I have taken BIOI/BIOII w/ labs for bio majors and made B's in the lectures and A's in the labs, but no other real premed prereqs done. I recently decided I would like to go to medical school. Am I a candidate for a post-bac even with a prereq completed? What programs should I be looking at? It seems these programs are very competitive, only accepting 30-40 students each. Any advice?
 
Your GPA is definitely competitive and I know that many "career changer" programs accept students who have only taken a couple of the pre-reqs (though they may want you to retake them at their school). Keep in mind that SAT score is also a factor for some schools. If I were you I would contact the individual programs you're interested in and see what they say.
 
I am an anthropology major, with a 3.6 gpa and 4.0 in major. I will be a junior in the fall. I have taken BIOI/BIOII w/ labs for bio majors and made B's in the lectures and A's in the labs, but no other real premed prereqs done. I recently decided I would like to go to medical school. Am I a candidate for a post-bac even with a prereq completed? What programs should I be looking at? It seems these programs are very competitive, only accepting 30-40 students each. Any advice?


How do you know that you would like to go to medical school? What brought about this recent decision? I only ask because many programs will want to know. That said, get moving on finding a doc to shadow, a clinic or hospital to volunteer at, etc. One of two things will happen: you will be inspired and become even more enthusiastic about your new found dream or you will see that it is not what you thought it was all about and want absolutely nothing to do with it. However, before reaching any conclusion (especially the turned-off side of things) be sure to try out various atmospheres of health care. There is a lot of variety out there.

As for the school situation, you are only a junior; there is NO REASON you need a post-bacc. You can take your Gen Chems over the summer and then next fall and spring hit up Orgo 1 and 2, as well as Physics 1 and 2. If you are serious about going to med school, immediately speak with your pre-professional health careers adviser. They will be able to help you map out your courses and get to know you as well. Remember they will need to write a committee letter for you within the next year or two. (Note: Some advisers can be naysayers and many lack understanding about the process of med school admissions. Just stay positive in your own heart and mind, regardless of what they say. You need them for that letter though, so do what you need to do).

You can make this all happen quite quickly if you jump on it. There is plenty of time to accomplish this WITHOUT A POST-BACC. WHY WASTE TIME AND MONEY?!?!?!

Oh, I forgot about the MCAT. Well, pre-reqs first THEN worry about slaying the Beast.

Good luck.
 
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I certainly understand that they will ask me why the change of heart. And this summer I will be shadowing a dr. and volunteering in a hospital. The reason I cant take a 5 year graduation is I am transferring from one university to another as a junior. I cannot change/add a major or unrelated minor and I must graduate in 2 years as per rules of the university. I feel that cramming upper level classes, a field school, premed prereq classes and mcat prep in 2 years will not allow me to focus properly on all I must do. That is why I am looking into postbac, otherwise I wouldnt even think about doing it if I had the luxury of taking a 5 year graduation. In addition, looking at the summer course offerings, believe it or not, they dont offer chemistry or physics over the summer. Only orgo 2 and a low level biology class and 4000 level hard science classes. What can I say, the university is strange.
 
I certainly understand that they will ask me why the change of heart. And this summer I will be shadowing a dr. and volunteering in a hospital. The reason I cant take a 5 year graduation is I am transferring from one university to another as a junior. I cannot change/add a major or unrelated minor and I must graduate in 2 years as per rules of the university. I feel that cramming upper level classes, a field school, premed prereq classes and mcat prep in 2 years will not allow me to focus properly on all I must do. That is why I am looking into postbac, otherwise I wouldnt even think about doing it if I had the luxury of taking a 5 year graduation. In addition, looking at the summer course offerings, believe it or not, they dont offer chemistry or physics over the summer. Only orgo 2 and a low level biology class and 4000 level hard science classes. What can I say, the university is strange.

Oh well. Good on the shadowing and volunteering thing though. Where do you live? If on the East Coast there are some solid schools in and around NYC that offer post-baccs (with linkages). Check out Columbia (mucho $$$ but great program) as well as CUNY Hunter College (low $$$ and a great program with a lot of linkages). Then again, if you have don't live out here or have an interest in the area then it's a moot point.
 
I live in the southeast, but have no problem traveling/moving after graduation. I have family who lives in Queens so I would certainly look into those programs. I am just concerned because I did take the bio prereq I would not be accepted. It seems from looking at several top postbac premed programs the applicants have masters, PhDs and have travelled the world over. How hard would it be going straight from my undergrad to a postbac? Obviously, I want to go to the best program I can, and have the best shot at med school. Thanks so much for the advice guys!
 
As for the school situation, you are only a junior; there is NO REASON you need a post-bacc. You can take your Gen Chems over the summer and then next fall and spring hit up Orgo 1 and 2, as well as Physics 1 and 2. If you are serious about going to med school, immediately speak with your pre-professional health careers adviser. They will be able to help you map out your courses and get to know you as well. Remember they will need to write a committee letter for you within the next year or two. (Note: Some advisers can be naysayers and many lack understanding about the process of med school admissions. Just stay positive in your own heart and mind, regardless of what they say. You need them for that letter though, so do what you need to do).

You can make this all happen quite quickly if you jump on it. There is plenty of time to accomplish this WITHOUT A POST-BACC. WHY WASTE TIME AND MONEY?!?!?!

A lot of the advisors are actually starting to recommend the post-bacc programs as opposed to delaying graduation. I spoke to 3 different advisors and all three told me to check out post-bacc programs. They said that is my best option, and I'm in the same boat as the OP.
 
A lot of the advisors are actually starting to recommend the post-bacc programs as opposed to delaying graduation. I spoke to 3 different advisors and all three told me to check out post-bacc programs. They said that is my best option, and I'm in the same boat as the OP.

I'm with your advisors on this one. If I had to do it all over I absolutely would have done a postbacc instead of haphazardly tacking on the pre-req classes at the end of my undergrad career. The linkage opportunities and additional support of a structured postbacc program make it well worth whatever the additional cost might be, especially for people who aren't coming from hard science backgrounds.
 
I'm with your advisors on this one. If I had to do it all over I absolutely would have done a postbacc instead of haphazardly tacking on the pre-req classes at the end of my undergrad career. The linkage opportunities and additional support of a structured postbacc program make it well worth whatever the additional cost might be, especially for people who aren't coming from hard science backgrounds.

Which is pretty much what my advisor said to me. I have basically no maths and sciences in my background apart from the gen ed requirements, and my advisor recommended I just complete those requirements with some intro classes and then do the post-bacc. I know for my school you can't just elect to take organic chem or physics--really any of the pre med courses until you complete several pre reqs. It would take much longer to complete that than a post-bacc program, and I would essentially be doing it on my own without much guidance.
 
Okay, so I am 100% going to do a postbac. The think that worries me is that I did take the bio prereq. Is this going to kill my application? Also, is the fact that I am trying to do this right out of undergrad going to make me a less viable applicant. Given my stats and situation, and the fact that I have 2 years left for grades to go up/down, and I will be volunteering/shadowing, doing a field school and writing a honors thesis my senior year what programs would be best for me?
 
Okay, so I am 100% going to do a postbac. The think that worries me is that I did take the bio prereq. Is this going to kill my application? Also, is the fact that I am trying to do this right out of undergrad going to make me a less viable applicant. Given my stats and situation, and the fact that I have 2 years left for grades to go up/down, and I will be volunteering/shadowing, doing a field school and writing a honors thesis my senior year what programs would be best for me?


Your grades as of now suggest that you'd be competitive at most programs -- including Goucher, Bryn Mawr, Hopkins, etc. -- but your SAT score will matter quite a bit. I'm not sure you mentioned your score before, but if it's strong, then you could have a chance wherever; if it's not so strong, you may want to take the GRE. Keep in mind, though, that even with perfect grades and standardized tests, your experience with and drive toward the medical profession will be a deciding factor and is purely subjective. As for your bio class, it probably won't matter too much since it was only one subject, but each program will handle it differently. At Goucher, we had several people who either audited or didn't take a class if they had already taken it recently; I had taken bio 10+ years earlier, and they let me repeat it as though I had never taken it before. I also had several classmates who were fresh out of college, and while some say they wish they'd taken a year off to have a bit of a break before jumping into the stress of postbac, all of them did really wonderfully and none were at a disadvantage.

Good luck!
 
Taking 1 prereq won't automatically disqualify you from postbacs. I know many people in my class who have already taken 1 of the 4 prereqs.

That said, the more competitive postbacs are hesitant in accepting those who are straight out of undergrad and would prefer those who have been out of college for a bit.

As long as your GPA continues to improve and not go down, you should be pretty competitive. It seems that these programs are getting more and more competitive each year however, so circumstances could be different by the time you graduated. The B in Bio might also cause some concern to the admissions committee, but as long as the rest of your application looks good, it probably won't cause too much of a problem. If you really want to do this, start volunteering/doing research at your school as soon as you can. If you can demonstrate that you have an interest in medicine now, they will be more likely to overlook the fact that you are straight out of undergrad.
 
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