Post-bacc work

[addo]

I have been seeing a lot of people mentioning post bacc work. how does that work? Do you have to be accepted into a graduate program, or can you just take random classes?
I have taken a keen interest in math especially after calculus and some introductory number theory. I could never work more advanced math classes into my schedule though. It would be nice if I could take some math classes after i graduate and have them count towards my GPA.

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[theWUbear]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=114425

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=71

 

[addo]

sorry for posting this in the wrong section, Im still trying to find my way around here. Anyways, pretty much there is no chance I would find anything post bacc, math related it seems.

 

[MiniMoo]

sorry for posting this in the wrong section, Im still trying to find my way around here. Anyways, pretty much there is no chance I would find anything post bacc, math related it seems.

Post bacc consists of any undergrad-level class you take after already obtaining your bachelor's degree. So you could go back and take courses as an Open University or Extension student at the school of your choice and that counts as post-bacc work and would count as part of your undergrad GPA. There are also formal post-bacc programs, however, these can be costly and many are tailored towards those who have not yet completed pre-reqs. If you're looking to improve your sGPA, though, I would try to focus primarily on upper division science courses rather than only math courses.

 

[theWUbear]

No problem. "Post-bacc" just means you've already earned a bachelors degree, and are still taking undergrad courses. You could sign up as a non-matriculating or second-degree student at any of 1000's of schools telling them you are a pre-med and would like to take some math classes. You will not see this in the FAQ because, well, you might find it difficult to explain in an interview that you're passionate about medicine when you just spent an extra year of your life studying...math. If you have fantastic stats and want a year off and want to study math by all means have at it, but post-baccs are usually done by those looking to improve their application to medical school, and while math technically will improve your BCPM GPA, it doesn't show desire for medicine like A)the prereqs (done by post-baccs not formally premed) or B) upper level bio classes (done by post-baccs who have completed the prereqs)

 

[theWUbear]

Alas, beaten out by the Minimoo...well played...

I will also mention that if for some reason you go through with this idea (though, without knowing your complete situation, I would still imagine there are many better options for a year off than taking only math classes), I would recommend you take as much stats as possible. At least that could help you with any clinical research you do in the future. The rest of the math, unless you are going to do an MD/PhD and end up creating mathematical models of systems, won't do much for you medically, which is why I just loveddd sitting in partial differential equations and numerical methods classes my senior year of college. I think the phrase I uttered most was, "God, why am I here?"

 

[addo]

Thanks, for the clarifications.

It seems surprising admissions would look at this negatively, seeing as how math is seen as the "queen of sciences", and medicine is science. Just the other day I was looking at the broad applications in medicine of a simple little theorem called Bayes theorem.