How did you select your post bac program? And any suggestions for me?

[Adradr]

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I know you all are ridiculously busy, so any thoughts you can spare are hugely appreciated! What kind of process did you go through to figure out which post bac program was your best fit? Any individual advice on top of that would, of course, be glorious 🙂. Here's a little about my background:

I graduated from college (Stanford, BA in Human Biology in 3 years, 3.84 GPA - BUT no real premed coursework besides 1 year of bio) in June and went to work for a major IT consulting company in their healthcare practice.

It's been over 4 months now and I've realized a few things:
1) Given my gender/lifestyle and current stats, I'm going to live (and thus have to work to have something to live off of later) for another 40 years MINIMUM.
2) I want work to be something I'm passionate about, not something I do so that I can support hobbies I'm passionate about.
3) I want to TAKE CARE OF PEOPLE for a living. Helping health plans figure out how to fix their screwed up business processes isn't direct enough.

I pretty much skated through school (hence no chem), and now that I have a little perspective the idea of being an adult student (no sorority, no dorm, etc, etc) is HUGELY appealing...I took being intellectually stimulated for granted. I have always loved biology. And I think that being a GP would make me really, really, really happy, regardless of future earnings potential or prestige among the different specialties or what-have-you.

As far as frills go, I have excellent standardized test scores, speak Spanish pretty fluently, have done public health work in Central America, and have clinical research experience in psychiatry (and posters).

Would I be competitive for one of the "better" programs like Bryn Mawr, Goucher, Scripps, etc? (I ask this in total seriousness. I am wondering if being so soon out of undergrad will hurt my chances. I am thinking about applying for next fall.) Does anyone have any idea what their acceptance rates are like?

And even if I could get in, do linkages and, well, prestige make it a better choice than, say, Mills? (Interestingly enough, Mills doesn't seem to have any linkages - please let me know if you have information to the contrary. Or any information about the program, period - I haven't been able to dig up a great deal.) I live in San Francisco, and it would certainly be easier to stay close to friends and family if I'm going to be poor and antisocial for a year. That said, the idea of going other places is intriguing... And I know I'm young but I'd like to complete a program in one year.

If you've taken the time to read this far, THANK YOU - and you must have some reaction, so let me know what you think 🙂. I'm having a hard time thinking of reasons NOT to do this... So what are my next steps in looking at programs?

 

[montessori2md]

Hi : ) I'm (sort of) in your shoes.

My question, actually, is why post-bacc at all? Many programs are pretty pricey, and I'm not sure that, unless you want a linkage, is it worth the $$$ when you could go to a state university as a "continuing education" student and take the pre-reqs on your own. Also, sometimes the program doesn't qualify for federal loans/grants because it's not a "degree-granting" program.

I also had a high GPA (with little science, what I did have I had respectable grades), speak Spanish, and I'm interested in GP work, though I'm reserving my choice of residency till I really see it all). And I know how to study and perform for exams, it seems like a lot of the posters here are people who have GPA issues, rather than being career changers (you may want to look at the non-trad threads).

I'm considering post-bacc (at Georgetown, maybe UMD, American), but I'm skeptical 🙂

 

[N1DERL&]

I had the option of taking my prereqs at a UC school but it would have been difficult to enroll in the classes at the time I wanted. I didn't want to deal with not being able to get the classes I need each quarter so I opted for a formal post-bac program.

I also wanted to have a community of post bacs and an advisor who was familiar with the post bacc situation. My school was a lot smaller than a university so I felt that I could have better access to professors and ultimately more personal letter of recs.

Yeah, it cost more than just taking the classes at a local university but I didn't want to deal with the extra hassles.

 

[Pemulis]

Would I be competitive for one of the "better" programs like Bryn Mawr, Goucher, Scripps, etc? (I ask this in total seriousness. I am wondering if being so soon out of undergrad will hurt my chances. I am thinking about applying for next fall.) Does anyone have any idea what their acceptance rates are like?

You would be a very strong candidate at these schools. You will absolutely not be hurt by being "only" one year out of school, as there are plenty of students in these programs who are straight out of college.

And even if I could get in, do linkages and, well, prestige make it a better choice than, say, Mills?

Don't know too much about Mills. But most of these programs cost about the same, so if you are going to spend the dough, go to the place that does the best job of getting students into med school. Search around this forum for past threads and you'll find plenty about different post-bac programs and which ones might be a good fit for you, as well as some of the reasons for going post-bac or going to a state school.