Help a brother out

[goldnuts13]

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I am writing this in hopes that somebody can tell me how to advise my brother.

During undergrad my brother took half of the premed courses and did poorly in some of them. He never took orgo and passed out of physics but did bad in bio and chem. I know that in order to go to medical school he has to do a postbac but he is 26 and doesn't want to waste any more time out of medical school. Since leaving undergrad he has worked in a bioethics lab at the Cleveland Clinic and I am sure will have good rec letters plus a couple of publications.

Which post bac program should he apply to that allows you to skip the glide year? Additionally he is trying to go somewhere warm; we are from Cleveland and I think he has had enough of the cold.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[AnthroMD]

If I'm reading your post correctly, your brother needs to take organic chemistry 1 and 2 to apply to postbaccs. This is simply a prerequisite for most postbacc programs, and certainly medical school in general. In addition, I'm not sure what medical schools think about "testing out" of basic core pre-medical courses. With that said, he may even have to retake physics 1 and/or 2, depending on which one(s) he tested out of.

If prerequisites are all he needs/wants to do, then there are postbacc extension programs like Harvard, etc. that allow you to complete them. However, I would tell your brother to start researching SMPs (Special Master's Programs), as this will be his best chance of proving he is competitive enough to compete well against medical students, etc. A good place to start is the Sticky section at the top of the Postbacc Forum page, particularly the Official Guide to SMPs and the Rate Your SMP threads. There you will find some schools that provide conditional interviews or something of the sort. I doubt there are any programs that grant automatic matriculation just for completing their postbacc.... seems too good to be true.

Has your brother taken the GRE or MCAT? He will need to take one of the two to apply to postbaccs, depending on what the school accepts (some accept both). Either way, he will need to take the MCAT. I'd tell your brother not to worry about the age he will be when becoming a doctor, for the only thing that will matter is that he is a doctor and is doing what he aspired to.

Hope this helps!

I am writing this in hopes that somebody can tell me how to advise my brother.

During undergrad my brother took half of the premed courses and did poorly in some of them. He never took orgo and passed out of physics but did bad in bio and chem. I know that in order to go to medical school he has to do a postbac but he is 26 and doesn't want to waste any more time out of medical school. Since leaving undergrad he has worked in a bioethics lab at the Cleveland Clinic and I am sure will have good rec letters plus a couple of publications.

Which post bac program should he apply to that allows you to skip the glide year? Additionally he is trying to go somewhere warm; we are from Cleveland and I think he has had enough of the cold.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[TriagePreMed]

If I'm reading your post correctly, your brother needs to take organic chemistry 1 and 2 to apply to postbaccs. This is simply a prerequisite for most postbacc programs...

Where do you get this stuff? Almost no postbacc program wants this since most programs are for non-traditional students that have never taken science.

The brother in this story should apply right now or take the courses informally through any university or college.