Post Bac Advice for a New Pre Med (recent post bac grads please!)

[caffeinatedpremed]

Hey SDN! So long story short this summer I switched from Pre Dent to Pre Med lol and am in my senior year of undergrad. I am estimating that I will be graduating with a 3.4 cGPA and 3.2sGPA and was hoping to enroll in a post baccalaureate program for the first year of my 2 gap years in order to raise my gpa and work on my application some more. I have been looking into Harvard Extension School, U Penn Pre-Health Specialized Studies Program, CSUEB PHAP and SFSU Post Bac. I currently go to school in the CA bay area and would be interested in staying here OR moving to a large city on the east coast like Boston Philly NYC or even Chicago in the midwest.

I was wondering if anyone who has recently attended any of these post bac programs could comment on their experience and success with applying to Medical School. I really want to make sure I am picking a program that will help me increase my gpa (get A's) while also making extracurricular activities accessible and feasible. I'm kind of scarred by my undergrad pre req classes because it just felt like no matter how hard I worked I could never beat the curve to do better than a B+ in most cases. However, I have been doing great in my upper division science classes and thoroughly enjoy them. Any feedback is greatly appreciated thank you!

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[caffeinatedpremed]

bump

 

[OGLoc23]

I don't think you need to enroll in a post-bacc program to increase your sGPA. Instead, you could enroll in classes as a student-at-large at any university and find ECs or other opportunities on your own.

 

[kazill]

Ayy, I recently finished the Specialized Studies program at UPenn, came in with very similar stats to you, feel free to send me a PM.

 

[Kangaroo1996]

Ayy, I recently finished the Specialized Studies program at UPenn, came in with very similar stats to you, feel free to send me a PM.

How was the UPenn Specialized Studies program? How was the selection process?

 

[kazill]

How was the UPenn Specialized Studies program? How was the selection process?

I get a lot of people asking me about it so here is the usual generic spiel I give about the program, let me know if I don't answer any of your questions with it. Worth noting I'm 2.5+ years out from finishing so some things may have changed.

I personally have a pretty good opinion of the program. I learned a lot from my courses, got to take a lot of topics I didn't in undergrad that were interesting, and met some great people.

All the courses are in the evenings, which was super useful as it let me also work part time, as well as do research for one day a week. The professors tend to be very hit or miss as far as how well they teach the material, but there was only one course I would say you should avoid at all costs (Infectious Disease Bio). As far as I was aware there wasn't any sort of curving in my courses, I was able to get an A/A- in all my courses by studying for about 3-4 hours daily. Nobody I knew dropped out, so I can't speak to the attrition rate other than I didn't see one. Only people I knew who left early were part-timers who got accepted into medical school prior to finishing. As far as competition, there really wasn't any. Everybody in the program was too focused on doing well themselves to be bothered to compete.

One key thing about this program is that you very much get out what you put in. The advisers don't go out of their way to advise except for when you're getting your committee letter together. You have to reach out to them, but they were pretty useful for me once I did. My adviser did a lot of research for me as far as whether schools were still taking old MCAT scores and on D.O. schools when I had no idea about them, just had to go and have a meeting to explain what I needed.

Another huge perk of this program is that it's at Penn! The resources available here as far as research, volunteering, etc, are enormous, especially compared to schools like my small liberal arts undergrad. I managed to get a full time research position out of the research I was doing part-time once I finished and got my name on 4 different publications as a result, so if you go out of your way to place yourself in the Penn machinery you can be rewarded well. Ask your professors if they're doing research, if they know anyone doing research in something you're interested in, or just cold email department heads/administrators to see if anyone needs a researcher.

Most students I was friends with went D.O. but I knew a few people who went to M.D. schools as well. I think there's a bit of a selection bias there, as most people in the post-bacc aren't the most competitive students in the first place, thus are more likely to end up at less competitive schools (though it should be noted getting into a D.O. was bloody difficult in its own right).

Overall, I have a good opinion of the program, it was exactly what I needed at the time and it got me into medical school, so no complaints!

As far as selection goes, I really can't speak to it as I think it has changed. For me it was a single in-person interview, one-on-one with one of the faculty advisors of the program. Was a simple enough interview, just chatted about my motivations for going into medical school, why I wanted to do the post-bacc, what my weaknesses were, etc.

 

[Kangaroo1996]

I get a lot of people asking me about it so here is the usual generic spiel I give about the program, let me know if I don't answer any of your questions with it. Worth noting I'm 2.5+ years out from finishing so some things may have changed.

I personally have a pretty good opinion of the program. I learned a lot from my courses, got to take a lot of topics I didn't in undergrad that were interesting, and met some great people.

All the courses are in the evenings, which was super useful as it let me also work part time, as well as do research for one day a week. The professors tend to be very hit or miss as far as how well they teach the material, but there was only one course I would say you should avoid at all costs (Infectious Disease Bio). As far as I was aware there wasn't any sort of curving in my courses, I was able to get an A/A- in all my courses by studying for about 3-4 hours daily. Nobody I knew dropped out, so I can't speak to the attrition rate other than I didn't see one. Only people I knew who left early were part-timers who got accepted into medical school prior to finishing. As far as competition, there really wasn't any. Everybody in the program was too focused on doing well themselves to be bothered to compete.

One key thing about this program is that you very much get out what you put in. The advisers don't go out of their way to advise except for when you're getting your committee letter together. You have to reach out to them, but they were pretty useful for me once I did. My adviser did a lot of research for me as far as whether schools were still taking old MCAT scores and on D.O. schools when I had no idea about them, just had to go and have a meeting to explain what I needed.

Another huge perk of this program is that it's at Penn! The resources available here as far as research, volunteering, etc, are enormous, especially compared to schools like my small liberal arts undergrad. I managed to get a full time research position out of the research I was doing part-time once I finished and got my name on 4 different publications as a result, so if you go out of your way to place yourself in the Penn machinery you can be rewarded well. Ask your professors if they're doing research, if they know anyone doing research in something you're interested in, or just cold email department heads/administrators to see if anyone needs a researcher.

Most students I was friends with went D.O. but I knew a few people who went to M.D. schools as well. I think there's a bit of a selection bias there, as most people in the post-bacc aren't the most competitive students in the first place, thus are more likely to end up at less competitive schools (though it should be noted getting into a D.O. was bloody difficult in its own right).

Overall, I have a good opinion of the program, it was exactly what I needed at the time and it got me into medical school, so no complaints!

As far as selection goes, I really can't speak to it as I think it has changed. For me it was a single in-person interview, one-on-one with one of the faculty advisors of the program. Was a simple enough interview, just chatted about my motivations for going into medical school, why I wanted to do the post-bacc, what my weaknesses were, etc.

Is it common to be a part-time student during this post-bacc or does it go on preference? Ideally, I want to be a full time student to take as many classes as I can to raise my GPA. Also, are you taking classes with undergraduate students or is it different for graduate students?

 

[kazill]

Is it common to be a part-time student during this post-bacc or does it go on preference? Ideally, I want to be a full time student to take as many classes as I can to raise my GPA. Also, are you taking classes with undergraduate students or is it different for graduate students?

The majority of students were full time, including myself. The post-bacc classes were mostly fellow post-bacc students, but there were a few undergrads sprinkled in.