Former postbacc, current medical student here. I agree with the above poster that if you have a good GPA, low MCAT, your best course of action is to spend some time to retake the MCAT.
High risk, high reward is the very essence of these Special Master/Postbacc programs; this fact is mentioned over and over again in almost every single thread in this section of the forum. You cannot miss it. It gives you 1 try to prove that you can handle medical school classes, and if you failed, time to consider other professions, or the Caribbeans. Before sending in the acceptance form, you should know this fact already and it should be on your mind all the time.
That being said, this program has been around for years and it has gotten hundreds if not thousands of premeds with uncompetitive stats into medical schools; and most of these students have been doing quite well in medical school and beyond. The value of the program is proven; and I am not here to argue this point. If you failed out of this program, you are simply not ready for medical school.
The entrance stats into the program are LOW, probably one of the lowest among all SMPs in the US. I would not be surprised that the people who happened to be at the lower end of the spectrum, who did not try hard enough and weren’t able to keep up or just simply don't have it in them, failed out. 50% got in, 60%, 70% got in, those numbers are meaningless; weaker students failed out, simple as that. All you need to know is the program has a track record of getting people into medical school and you should try your best to be way above average when you are in the program and stay out of troubles.
To the people that have been accepted into the program and decided to be here in the Fall, Congratulations! Be prepared to work your butt off. The classes are challenging but not impossible. After all, this is medical school level courses, and you should expect no less. The postbacc students have classes from 1-6pm every day, most of the time, you will get out at 4ish. That leaves your mornings and evenings wide open, use this free time to study.
The 1st year medical students, especially LDP, have half as much free time and twice as much material to cover, and they are doing it just fine, if you think you are ready for medical school, there should be no reason for you to be failing any of the postbacc classes. Your curriculum is a watered down version of 1st year classes.
It’s true that the first years don’t take Anatomy and Pharm together but we take OPP (lecture/lab- a practical every 2 weeks, a written exam every 3 weeks), H and P (lab and practical), Biostatistics, Doctoring classes (interprofessional, medical jurisprudence, human sexuality) along the cores and systems. Sometimes, 2 3 exams lined up in the same week and it makes your postbacc exams seem silly. Medical students that are in the accelerated pathway (PCSP) also have to shadow doctors for 4 hours a week every few weeks.
Once you get here, your #1 priority is to get the best grade possible in every single class. You are here to get into medical schools, do not try to butthead with the admins/professors (this year class tried it, did not end well for them), you are the lowest on the totem pole, don’t even think that your opinions matter and you can change the system. They are receptive to feedbacks but you have to voice it through appropriate channels and most important of all, professionally.
I have also heard that this year postbacc class does not have a very good reputation. I was a tutor for a few of the postbacc students and I heard my fair share of stories: a few weeks into the program, postbacc students got into a fight with the med students at a bar downtown, postbacc students get drunk and do stupid ****, get reported back to the school, postbacc students running around acting like they made it, student who refused to move their seat during breakout/discussion session. So yeah, you don’t get the full story from these posts; this year class has earned quite a reputation for themselves, if I were on the admission committee, I would be skeptical as well. If I were your administrative assistant, I would be annoyed as well. If you are the type of people who often find themselves in these kinds of situation, well, good luck! There are plenty of students this year who did really well in the Postbacc and got accepted into medical schools. Be like them!
Anyways, the incoming postbaccs, feel free to PM me with any questions. Like I said, hundreds if not thousands of people before you have done it and you can too. I don’t defend LECOM, the school is far from perfect, but without the program I would not be where I am today. I am not here to argue the legitimacy of the program, it has been around for years and if it were as bad as these guys made it out to be, they would be out of business a long time ago.
naturally I'm a nervous wreck lol
