I would not confuse LUCOM with Liberty University. Yes, LUCOM is the medical branch, but from what I've heard from students that interviewed there (and one who attended), it's very different from the philosophies put forward by the parent university. There are a few schools I did not apply to and personally feel like should not have accreditation. LUCOM is not one of them.
Depends on your overall app. If you don't get in, on the second cycle you have to have an answer for the question "what have you done since you last application that makes you worthy of an interview?"
1. The post-bac will help. If you can get a 3.8+ (assuming it's a legitimate university/program) it will absolutely help to show you're capable of doing grad level work.
2. Might help you get a little more exposure, but probably isn't going to add much if anything to your app in the eyes of adcoms.
3. Depending on how involved you get, this could be big or insignificant. Completely depends on the service, how many hours you put in, and how much you get accomplished if it's measurable.
To give you an idea, I actually applied in 3 cycles (second cycle was unsuccessful for reasons I won't get into, but would have been had certain events not occurred). Between my first and final cycles, I had a very different application. I'd done a graduate degree (with ~3.8 GPA), I'd added around 300 hours of clinical volunteering, a research experience, several part-time jobs including one relevant to medicine (all totaling a couple thousand hours), got updated LoRs, and made sure to express in my personal statement and secondaries how I had improved as a person because of these experiences and just in general.
If you don't get in the first time (not saying you won't, just general advice), you should do your best to address any short-comings in your application in tangible ways that adcoms can point to on paper. If you look like pretty much the same applicant on paper, you're not ready to re-apply. For you, the big thing is acing upper/grad level courses to show you can handle med school coursework. Also, the community service will help as long as it's "worthwhile" (ie, regular service and not 1-2 hours a month type of deal). Finally, I'd call places that sent you secondaries but not ii's. I called about 20 after my second cycle, while a lot of it was pretty redundant with some BS, I also got some really good advice from a few places and my final cycle was much more successful.[
I would not confuse LUCOM with Liberty University. Yes, LUCOM is the medical branch, but from what I've heard from students that interviewed there (and one who attended), it's very different from the philosophies put forward by the parent university. There are a few schools I did not apply to and personally feel like should not have accreditation. LUCOM is not one of them.
Depends on your overall app. If you don't get in, on the second cycle you have to have an answer for the question "what have you done since you last application that makes you worthy of an interview?"
1. The post-bac will help. If you can get a 3.8+ (assuming it's a legitimate university/program) it will absolutely help to show you're capable of doing grad level work.
2. Might help you get a little more exposure, but probably isn't going to add much if anything to your app in the eyes of adcoms.
3. Depending on how involved you get, this could be big or insignificant. Completely depends on the service, how many hours you put in, and how much you get accomplished if it's measurable.
To give you an idea, I actually applied in 3 cycles (second cycle was unsuccessful for reasons I won't get into, but would have been had certain events not occurred). Between my first and final cycles, I had a very different application. I'd done a graduate degree (with ~3.8 GPA), I'd added around 300 hours of clinical volunteering, a research experience, several part-time jobs including one relevant to medicine (all totaling a couple thousand hours), got updated LoRs, and made sure to express in my personal statement and secondaries how I had improved as a person because of these experiences and just in general.
If you don't get in the first time (not saying you won't, just general advice), you should do your best to address any short-comings in your application in tangible ways that adcoms can point to on paper. If you look like pretty much the same applicant on paper, you're not ready to re-apply. For you, the big thing is acing upper/grad level courses to show you can handle med school coursework. Also, the community service will help as long as it's "worthwhile" (ie, regular service and not 1-2 hours a month type of deal). Finally, I'd call places that sent you secondaries but not ii's. I called about 20 after my second cycle, while a lot of it was pretty redundant with some BS, I also got some really good advice from a few places and my final cycle was much more successful.
So would you recommend that I add LUCOM to my list?
My post-bacc will be at California State University, East Bay and it is a formal, structured post-bacc. They are accepting students for Winter Quarter.
. I am aiming for a January post-bacc (Winter, Spring, and Summer) to demonstrate my ability to succeed and my dedication towards Medicine. I apologize for sounding entitled to an interview.
