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Postbac Program after 3 Years Undergrad?
- Thread starter bballpro
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Thinking about a postbac as a freshman means you've poorly designed your undergraduate career. This should be in pre-allo.
Give up on the "graduating in 3 years" part if you haven't decided what to do after college yet. You're limiting your future options with that 3 year program.
You can't talk about caring about time/cost and then suggest doing a postbac after only 3 years in undergrad. That makes no sense.
You have to choose. One way to choose: would you feel more regret over not going to med school, or would you feel more regret over taking science classes you didn't use?
Best of luck to you.
Give up on the "graduating in 3 years" part if you haven't decided what to do after college yet. You're limiting your future options with that 3 year program.
You can't talk about caring about time/cost and then suggest doing a postbac after only 3 years in undergrad. That makes no sense.
You have to choose. One way to choose: would you feel more regret over not going to med school, or would you feel more regret over taking science classes you didn't use?
Best of luck to you.
D
deleted248403
1) You are a freshman - you should not be thinking about post-bacs now
2) If you aren't sure about medicine, then don't do it. As an MS4, this road is way too difficult and way too expensive to be wishy-washy on it. You really have to love it - and believe me, there were times I didn't love it so that I could have had an easier life elsewhere.
3) Sure you get into a post-bac if you want straight from undergrad, but if you are still not set on medicine - i don't know the point.
4) Not sure how you can anticipate getting a 3.8 GPA for graduation after getting a 3.25 in your first semester... college gets harder generally, not easier. but whatever. Not sure how much one can anticipate any graduating GPA until they have 3 or so semesters under their belt.
5) A post-bac means you still have do all those classes - they are required for entry into medical school. So, you have to do them whether its at your undergrad or at a post-bac. You are still going to be doing organic chem, physics, and gen chem 2.
6) A 4th year at your school will be the exact same course work as a post-bac, so the "wasted" year would be the same just in a diff place.
7) A post-bac isnt a secret back door to med school where you don't have to do the required pre-med requirements or skip taking the MCAT. Those all require the physics, gen chem, organic chem, bio, and by the time you get there it will include biochem and psych (or whatever else is on the new MCAT starting this year).
8) I'm not going to discuss career changers - you don't have a career. You have done one semester of college for hells sake
9) You can retake Gen Chem I if you need to
Bottom line - you are way off base with how this works, and you should really decide if medicine is for you. Sounds like you don't understand a lot about this process. I would suggest doing some more reading about what it takes to get into med school, what kind of classes are required, what med school classes are like (Gen Chem is a joke in comparison to physiology), and what a post-bac is. No secret back doors here.
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Merged cross-posted threads and moved to pre-allo, where it is more appropriate.
I know this thread is 3 and a half years old and I wanted to thank you for taking the time to reply to my topic. I wanted to give a few updates:
1) I did finish undergrad in 3 years as I hoped for at the time. After my pretty rough start to my first semester of freshman year (with a 3.25 GPA and sub-3.0 BCPM), I finished the next 2 and a half years with a 3.99 GPA (straight A’s aside from 1 A-) and finished undergrad with an overall 3.90 GPA. I also graduated with a bioethics minor. Oh, and I also lost nearly 100 lbs during those 2 and a half years. I went from a BMI > 40 to one in the mid 20s. Hell, I even got my bench press up from 135 lbs —> 225 lbs lol.
2) I enrolled in a 2 year postbac afterwards and have finished my first year in the program. I’ve finished all the premed reqs except for organic chemistry, and am halfway through orgo 1 now. Perfect 4.00 in this program so far — including retaking Chem 1 with an A. I even got an A+ in one semester of physics (who knew A+’s existed at universities?). I also have a year and a half of scribing experience under my belt now and have worked in 2 different research positions at a top 10 med school, with a potential publication coming in the next few months.
My point is: while I appreciate the feedback, I think SDN has a pretty negative reputation outside of this forum — maybe for good reason. I understand there are ENORMOUS amounts of useful information on these forums and people are simply trying to be objective, but the goal of this website should be to build people up and help them get into medical school — especially when they are young and naive and just need some guidance. I think most people’s paths to medicine aren’t linear and I think I’m a better person now than I would’ve been had I not had a rough semester and dropped premed. It really gave me a chip on my shoulder and the whole “building character” cliche is kind of true.
At the time, I was an 18 year old who struggled at his first semester away from home. I feel like all the advice I was getting, both here and in real life, was to move away from medicine and “consider something else.” Maybe I did a postbac when someone could argue I should’ve just done everything in undergrad, but the point is I almost gave up my entire life’s dream because of what — me not understanding MO theory? Or Heizenberg’s Uncertainty principle? Seems a little ridiculous to me...especially considering the fact that I ironically now tutor Gen Chem and am a TA for Physics in my postbac program.
I know these forums have tons of lurkers, but if anyone browsing the web comes across this, follow your dreams and don’t let anybody tell you what you can or cannot do. I hope to make a great clinician in the near future and, if you want to as well, then by all means go for it! I know I still have ways to go, but everyday I become one step closer to my ultimate goal. And this goal has led to me busting my a** off for the last 4 years or so. So, here’s to doing it for the another 40 years. Cheers.
1) I did finish undergrad in 3 years as I hoped for at the time. After my pretty rough start to my first semester of freshman year (with a 3.25 GPA and sub-3.0 BCPM), I finished the next 2 and a half years with a 3.99 GPA (straight A’s aside from 1 A-) and finished undergrad with an overall 3.90 GPA. I also graduated with a bioethics minor. Oh, and I also lost nearly 100 lbs during those 2 and a half years. I went from a BMI > 40 to one in the mid 20s. Hell, I even got my bench press up from 135 lbs —> 225 lbs lol.
2) I enrolled in a 2 year postbac afterwards and have finished my first year in the program. I’ve finished all the premed reqs except for organic chemistry, and am halfway through orgo 1 now. Perfect 4.00 in this program so far — including retaking Chem 1 with an A. I even got an A+ in one semester of physics (who knew A+’s existed at universities?). I also have a year and a half of scribing experience under my belt now and have worked in 2 different research positions at a top 10 med school, with a potential publication coming in the next few months.
My point is: while I appreciate the feedback, I think SDN has a pretty negative reputation outside of this forum — maybe for good reason. I understand there are ENORMOUS amounts of useful information on these forums and people are simply trying to be objective, but the goal of this website should be to build people up and help them get into medical school — especially when they are young and naive and just need some guidance. I think most people’s paths to medicine aren’t linear and I think I’m a better person now than I would’ve been had I not had a rough semester and dropped premed. It really gave me a chip on my shoulder and the whole “building character” cliche is kind of true.
At the time, I was an 18 year old who struggled at his first semester away from home. I feel like all the advice I was getting, both here and in real life, was to move away from medicine and “consider something else.” Maybe I did a postbac when someone could argue I should’ve just done everything in undergrad, but the point is I almost gave up my entire life’s dream because of what — me not understanding MO theory? Or Heizenberg’s Uncertainty principle? Seems a little ridiculous to me...especially considering the fact that I ironically now tutor Gen Chem and am a TA for Physics in my postbac program.
I know these forums have tons of lurkers, but if anyone browsing the web comes across this, follow your dreams and don’t let anybody tell you what you can or cannot do. I hope to make a great clinician in the near future and, if you want to as well, then by all means go for it! I know I still have ways to go, but everyday I become one step closer to my ultimate goal. And this goal has led to me busting my a** off for the last 4 years or so. So, here’s to doing it for the another 40 years. Cheers.
