Post-Bac or 2nd Degree?

[windycitycassie]

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Hi all. 🙂 I'm 32 and got my B.A. in history in 1996 from Knox College here in Illinois. My 1st year there I was in the pre-med program and drank too much, etc., and my advisor got me to switch to history. So, I have a 3.16 GPA for my four years there.

I was thinking of taking one of the pre-med post bac programs offered by Northwestern or Loyola in Chicago and try for a 4.0 in those programs and then the MCAT. Should that be enough to get my GPA high enough for a med school, or should I get a 2nd undergrad degree instead?

Luckily I work for a large health care company (not doing clinical work) that makes it a bit easier to get accepted to a heath care career opportunity program to get good volunteer experience, too.

Thanks. 🙂
Cassie

(PS Yes I know a lot of people here have under a 3.0, just wondering in which case it is better to get a 2nd degree vs. the post bac pre-med route I am considering)

 

[sappho_sapphics]

Cassie,

You bring up a question I know others have posted on SDN.

I cannot tell you which is a better choice, but offer some advice. First off, how much time do you have? the basic pre med courses (2 years chem, 1 year bio, 1 year physics) could be accomplished within 2 years. Do you want to be in medical school in 2 years? 3 years?

The problem with some post-bac. programs is the lack of funding. Some do not provide financial support. With a second degree, you do receive funding (at most schools), but a second degree on average may take 3-4 years.

I hope this helps put some things into perspective.

 

[windycitycassie]

Cassie,

You bring up a question I know others have posted on SDN.

I cannot tell you which is a better choice, but offer some advice. First off, how much time do you have? the basic pre med courses (2 years chem, 1 year bio, 1 year physics) could be accomplished within 2 years. Do you want to be in medical school in 2 years? 3 years?

The problem with some post-bac. programs is the lack of funding. Some do not provide financial support. With a second degree, you do receive funding (at most schools), but a second degree on average may take 3-4 years.

I hope this helps put some things into perspective.

Thanks for the reply. 🙂

I can take my time, so that really isn't a problem unless I extend things out for like over 3 years before taking the MCAT and all.

Funding isn't a problem, I make a lot of money and I also get a small ($4,000/year) tuition reimbursement. The income and reimbursement help for evening/weekend, but not really if I quit work, which I don't want to do until it is med school time.

I'm taking a bio class (the stand-alone pre-req one) this summer and pondering applying to the Northwestern pre-med post-bac program which is an additional twelve classes. The program seems reputable, even though it is through their continuing studies school.

Thanks.🙂

 

[sidewalkman]

I don't think a second degree would make sense for you. All you need are the classes. You don't need the loan options that would come with getting a second degree. Plus you're 32. If you do a second BA, you may have to take some courses that are unique to the school you get the second BA in. That means sitting in class with 18-year olds learning something that is ultimately meaningless to your pursuit. There's also more red tape in general. Go for some sort of formal post-bacc or do-it-yourself program.

 

[windycitycassie]

Thanks for the advice, too. 🙂

I was leaning towards the post-bacc option. Although the one at NWU looks like it might be hard to even get in. Not tons of posts on it in the search. It will also cost me $1200 per course which is pushing it a bit, but I hope between my income and the $4,000/year from my company that it won't be so bad.
http://www.scs.northwestern.edu/pdp/cpdp/health/premed_plan.cfm

Essentially I'll be redoing the few pre-med classes I had in college ages ago and then even getting a few upper level bio ones out of it.

 

[UMP]

I don't know how this works at other schools, but the second-bacc option at the school I'm currently attending, I only need 36 credits total to graduate with a Chemistry major/ Math minor. You don't need to take 120 some odd credits including humanities classes, etc. But I guess this might differ from school to school

 

[windycitycassie]

The problem in my case would be that I need to take the low-level science courses anyway to meet med school reqs. So in addition to the 12 classes I can take at that NWU program if I wanted a bio BS I'd need a decent number of other classes.

NWU doesn't have any problems with all the other requirements, since my BA from Knox satisfies everything but the bio. But it would still mean another year of classes after the 2 year pre-med post-bacc (due to me doing that program in summer/evenings anyway).

 

[chaeymaey]

I don't know how this works at other schools, but the second-bacc option at the school I'm currently attending, I only need 36 credits total to graduate with a Chemistry major/ Math minor. You don't need to take 120 some odd credits including humanities classes, etc. But I guess this might differ from school to school

Yeah, same at the school I'm looking at. Since it seems like it might be easier to get a second BA, I'm still debating between that and an SMP.

 

[sidewalkman]

I don't know how this works at other schools, but the second-bacc option at the school I'm currently attending, I only need 36 credits total to graduate with a Chemistry major/ Math minor. You don't need to take 120 some odd credits including humanities classes, etc. But I guess this might differ from school to school

It really varies from school to school how many credits you need for that second BA. The most important thing for us postbaccs is to do the homework. The worst thing imaginable would be to sign up for a second BA thinking you only need a handful of credits and then realize that you really need 60-70. (I don't think any school would make you take the entire 120).

cassie, don't stress about the second bachelor's from Northwestern. If you don't get in, you can always attempt to do the postbacc option. If you don't get into that, you can always take classes a la carte.

 

[windycitycassie]

I'm actually going to try to get in to their postbacc pre-med program, so it isn't a 2nd bachelor's in this case. The problem is you have to apply to even get in that program. But, as you said I can always do a la carte. 🙂 (and am doing so for 2 classes this year)

Thanks. 🙂