cornell post bacc?

[i_love_my_siamese_cat]

Hello,

Has anyone gone to Cornell's post bacc. program? I have looked everywhere (linked-in, SDN threads, etc) and can't find a lot of info about it as far as if people liked it/thought it was worthwhile.

Would love any and all information from anyone who went/knew someone who did. Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[isitlikehard]

Hi there

Hello,

Has anyone gone to Cornell's post bacc. program? I have looked everywhere (linked-in, SDN threads, etc) and can't find a lot of info about it as far as if people liked it/thought it was worthwhile.

Would love any and all information from anyone who went/knew someone who did. Thanks!

Hi there!

I did the post bacc from 2013-2014. From my own experience, I would not recommend the program if you have other options. Of our cohort of 17 students, only 1 ended up in an allopathic school. A couple of others are in the Caribbean, two are in DO programs, and several either quit the track of medical school altogether or went to NP school instead. Given how expensive the program is and how unsuccessful students were overall, I would not recommend it. The advising is suboptimal, and you should not be taking risks with an already-shaky academic record.

 

[WGSgrad]

Also, are you going to be sitting in classrooms with Cornell premed AND prevet students because this would seem...less than ideal.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[isitlikehard]

Also, are you going to be sitting in classrooms with Cornell premed AND prevet students because this would seem...less than ideal.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

You are basically an undergraduate at Cornell. The idea behind it is that if you can excel in the undergraduate coursework plus the posbacc-specific classes, you would be "making up" for a bad undergraduate record while also improving your undergraduate GPA (since the classes are still undergraduate and not graduate-level, they go to your undergraduate composite GPA)

So you are competing against Cornell undergrads in terms of curves and grades, but you also have to take rigorous coursework or else it's pointless. Several people took Biochemistry, Physiology, Immunology, and several other hard classes. If you can thrive, great. If not, it's a lot of money to not really enhance your resume much.

 

[WGSgrad]

You are basically an undergraduate at Cornell. The idea behind it is that if you can excel in the undergraduate coursework plus the posbacc-specific classes, you would be "making up" for a bad undergraduate record while also improving your undergraduate GPA (since the classes are still undergraduate and not graduate-level, they go to your undergraduate composite GPA)

So you are competing against Cornell undergrads in terms of curves and grades, but you also have to take rigorous coursework or else it's pointless. Several people took Biochemistry, Physiology, Immunology, and several other hard classes. If you can thrive, great. If not, it's a lot of money to not really enhance your resume much.

Yea...so no. I would not recommend this. Cornell's science classes are notoriously difficult and the school grade deflates as a hobby. (They stopped posting a median grade report so students couldn't avoid difficult course or select "easy" ones AND, at least at the time I took my last class there, they posted the class median on your transcript next to your grade...just to make sure everyone knows where you ranked in a course.

I loved my time at Cornell. I really did. But if you are completing a post-bacc for GPA redemption for the purposes of getting admitted to medical schools, almost anywhere else would be a better choice.

Edit: You can create a GPA redemption story without going to Cornell. Plenty of people do it each year. Because if you go there, at best you've probably got the same options as students who attended less rigorous post-bacc programs, at worst you have possibly closed the door on a medical career and are out thousands of dollars.

Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile