Post Bac or Second Bachelors

[NancyH]

After several years of being out of school I've chosen to apply to medical school. My question is obvious from the title, and the local university has a health sciences post baccalaureate program.

However, my undergraduate degree is (regrettably) from an online institution. I'm sure everyone can guess which one. I also have about 3 years worth of credits from B&M schools, but I was moving around so much that in order for me to actually finish and quit merely accumulating credits the online degree seemed like the best choice. Which it wasn't, it was just a waste of money. So now I have an online business degree with no science background am looking for advice on increasing my chances of getting into med school.

My opinion is a second bachelors would be better. It would take more time, but I think it looks a lot better than just taking the prerequisites. What do you think? Do you know anyone that has successfully gotten into med school with an online bachelors and post bac/second degree from a B&M school?

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[deleted432032]

There are some medical school, MD and DO, that do accept online bachelor degrees. The university has to be from a regionally accrediting agency, http://www.chea.org/Directories/regional.asp. You will need to email each school your interested in to see if they will accept it, most will probably not.

As for getting a second bachelors degree, that is your call. Basically, can afford to and are willing to take the extra time. People do get the prerequisites done after getting a bachelors, the preferred way would be at a physical university.

Hope this helps some.

 

[Beandog]

There are some medical school, MD and DO, that do accept online bachelor degrees......
most will probably not.

Could you give more info on how you know this? Source/personal research?

 

[deleted432032]

Could you give more info on how you know this? Source/personal research?

Personally emailing schools, both MD and DO. The responses were they will accept online degrees as long as the university is regionally accredited.

ie. Florida State University College of Medicine, Emory School of Medicine, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, The Brody School of Medicine, and West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine; to name a few that accept them.

 

[NuttyEngDude]

something to consider, as it is something I am realizing now that I am on the path, ~60 credits is a new degree if you already have a bachelor's. So if you are doing a postbacc and taking a bunch of upper level sciences, you could actually get another degree (or two) if you plan it all out...... or come very close to another one.😱

 

[Beandog]

Personally emailing schools, both MD and DO. The responses were they will accept online degrees as long as the university is regionally accredited.

ie. Florida State University College of Medicine, Emory School of Medicine, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, The Brody School of Medicine, and West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine; to name a few that accept them.

I'm interested in this - do you have a list of the "nonaccepting" as well?

 

[deleted432032]

I'm interested in this - do you have a list of the "nonaccepting" as well?

Some are:

Saint Louis University School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Florida College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, and University of South Carolina School of Medicine; to name a few.

Keep in mind both lists are not complete and I would advise that anyone interested in this route talk to or email the schools personally to make sure they will accept your specific online degree.

Not all online schools are regionally accredited that I am aware of and having an online degree, whether from an accredited university or not, does limit the places you can apply to.


OP - sorry about your thread being hijacked, hope some of this is somewhat helpful to yourself also.

The lists I provided are only good for the University of Phoenix, since they are regionally accredited and have physical campuses around the US and based in Phoenix, AZ. I do not know about any others.


side note: Wake Forest School of Medicine actually will accept an online degree but all prerequisites must be done with labs at a physical university. Some accept UNECOM online prerequisites, the other short list will accept UNECOM online prerequisites. from what I gather from email communications I had with the schools.

 

[NancyH]

Thanks for the replies, it's all been very helpful.

I did finish my degree at University of Phoenix but also attended traditional institutions before enrolling there. I have a good amount of general studies requirements but I'd be starting from square one with science.

I live in the Richmond and my school of choice would be VCU. The post bacc program takes an average of 3 years depending on what you can transfer to the program, which I suspect is around the same amount of time for a second bachelors but it would be more work. It's a tough call in this situation, where I don't want to unnecessarily over work myself but I also want to be competitive.

And MedPsy, you're right, my best bet would be to call the school myself and ask if they would accept someone with an online degree or if they ever have in the past.