Chances of Getting into Postbac Program? Should I Do More?

[gbvan]

I'm a 24-year-old 4th year at UC Berkeley finishing up my degree in Psychology, and have decided that I want to pursue medical school instead of a Psych PhD. The two postbacs I'm primarily interested in are Mills and SFSU. I was considering CSUEB but their program appears to be a 3-year program (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). My stats are:

GPA: 3.7 (both at community college before transfer, and at Cal)

GRE: 1400+. I took the new GRE so I won't have official scores until November, but the ballpark estimate they gave me was around 700 verbal, 750-800 quant.

Research: Two research labs, both related to clinical populations, one with prosopagnosics, one researching the effects of dopamine on cognitive abilities of PD patients. Currently an honors student completing a thesis. Though my research doesn't directly involve clinical populations, I did specifically choose a project where it can have clinical applications (developing an experiment so that we can further examine cognitive deficiencies of patients w/cerebellar lesions).

Clinical/Volunteering: Currently none. I will be getting my 2nd TB test next week, and will be applying to volunteer at local hospitals immediately afterwards.

I've been trying to find admission stats for postbacc programs, but can't find anything, so I have no idea where I stand, and what I'll need to do to make myself a stronger applicant if necessary. Any feedback helps!

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[Emilsinclair9]

SUPER weird lol. I'm a psych major at Berkeley, a senior, and I very recently also decided that med school is for me. Looking into post-bacc programs as well. SFSU is on my radar.

Btw are we in any of the same classes? haha

For psych classes I'm in:

Psych 150, 160, and 119.

 

[deleted248403]

Psych PhD doesn't need a) a post bac b) medical school

This forum is orientated to medical/dental school admission following a post-bac/SMP program

 

[Emilsinclair9]

He said he wants to get an MD instead of a PhD in Psych.

 

[deleted248403]

Ah i stand corrected - I totally skim read it, my bad

 

[gbvan]

Does anyone else have any feedback? Since there are really no admission figures for postbac programs (that I can find), I'm completely in the dark about if I need to boost anything before I apply.

 

[deleted248403]

you'll be competitive for most programs - tho your CC grades won't carry as much bang-for-the-buck as a 4-year candidate with a similar GPA.

 

[gbvan]

you'll be competitive for most programs - tho your CC grades won't carry as much bang-for-the-buck as a 4-year candidate with a similar GPA.

Thanks for the feedback. It's a bit disappointing (but not surprising) to know that the CC grades carry less value. Do you know if the "prestige" of attending a top-tier university will help balance that out a bit, or does that not really factor in to postbac admissions?

 

[deleted248403]

name of the university doesn't matter - just like it doesnt matter much in med school admissions