I would rate my level of dissatisfaction at a ten and would suggest the aspiring preprofessional look into other post-baccalaureate programs.
The selling point for many students in this program is that their entry into, and successful completion of, this year-long program will result in acceptance into professional schools. The message we received seven days ago from our "adviser" (which will be discussed later) suggests otherwise:
"Now lets move on to what you can expect this year. The IUSM admissions committee has been carefully looking at data from new applicants (current college and university seniors) at the same time as students who are part way through (one semester in your cases) an advanced degree. This is a change from the practice in previous years, which was that students from this and other graduate programs were reviewed early in spring as a group and admissions decisions were made separately for that group. Now these decisions are made across all applicants. For some in the program admission may be granted early and for others it will be delayed until second semester grades are available. This means that some students who did not receive offers early in the admissions cycle will be placed on the wait list in May. We have every reason to be hopeful that admission from the wait list for students in the program will be more common this year. We also believe that high performing students who are waitlisted but not admitted for 2011 will be in a good position from the outset for admission next year."
The message goes on to read:
"We wish we could be more specific but please remember that this is our first time through this new process as well."
Which leads into the second low point of this program: lack of adequate advising. While advisers were certainly helpful in two thirty-minute long appointments to schedule our coursework for first and second semester (and explaining to every student that they were contractually-bound to complete the program), there have been several instances throughout the year that myself, and my colleagues, have attempted to meet for advice regarding grade grievance or attempts to try to understand why masses of students are being placed on wait lists, and answers are met with uncertainty at best. It seems as though because students enter and exit this program within one year, there is inadequate advising and very few faculty members willing to advocate for a student whose name they don't even know.
While one may think that this a student's response to an unsuccessful completion of this program, I will suggest that I have finished both semesters well above a 3.5 grade point average - which certainly took a great deal of effort on my part, which is to be expected from the program. However, cheating has run rampant throughout the year and has come to the forefront within the past few weeks - yet, nothing has been done to counteract these measures even though students have told several professors about the "state-school clique" that cheat on every one of their exams. While faculty are certainly aware and have taken time out lectures to provide open threats to lecture halls full of students, academic dishonesty is an integral part of this program.
I have finished my year, got the grades I needed, but I cannot stress how myself, and many of my colleagues, are leaving with terrible tastes in our mouths because of the way this program has concluded.
As a recent graduate of this program, I echo what was stated above. Pre-professional students (medical, dental, etc) looking for a post-bacc,
STEER CLEAR of this program. The obvious advantages of the program are the location and in-state tuition for students not wanting to move away from home, but there cons far outweigh these pros. In fact, I'd suggest a year of undergrad post-bacc at your University over this program.
There is literally NO real advising in this program. The person who runs this program was very short with students and often condescending in my experiences with him. You will meet for approximately 15 minutes to plan your semester courses, but that is it. They provide no real insight into your entrance into professional schools (I was pre-dent and my pre-med friends said the same), cannot comment on your chances of being accepted anywhere, and are literally clueless on IU School of Med's policies regarding their own program. As noted above, IUSM has stopped admitting students early on in this program (what first attracted a lot of my pre-med friends to the program) and it is likely that you will be on the waitlist for the majority of the time you are taking classes. This opens you up to waiting an additional year to being accepted to medical/dental/opt schools if you arent accepted off the waitlist.
Also the students in this program can be snooty, arrogant and down right rude. This attitude is pervasive throughout undergrad pre-med/dent kids, but it seemed to be worse in this program since you are concentrating all those kids together. They scoffed at professors, openly claimed they didn't want to take these "dumb courses" and are were only concerned with getting into a professional program, rather than doing well in the very program that's designed to get them in. What's more, cheating among students (quizzes, exams, etc) was rampant. There were several complaints about the grades on exams from students about the grades "not being fair", etc. It seemed like a lot of students had no idea what they were doing there or what the program was for/about.
Like the poster above, I did well in this program (4.0 GPA). The individual professors (the ones teaching the courses) were all fair and helpful when you needed it. It is the administration and advising of this program that completely ruins it. It has become very popular with in state students in the last few years, but if I could do it over, I would have gone some where else. The little more spent in tuition is worth it in terms of advising and administration of the program. This felt like something that was just thrown together - it lacked structure and defined procedures for getting their students in professional programs. They will
NOT advocate on your behalf and you have to twist people's arms to get anyone from the graduate office to sit and talk with you for more than 5 minutes on anything.
Plan your own post-bacc if you need one and cannot afford an out of state SMP. Take at least 15 credits/semester of upper division science courses. This way you'll have the support of your University's undergraduate advisors (mine were amazingly helpful) and wont be relying on a broken program such as this. If things don't change over there, I could see the program being phased out within the next few years. It was a horrible experience overall.
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