Rutgers vs. Harvard Extension Post-Bac

[davidgareau]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

My wife and I would like to go to a post-bac program, could you please answer if you have any idea on the following:

1. What is the total tuition for a full 1-year program at either Rutgers or Harvard Extension. We both need all 4 basic courses. That's all we want to do before applying to Medical school. We are NJ residents, so Rutgers would be state tuition, but Harvard extension would be out-of-state, if applicable. Everything I see online says about credits cost.... etc, but I would like to figure out the real, cost, for the whole program if we do the summer, fall, spring 1 year Wham bam thank you mam schedule.

2. Do either of these programs have linkages (I've read other forums that say that Harvard Extension doesn't but not sure about Rutgers). If not, do you have to start paying your loans during the glide year?

3. How competitive are these two programs to get into? We really want to go to school together and want to make sure both of us can get in.

4. My wife has a green card (permanent resident) and she got an undergrad in English/Spanish from a foreign university (Minsk Linguistic State University, in Minsk, Belarus) Straight A's but how will the non-US citizen and foreign Bachelor's Degree (a 5-year program over there) effect eligibility?

 

[Sundarban1]

I know nothing about Rutgers, but I can answer your questions re: HES.

1. What is the total tuition for a full 1-year program

Currently the price per 4 credit course is $850 plus a $50 rigistration fee. So if you took 2 4 credit classes a semester that would be $3400 +books per school year. There is no difference between in state/out of state.

2. Do either of these programs have linkages (I've read other forums that say that Harvard Extension doesn't but not sure about Rutgers). If not, do you have to start paying your loans during the glide year?

While admissions officers from several medical schools spoke to our class saying that HES is highly regarded by medical schools in general, we do not have linkages. I'm not sure about loan repayment.

3. How competitive are these two programs to get into? We really want to go to school together and want to make sure both of us can get in.

You do not have to "apply" to take your courses at HES. The only reason people apply to the HCP is to try to attain sponsorship, where depending on your GPA coming into the program, if you attain a certain GPA in the specified amount of credits they require you to take, they will write you a composite letter for your application. This is outlined fairly well on their website under the sponsorship link.

4. My wife has a green card (permanent resident) and she got an undergrad in English/Spanish from a foreign university (Minsk Linguistic State University, in Minsk, Belarus) Straight A's but how will the non-US citizen and foreign Bachelor's Degree (a 5-year program over there) effect eligibility?

For issues with visas/foreign schools, etc. I would call the program director William Fixsen. He is very helpful and would certainly know the answer to that question. His information is on their website as well.

Good luck.

 

[Maxprime]

As for the foreign degree, etc. - def. ask Dr. Fixsen. But if I recall correctly, he said that if you have your green card, for the purposes of applying to schools you look the exact same as someone who was born here. As for foreign degrees, there is where the trouble comes in - I'd call Dr. Fixsen to see what advice he gives to mitigate this difference.

 

[Maxprime]

BTW, it is pretty cool that you're going through with your wife - talk about an instant study group . . . 🙂

 

[davidgareau]

Harvard Extension sounds cool... I'm looking at Rutgers and my alma mater Stockton College (NJ) I will go with the most affordable probably but we'll see. I'm not worried as much about medical school cost but I don't think I will qualify for Federal Loans because I did my undergrad for 7 years !!!! I like school, plus I had like 4 majors just about... So, it's gonna be out of pocket, and private loans. But since my debt level is already high and I don't want to start medical school with non-deferable private loans we'll try the cheaper (but still respectable) one.

Yeah me and my wife will have a blast going thru together. Though I'll probably embarass her a lot. We're complete opposites as students from what I gather.... But she's the goddess of discipline so it will help me a lot...

Any more info especially about Rutgers will be great.
Is it hard to do the Harvard Post-bac in 1 year in terms of scheduling not in terms of the class work...

Is Boston similar to New York City in terms of living expenses?

 

[davidgareau]

From what I understood it was only Rutgers New Brunswick campus where we could do the Post-Bac
Camden would be closer, do you know if it's possible to do there?

Bryn Mawr & UPenn were considered, but they are going to cost ~$30,000 while Rutgers (or Stockton) would be 10,000-15,000 as we are New Jersey Residents.

Does that sound accurate?

$30,000 wouldn't be a problem if the federal loans weren't capped at $10,500 for 5th year undergrad studies as I understand they are.

I would like to go to Bryn Mawr as it's reputation is great and it seems to be the most organized program out there with many linkages. But the $30,000 - $10,500 = $19,500 from other sources just isn't realistic for us. We don't want to work during post-bac or start medical school with debt that we can't defer, because then we'd have to work in med school.

Please if I am incorrect in anything tell me, as I wish I were in some of these things, it would make the process much easier.

david

 

[hopster]

My wife and I would like to go to a post-bac program, could you please answer if you have any idea on the following:

1. What is the total tuition for a full 1-year program at either Rutgers or Harvard Extension. We both need all 4 basic courses. That's all we want to do before applying to Medical school. We are NJ residents, so Rutgers would be state tuition, but Harvard extension would be out-of-state, if applicable. Everything I see online says about credits cost.... etc, but I would like to figure out the real, cost, for the whole program if we do the summer, fall, spring 1 year Wham bam thank you mam schedule.

2. Do either of these programs have linkages (I've read other forums that say that Harvard Extension doesn't but not sure about Rutgers). If not, do you have to start paying your loans during the glide year?

3. How competitive are these two programs to get into? We really want to go to school together and want to make sure both of us can get in.

4. My wife has a green card (permanent resident) and she got an undergrad in English/Spanish from a foreign university (Minsk Linguistic State University, in Minsk, Belarus) Straight A's but how will the non-US citizen and foreign Bachelor's Degree (a 5-year program over there) effect eligibility?

Rutgers post-baccer here.

1. I took chem 1 + 2 last summer for $1600, then matriculated with 12+ credits for both fall and spring semesters and paid around $4500 for each of them. Not the state school prices you would expect.

2. Linkage to NJMS and Robert Wood. Cannot say how valuable they are though. I am leaning toward them being somewhat useless. They are in the talks for adding UMDNJ-SOM too.

3. As long as you make it clear why medicine is what you want to persue on your interview, you should be able to get in.

4. That is a good questions. I would just call them up and ask.

let me know if you want to know anything else (PM me preferably)

 

[Maxprime]

HES is notoriously cheap - $850/class for pre-reqs, just FYI.

 

[sidewalkman]

Just stay at Rutgers.

Rutgers = 1600 (summer) + 4500 (fall) + 4500 (spring) = 10600.

HES = 4400 (!!!) + 2550 + 2550 = 9500.

The HES savings is so marginal after you factor in moving costs that it's not worth it to go.

 

[davidgareau]

The only problem I would have with doing the Biology major at Camden to get my prerequisites is that then I don't think the linkage with Robert Wood Johnson would apply, and so I would be forced into a glide year.... is this true? Not a problem for me... but my wife would like to avoid this... she's a momentum junkie... I didn't think about Rowan, will look into it. Thanks.
I did find out that I could get 10,500 a year for post bac so if I start in the summer it would be 21,000 for the two academic years...

 

[hopster]

You are correct; I believe that the linkage program is only through rutgers-new brunswick. Even so, I would not rely on the linkage program to get in. There seems to be a lot of bias involved; although this is only my perspective since i got the royal screw job in the linkage program this past spring.

 

[weaselb]

Definitely, I know that Rutgers has two linkages with UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson in New Brunsick and UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School in Newark. I'm not sure it it has a linkage to the UMDNJ-D.O. school in South Jersey.

 

[budhak0n]

Harvard Extension sounds cool... I'm looking at Rutgers and my alma mater Stockton College (NJ)

I'm lookin to do my Post Bac work at Stockton due to the fact that I live down here and have a couple of kids and it's a bit easier than commuting to Rutgers.

Do you have any recommendations towards any of the faculty in either the Physics or Chemistry Departments?

I'm planning on knocking out BIOL 1200 (Micro) and if they'll let me go out of sequence Chem 2140 (Chem IV) this summer and then do basically my organic chems and basic physics in this fall and spring as well as A&P and whatever else fits.

Any recommendations on who is ok and who to avoid in the Physics,Chem or Biology departments would be great... I'll deal with whoever I must to achieve my goals but in some situations it's just better to steer clear <g>.