Formal post bacc program vs. classes at state U

Started by dgouldsm
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dgouldsm

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Hello, I might qualify as non-traditional, 24, recent grad with a BA in psychology and a BFA in fine art. Spent 6 years in college, loads of credits, few in science. Gpa around 3.3. Last year I failed a graduate neurobiology class and decided I wanted to go to med school.

Would a formal post bacc program be better than taking the classes at a local University at addressing my deficiencies and preparing me for med school?
 
dgouldsm said:
Hello, I might qualify as non-traditional, 24, recent grad with a BA in psychology and a BFA in fine art. Spent 6 years in college, loads of credits, few in science. Gpa around 3.3. Last year I failed a graduate neurobiology class and decided I wanted to go to med school.

Would a formal post bacc program be better than taking the classes at a local University at addressing my deficiencies and preparing me for med school?
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Either would be fine for you as you likely need the pre-med courses since you come from a non-science background. Any undergraduate courses, provided you get no grade less than B+ will add to your undergraduate GPA. Depending on how many hours you already have, you are not going to raise that GPA much but you DO need the coursework and you DO need to do quite well on the MCAT. Good luck!
 
There are good and bad things about both possibilities. Personally, I'm doing a do-it-myself postbac at a state U and wishing I'd gone to Bennington. I'm 40, so your experience is almost certainly going to be different from mine.

If you go to a structured postbac program like Bennington or Mills or Goucher et al, you can expect to go through a competitive application process, pay a great deal of tuition, and land in a small class of well-supported students. The premed advising and financial aid should be solid, the volunteer and research opportunities should be great, and there should be good MCAT prep and support during med school applications. Any one of your professors should know you well enough, due to small class size, to give you a LOR. Any one of these expectations could fall down, but these are the expectations.

If you go to a school that doesn't have a postbac program, you can expect to need to define yourself to the administration so that you have access to advising and financial aid, and so that you can register for the science classes that fill up on the first day of registration. This probably means you need to apply to the school as a postbaccalaureate non-degree-seeking student, and the school will likely prefer that you sign up for a degree of some kind (a second bachelor's) so that you are easy for the school to handle. Getting financial aid without being in a degree program at a big state school isn't likely. You may or may not have more opportunities for volunteering and research at a state school, and you may or may not get to know professors well enough to be recommended.

The state school I'm at is packed to the gills with competitive undergrads who are pre-grouped-up by dorm or greek or cultural identity, and the anonymity is stifling. The line after class to talk to a professor (there are no office hours - we're expected to see TA's) takes a good half hour. I am extremely outgoing, and everybody seems to know who I am, but I barely know anybody in the thousands and thousands of lecture-hall-dwellers that I've been in class with. I don't recommend this particular huge west coast research university and I made sure my nephew doesn't enroll here.

I would have had to leave my state to find a private school with a premed postbac program, which at the time seemed too much to ask given that I can walk to the huge research university. I thought I'd save money and that I was too mature to need all the hand-holding of a structured program. Wrong on all accounts.

That's my experience. Best of luck to you.
 
I am in a structured post-bacc program. I decided to do this as opposed to the university for numerous reasons, most of which are mentioned above. There were, however, a few that were not mentioned. First and foremost, most of the structured post-baccs have linkage tracks with medical schools. Again like it was said above, you can't exactly bank on such linkages, but, as in my case, the post-bacc I am in links to a med school that I really wanted to go to. Basically I will be 1 of about 9-10 people going for 4-5 spots in their med school...fantastic odds.

Other than the linkages, many of the advantages were stated in the post above.
 
Speaking of state schools, I am also doing my post-bacc on my own at the state university as a non-degree student, mostly because there aren't any structured post-bacc programs in my area. FYI - it is possible to get federal loans! They will give loans to non-degree students as long as the student is fulfilling prereqs for a graduate/professional program. The loan period is 12 months max. and the maximum amount is about $7000, I think. I was sooo happy when I figured that out.

Yay! My first post!😛
 
Do an informal post-bacc. I'm doing one right now, and I can't imagine shelling out big money for the formal programs. You will have enough debt from medical school. If you are smart enough to get into medical school, you are smart enough to negotiate yourself through an informal program.
 
makushin said:
Do an informal post-bacc. I'm doing one right now, and I can't imagine shelling out big money for the formal programs. You will have enough debt from medical school. If you are smart enough to get into medical school, you are smart enough to negotiate yourself through an informal program.
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I agree with this. Not that I don't understand what the posters are talkin about when it comes to state u drawbacks.

But for 10's of thousands....they better throw in a double wide trailer, a bug zapper, and a lifetime supply of Coor's lite for me to do it that way.
 
I did an informal one while working full-time and volunteering part-time. And heck, not even a state U, it was community college! I focused on doing well academically and took about 8 credits at a time, and did about 30 credit hours all together of science coursework and got a 4.0. I am sure it isn't the recommended way to go about it, but I got into 2 MD programs out of 6 I applied to 🙂

Anywhere you can do well in the coursework to have a good science GPA and even up your undergrad GPA is going to work. I needed to work full-time and didn't want to pay a lot and go into debt. I didn't really have an advisor or academic support, and studied on my own for the MCAT (no prep classes, just got a princeton review book). So, depends on your goals and priorities.
 
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