Please! Need Some Advice!

[mynamewastaken]

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Hi all,
here is my situation. I would absolutely love some help/advice. i apologize in advance for being long winded.

undergrad: Penn '04 BA Psych
overall gpa: 2.9 ish (1 year Holy Cross gpa 3.70) (3 following yrs at Penn gpa 2.73)
science gpa: (just gen bio and gen chem w/labs @ HC): 3.75

-Transfeered to Penn after freshman year at less competitive school where i earned those high grades in sciences. did not continue with premed classes because of beginning of sophomore year (1st semester at penn)...please see below.

* never finished premed curriculum because of tough adjustment to second year of college....'walked onto' varsity lacrosse team at Penn....father was in 9/11....my roommate/good friend killed in accident one week before finals. problem is my grades didn't trend upwards until senior year...soph and jr year very weak. took mostly BS requirements/psych courses but didnt do well.

since graduating: I work in a volunteer national community service program which promotes literacy among low income children in a urban health center (1 year committment-full time). ends Jan 06.

undergrad EC's: research @ Children's Hospital of Philadlephia (never published), hospital orderly for 2 summers....thats it.

In spring 2006 i will begin my post-bacc work. Here are my questions:

1) What kind of program do I need? I want to raise my GPA AND finish my pre-reqs. I can do this almost anywhere (bryn mawr type OR DIY program)?

2) I found penn to be tough....should i shy away from an Ivy post-bacc?

3) if I went to say, Hunter College, where I'm strongly considering would a med school say "hey, they can do well at a city college, but look how poorly they did at the Ivy"?....so should i go for an program like JHU, Columbia, BM, or penn to "prove myself"??

4) I am struggling with my essays (post-bacc essays as well as thinking ahead to med school PS)....how does one tactfully mention such set backs without making it an excuse? i mean i could have done better after that year but i didn't....also some of them are max 500 words and I'd really like to emphasize doing a year of community service since leaving school.

5) my honest reason for not continuing with the pre reqs after freshman year was an extremely rocky start and at that point i really thought the school was too hard to do well so i planned ahead for post bacc work i just wanted to concentrate on doing ok in my requirements before I tackled organic chem....how could i possibly explain that? it's such a bad reason. haha.

I feel I am mentally in a position where i am as sure and motivated as ever that i want to do what it takes to get into med school. I really think my undergrad experience was not even closely indicative of my sincerity and intelligence....ahh if i could just go back!! PLEASE HELP ME OUT. thanks so much. god bless.

 

[emgirl]

Hey there, I'm in a similar position to yours. I just graduated from a top school too and found it difficult to continue with pre-med because my father has a terminal disease and his condition worsened throughout college. I did not do very well in gen chem and bio but did very well in my upper division bio classes. I too planned to just put off physics, ochem, math, and biochem (req by my state med school) until post bac and I focused on doing the best I could my jr and sr years of school as I finished my major.

So, I think we are kind of stuck in the middle (we've completed half the pre-reqs so may not be eligible for post bacs for people with no science background, but yet we still need to finish them). What I decided is to do a DIY post bac. I'm taking classes at a private school and public state school (which is filled to the brim and most sci classes are closed by the time non matriculated students like me get to register, hence the private school as a back up), retaking gen chem (I didn't do as well as you!), as well as the stuff I've yet to take. I'm also going to spend my extra time taking more science classes to boost my gpa and prepare me for the MCAT, like physio, genetics, immuno, etc. If you can find a state school that has room for post bac students then this is often the most economical and flexible way to approach this situation. DIY just requires some extra effort into figuring out how to get into the classes, fulfilling pre-reqs at that school, etc. --- but it can be done! That said, there may be post-bac premedical certificate programs that allow one to fulfill the remainder of ther pre-reqs and take upper division science classes but I'm not sure where- Penn special science? Good luck to you, 🙂Em

 

[chief_agith]

I am also in need of some advice....I hopefully will be attending a masters program this fall. The ones I applied to are the Georgetown SMP, Rosalind Franklin AP, Drexel IMS (interview tom!), and Loyola MAMS. I'm just looking for some opinions on them...I think currently I would most like to gto GTown or RF, followed by Drexel, then Loyola. I am from Chicago which is why I am leaning towards RF so strongly. The one one think that bothers me compared to the Drexel proram is the cost. Going there with nearly all costs covered would just be the tuition at RF. Is RF's prgram that much significantly better? GTown's cost falls in the middle, but from what I've read/heard its program is superior. Any comments woudl be appreciated, thanks!

 

[silverdime]

I am also in need of some advice....I hopefully will be attending a masters program this fall. The ones I applied to are the Georgetown SMP, Rosalind Franklin AP, Drexel IMS (interview tom!), and Loyola MAMS. I'm just looking for some opinions on them...I think currently I would most like to gto GTown or RF, followed by Drexel, then Loyola. I am from Chicago which is why I am leaning towards RF so strongly. The one one think that bothers me compared to the Drexel proram is the cost. Going there with nearly all costs covered would just be the tuition at RF. Is RF's prgram that much significantly better? GTown's cost falls in the middle, but from what I've read/heard its program is superior. Any comments woudl be appreciated, thanks!

Disclaimer: I don't know much about Loyola's success rate.

RF's program is great if you really want to go to RF med school the year after. It's very good at getting you into RF, but not so good about getting you into any other school.

Drexel is ok at getting you into Drexel and ok at getting you into other schools. However, everything is telecast to the students there--you don't get to sit in on the actual lectures. That bothers me, personally. That's a personal decision, though. (I'm only considering Drexel's grad post-bacc, since you can't cross-compare the others)

Georgetown isn't that great at getting you into Georgetown. However, it's pretty good at getting you into other schools--NYMC, GWU, Robert Wood, and many others in the same range.

I would personally rank Georgetown and RF as excellent, and Drexel as good. If Drexel's more expensive, I'd definitely pick the other two over it. RF vs. Georgetown is a decision you should make based on how much you like RF as a med school.

 

[sidewalkman]

To the OP: Why don't you just take the rest of your prereqs at Penn? At a Penn alum, you get to take classes at CGS for life without actually applying, and the classes there are fine and fairly inexpensive as far as post-baccs go. I'd go to Penn to save some cash, save time by not filling out the apps for other programs, and avoid the whole reputation issue entirely. Whether you get into Penn's formal program or not matters little b/c you should still have access to Penn's advising, volunteer database, etc. as an alum. However, if a formal program elsewhere is more your thing, there are programs out there that aren't as hard to get into as Hopkins. I think your stats are a little low for a top-tier program, but you never know.

 

[Jack1919]

If I were you I would continue at Penn's PreHealth or Special Science Program. I understand why you may shy away from Penn classes since you had a harder time in them, but, if your going into this with a true renewed commitment to your studies then you should be fine. It will be tough, but if you go to Penn you won't have to worry about how going to a lower ranking school will look on your med school apps.

However, I don't think it would make that big a deal if you did go to a Hunter, etc. As long as you do well then I don't see a problem with this.... I guess it depends on what you're shooting for in terms of med school. I mean, do you want to go to a UPenn or a Drexel? (not that Drexel's in anyway bad - just less selective).

Also, as far as explaining your struggles in an essay - go for it! You had a lot on your plate man! Explain yourself and they will understand. My advice is: be honest, be brief, and let them know that you take full responsibility for the grades you were given. Don't be self-effacing. Let a lot of people read over your essay for feedback. Or if you don't feel comfortable letting someone you know read it - then send it to an online essay service. Most of them cost about $120 and they'll give you a rewritten version with lots of good feedback.

Anyway, good luck! I'm in Philly myself... Hope to be at Penn in the fall. Already got into Drexel and LaSalle's post bac program. We'll see....