I know I know Not another Post Bac thread...

[happydude007]

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Hey guys I just joined and as you may have guessed I am beginning to have strong desire to go into the Health/Medical Realm.


Undergrad at South Carolina - 2.89 - 2.94 (my concentration classes are stronger)
Major Finance, Management Science, International Business. Minor in HRTM

I screwed up my freshmen year, and since then it has been uphill except for one misstep semester. Biology was my major freshman yr, but I didn't have the desire to pursue it at the time so I went business
I have worked internships during school, worked with a Fortune 500 company and worked a year doing Venture Capital/Private equity. I am now working as a Strategic/Market Research Analyst (contractual basis for right now)for a bank in financial assets.

Coming from the East coast to San Diego has given me the opportunity to be located with some great UC schools. After getting into Yoga & Ayurvedic medicine, I started having this strong desire to go into health and medicine. I started to realize how much I read about studies on health, medicine, and dieting. I have been into fitness and I read up on the anatomy so much, I want to give it a shot to go into this field. I have gotten so bored of the corporate world.

SO my roomate was at UCSD doing his residency in surgery and he was giving me some advice. He got a biochem from Cal Poly, worked a couple yrs in developing surgery tools, went to do his MPH at UC-Berkely, then went to med to a school in Va.

He suggested that I go get an MBA/MPH and go into Hospital Admin, but I liked the area he went into w/ MPH in Infectious Diseases, but it would be more science heavy than what I have taken (I did Chem and Biology in High School). Should I find a school in MPH/MBA first then post bac and apply for med school (after my MCATs of course)? or should I post-bac at a school first and then go into MPH/MBA and apply to med school. Hell I might even drop the MBA.

I just want to get into a good post bac, because I know I need the sciences to even go med school, but I live having the MPH as back up. This looks like VERY heavy schooling. Any help would be appreciated thanks a lot.

Rishi

 

[mshheaddoc]

With upward trend you can get into post-bacc. You can always take some upper level sciences to boost that science gpa.

Don't waste your time with the MBA/MPH if you want med school then go for that first. You can get a joint degree.

As for reference, I have an MBA with a health care mgmt concentration. It won't help me get into med school much other than boost my overall GPA a bit ... Just my $.02

 

[relentless11]

I agree with mshheaddoc. MPH/MBA is pretty much useless for getting into med school, but great to have (depending on your goals) after med school.

Sadly, your undergrad GPA, despite not in a science program will hurt you if you want to do most graduate or professional programs. If you just want to do an MPH/MBA, and want to attend the well known school's in CA, then you will have to have at least a 3.0. UC's require at least a 3.0. For UC med school's, the average overall undergrad GPA for being addmitted into an MD program is 3.7, and an MCAT score of 33. UC's also screen GPA and MCAT, so you may be rejected after your primary applications (e.g.: they won't see your letters of recs, or grant you an interview) since they usually have a GPA cut-off around 3.0-3.2.

So what does this all mean? You will need to get your GPA higher, in addition to taking all the pre-reqs, and doing well on the MCAT. Desire to do medicine is great, but the moment of truth is when you have a competative application that is accepted. Welcome to California, where even the best applicant may end up out of state at some private school.

Oh yea one last thing, grad school GPA is counted seperately from undergrad GPA, and thus DOES NOT improve your undergrad GPA. Med schools usually weight undergrad GPA more over grad GPA because almost everyone is applying with JUST undergrad coursework. Lastly, as far as I know UC's and most other schools weigh MCAT and GPA equally so doing well in one does not make up for the other. Good luck!

 

[happydude007]

ok so then I need to be looking into a Post Bac then? I guess I will have to go out of state? That REALLY sucks. So what schools are there then in Cal that are not UC that are good?!?! I don't mind it. I know I will have to study my tail off to impress the admin board. man I should have really paid attention to all those AP test for the sciences I have taken.

 

[relentless11]

Well here are a few options:

1) Go to Cal-state schools. You can enroll in an open campus program or possibly do a 2nd degree (drop out when you apply to med). I'm not sure about that 2nd degree thing, there are a few threads about it. The benefits of doing a 2nd degree is you are eligible for financial aid, where as open campus and other post-baccs are not. Your GPA my preclude your admission to some schools though. Personally, my only concern is if dropping out would look bad or not. I know dropping out of a graduate program is generally frowned upon, but don't know if this is the case with undergrad. Lastly you are last priority to register for classes.

2) Go to UC through UC Extension open campus program. This allows you to take classes on the main UC campuses (e.g.: UCSD). I did this for 1.5 years. Works well, but costs a lot of money, and like #1, you are also last priority to register for classes.

3) Private schools. I don't know if this is possible but there are a few schools out there that may have some kind of open campus. Obviously these are even more expensive.

4) Junior College to take your med school pre-reqs, which may allow you to transfer into 4-year to take more coursework to boost your GPA. Of course then you'll be doing what I stated in #2.

5) Apply to an post-bacc program. I know SJSU, SFSU, and SDSU have some kinda of post-bacc program which you may be able to get into. Although not as famous as the UC post-bacc programs, they do the exact same thing...and that is...allow you to take classes to boost your GPA.

6) Since you were not originally a pre-med, this may be a potential strength. If you can somehow get your overall GPA to 3.3(?) by doing any of hte above programs, you can then apply to Scripps or Mills College. Scripps is in Claremont(sp?) which is relatively close to where you are at now. These programs are aimed towards peoplel who want a career change. These courses are VERY rigorous, and offer "guaranteed admissions" to med schools they are linked to. Guaranteed means if you meet some standard at either of these schools, you are granted conditional admission to the schools they are affiliated with. I believe Mills is affiliated with Tulane in New Orleans, and Scripps is associated with Georgetown or George Washington (someone check that, I always confuse these two).

So yea, many options, now you just have to be willing to do it, and have a big enough wallet for it😉. If i forgot anything, someone please add in more. 👍

 

[happydude007]

Ok I will look into Scripps and the SDSU schools. I imagine SFSU probably might be the best out of all of them.

I heard that taking classes at junior college are not looked favorably upon. So that maybe out of the question.

Are you also saying take courses at an extension or post-bac then apply to Scripps? Like maybe go to SDSU for some of the courses and when I can boost GPA high enough apply to Scripps? Would that be the same thing as a dropping out?

I have read some of these threads where the students' GPA's are quite low but they are making it in and getting admissions to some great schools.

Thanks for your help answering my questions. I am getting a better understanding of what I am needing to do.

 

[happydude007]

ok i see taking some courses at junior school to boost GPA and then transfer to UC-extension program or Scripps. I wonder how the admin would look at this?

How important are the linkage schools?

 

[mshheaddoc]

linkage is iffy with schools. I do not know how the schools work but some provide "limited" (read: 1 or 2 spots) for interviews if you maintain a certain GPA and have a certain MCAT. Some provide spots if you maintain certain stats. Mostly it just is for interviews and with some you have make your request known when you enter the program. It varies with each program but I wouldn't rely heavily on linkage but more on the program and their successful applicant profile percentage.

 

[happydude007]

Thanks MSHheadoc.

I have spent 3hrs+ looking throught the forums here. There is some great information here.

My confusion exists in the parts of where I should go for the science course undertaking.

I am guessing all these will give me a shot to improve my gpa
Extension school- UC Berkely, Harvard, etc come to mind.
Post Bac- Like Scripps?
State schools like relentless mentioned SFSU,SDSU, SJSU?

Some of these schools look like they require someone to have been rejected applying to medical school before they will take a look at you. I am guessing State Schools look the best. I hope it can boost my GPA, then maybe like relentless suggested, go for post-bac?

Also if admin boards look at my SATs from 8 yrs ago, then I may want to brush and complete a GRE?

 

[relentless11]

Thanks MSHheadoc.

I have spent 3hrs+ looking throught the forums here. There is some great information here.

My confusion exists in the parts of where I should go for the science course undertaking.

I am guessing all these will give me a shot to improve my gpa
Extension school- UC Berkely, Harvard, etc come to mind.
Post Bac- Like Scripps?
State schools like relentless mentioned SFSU,SDSU, SJSU?

Some of these schools look like they require someone to have been rejected applying to medical school before they will take a look at you. I am guessing State Schools look the best.

Where you go depends on what you're looking for:

1) Linkage to a med school (like Scripps)
2) Application assistance, and study skill improvement programs (official post-bacc programs may have this)
3) Structured vs. unstructured post-bacc format
4) Costs (UC, and private schools more expensive than CSU)
5) Medically research opportunities (Easier to find these if you're at a UC, or say Stanford, USC, etc compared to CSU)
6) Location/environment

The list can go on and on. Your ultimate goal, and the most important goal is to improve your GPA, so where you go you will accomplish that aslong as they let you take classes..haha.

As for having previously applied to med school. Ask if you can waive that. The UCD program has an asterisk saying you can waive that criteria. UCSF, and others may have seperate programs for first time applicants.

 

[happydude007]

Relentless- Thanks for the info.

One LAST question. Say I take some of the post bac sciences to boost my gpa to 3.0 or so. Coul di bail on that state school and maybe get into a nice extension or post bac program? e.g. Harvard, Yale, UC schools? Thanks so much for your help.

 

[relentless11]

Relentless- Thanks for the info.

One LAST question. Say I take some of the post bac sciences to boost my gpa to 3.0 or so. Coul di bail on that state school and maybe get into a nice extension or post bac program? e.g. Harvard, Yale, UC schools? Thanks so much for your help.

If your post-bacc is an actual degree earning program, and you bailed to go to another post-bacc, I'm not sure how the med schools will take that. At least for grad programs, it is generally frowned upon to leave a degree-earning program. I do not know if this applies to a bachelor's program.

If its just an open campus thing, or some other non-degree earning program I don't think its any problem. As stated, I was using UCD Extension as a way to boost my GPA so I could get into UCD's post-bacc program (or something else). Of course I decided to do grad school instead, but doing that post-bacc at extension definately helped me get into grad school.

So in short, doesn't matter if go from one post-bacc to the other. I mean other than $$, time and going somewhere else. But in terms of med schools, you're just going to one school or another. Aslong as its an accredited university you're cool.

 

[happydude007]

Relentless-

Thanks for your help.

I was thinking of getting into an extension program, but according to you if my GPA won't cut it then I was thinking SDSU, until my grades are boosted and hitting an extension or post bac.

But I dont think it will work if I have taken some of the sciences that are required to get into a Post Bac for some schools.

I remember reading some post about a guy taking bull **** history courses to boost his GPA. I wonder if that would work.

Also I wonder if Med board ppl would combine all my grades from my school in South Carolina and say if I did some if not all of it at SDSU.

 

[calliMD]

From what I understand, your SDSU grades will be calculated into a separate "Post-Bacc" GPA as well as combined into your UG GPA to form a UG+Post-Bacc GPA (if that makes sense). So yes you must report all your South Carolina grades and yes they will be counted. That's what sucks, there's no escaping a crappy undergrad GPA. 🙄