Post Bacc Program questions - should I take more classes?

[jca5065]

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Hello all, I am currently finishing up my BSN for nursing but for the past several years have been eyeing a career change to pursue medicine. I have been an emergency room nurse for the past 8 years and its simply not challenging me mentally. I have finally taken steps in the right direction and I am planning on applying to post bacc programs for 2020. In reviewing some of the post bacc programs curriculum I can't help but notice that some of the pre requisites required for admission to medical schools are not in the curriculum. For instance at a specific post bacc that I plan to apply to there is no organic chemistry in the curriculum, but simply two classes for biochemistry. Biology is widely covered in the curriculum but again it lacks some of the other common pre requisites that most medical schools require. The post bacc does have a linkage to the medical school but I am concerned that I am perhaps putting all my eggs in one basket in the hopes of getting into that specific medical school. I know I will need to diversify a bit and apply elsewhere but will other medical schools look at my post bacc experience as sufficient or would I be better off going through with a diy post bacc to cover the necessary pre requisites?

As I am sure the majority of you know nursing programs are not specifically heavy in science and focus more on core nursing type courses. I currently need the following pre requisites:

Physics: 8 credits
Biology 8 credits
Chemistry: 8 credits (inorganic), 8 credits (organic)
Biochemistry: 3 credits

cGPA:3.55

I am looking for some insight and thoughts on where to go from here. I have no problem scheduling my prerequisite courses at a local 4 year university, but I am just wondering what route would be the fastest, while also completing the things I need to have a well rounded medical school application.

 

[RocuROMANium]

Well if the specific postbac program you’re talking about has a linkage than it must cover all the classes you need and, yes, you can apply to other medical schools with your completed postbac. You don’t have to apply to the linked med school only. I would call the program anyways though just to make sure it covers all the classes you need for med school.

I don’t know which route is faster because I don’t know the length of the formal postbac but you would probably be looking at 1.5 years with a diy postbac.

 

[jca5065]

The specific program is LECOM's MMS program.

Below is a specific list of curriculum from their website. There is no chemistry aside from biochemistry, or physics listed on the curriculum.

With this lack of specific science courses that are prerequisites for other medical schools this would limit my application to only LECOM I assume secondary to the lack of completed prerequisites like organic chemistry, and physics.

Summer Session – July 09 – August 19, 2019	Credit Hours
MMS 1006	Cellular and Molecular Biology	3
MMS 1035	Biochemistry I	3
MMS 1095	Public Health and Preventive Medicine	3
Fall Semester – August 26 – December 13, 2019	Credit Hours
MMS 1015	Physiology	4
MMS 1040	Biochemistry II	3
MMS 1050	Histology	2
MMS 1070	Pharmacology and Toxicology	3
MMS 1095	Pathophysiology I	2
		Fall 23 total
Spring – January 6 – April 24, 2020	Credit Hours
MMS 1051	Clinical Anatomy	3
MMS 1060	Medical Microbiology	4
MMS 1085	Medical Genetics	2
MMS 1096	Pathophysiology II	4
MMS 1091	Immunology	2
		Spring 15 total
		38 Credits

 

[RocuROMANium]

Oh yea, that’s not for you. That’s for people who have the prereqs and need to really boost their application GPA-wise. Go to the AAMC website and use their postbac search tool to find a program that is more appropriate for you. There are a lot of programs for taking the prereqs if you have a decent GPA (you do).

 

[jca5065]

Oh yea, that’s not for you. That’s for people who have the prereqs and need to really boost their application GPA-wise. Go to the AAMC website and use their postbac search tool to find a program that is more appropriate for you. There are a lot of programs for taking the prereqs if you have a decent GPA (you do).

Yeah looking on the AAMC website is how I came across the program as it was considered a career changer type program. Looking deeper into the curriculum I noted that there were some core prerequisites that would be missing from my academic record. It appears a DIY post bacc is going to be the way I proceed.