State School vs. Harvard Extension HCP

[kah145]

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I just began my first semester of do-it-myself postbac at the state school. My classes are 90% freshman who are quite distracting due to the fact that they are new to this whole college environment. At the same time I received my conditional acceptance into Harvard Program which hasn't started yet.

Should I just withdraw now and take courses at Harvard instead? The school I am at right now does have a good pre-med advising program and has a reputation of being a feeder school for the med school I want to go to....but the fact that I'm back in school with all these undergrads make me uncomfortable not to mention that I stick out like a sore thumb. Harvard extension will be actually cheaper than the state school I am enrolled at....

 

[DrMidlife]

All those undergrads crinkling their snack wrappers and playing with their cell phones and ipods? Talking at full volume while the professor tries to lecture? Restless body syndrome? Yep. This has been the bane of my existence during my post-bac at a state school - 400 of them in lecture halls, driving me f***ing nuts. You can take a break by doing your postbac at Harvard Ex, but you'll be back with the same age group in med school. So you can run but you can't hide.

From my perspective it's better to learn how to tune it out. You'll most likely need to explain why you changed schools, and you might want a better reason than "hated my classmates and was concerned I might kill a few if I stayed."

And learn from my mistakes: nobody likes to be shushed, so don't bother. They're like vindictive cockroaches. The only thing that's worked is to ask noisy kids for their mother's phone number. 😀

Best of luck to you.

 

[kah145]

Ok.. so I do think that I can get a straight A's...I am more motivated to do well than ever and I am grateful for the second chance as I had an "average" undergrad GPA.

I was just wondering if it'd be better to be around people that are non-traditional like me. Since I will be here for 2 yrs, I thought it might be better if I could at least be considered a "postbac premedical" student like I officially would be, if I were to enroll in HCP, or any other non-traditional only programs. I know with my record, I have no shot at getting into Goucher or Bryn Mawr.

This may sound immature but I am already getting sick of having to defend my reason for being back in school as an undergrad.

 

[dancingdoctor]

I'm in a very similar situation, except that I didnt graduate yet- I am a 5th year senior at a state school, and my normal grad date is May 2008 (next year). I was initially considering Havard's HCP 2 year program after graduation to retake all of the 8 science pre-reqs (in order to raise undergrad GPA). However, I didnt want to attend HCP part-time (because it would take 2 years!), and also I found it somewhat unecessary since I did decent in many of my 8 basic science pre-reqs. Im considering the DO route now, and figured the fastest way to raise my GPAs are to retake all of the courses in which I recieved a C or below in. I figured that I need to retake ~ 8 courses. My question is, 1) should I stay in undergrad here at a state school (which will take me to 5.5- 6 years of undergrad) to repeat these 8 courses OR 2) should I graduate next May and either take courses as a continuing education student here OR 3) attend HES (not HCP) --- *could I retake my courses here? IE- could I retake courses such as basic finance, spanish phonetics, anatomy and phys, and statistics? and, could I attend HES full-time so I could finish these course retakes in 1 year (~8 courses)? (also, can I get financial aid to take "do it yourself" classes at HES?)

...I suppose Im trying to look at it from an admission's committee perspective (both DO and MD)..what would they rather see?

Your suggestions/advice GREATLY welcomed and appreciated! Thanks in advance! 👍

 

[postbacker]

...I suppose Im trying to look at it from an admission's committee perspective (both DO and MD)..what would they rather see?

Your suggestions/advice GREATLY welcomed and appreciated! Thanks in advance! 👍

They would rather see As...it is just that simple...

 

[Kate6058]

OR 3) attend HES (not HCP) --- *could I retake my courses here? IE- could I retake courses such as basic finance, spanish phonetics, anatomy and phys, and statistics? and, could I attend HES full-time so I could finish these course retakes in 1 year (~8 courses)? (also, can I get financial aid to take "do it yourself" classes at HES?)

You don't have to be taking the basic 4 prereqs to be in the Health Careers Program at HES. As long as you take the required number (using their formula according to your ug gpa) of "medical science" courses (they have a list of what qualifies at their website... basically it's any science), you have the opportunity to be sponsored. Students taking the 4 prereqs are eligible to graduate with a certificate afterward - that's the major difference.

 

[cheezer]

Can you get straight A's at your state school despite the people? If the answer is yes, then there is absolutely no reason to change. Your number one priority is to get as close to a 4.0 as possible, and at Harvard, you will learn a lot but A's are far from guaranteed.

i agree with this. state schools have their drawbacks, but im prob getting better grades than id normally get at a formal postbac (3.8 in postbac so far)

 

[dancingdoctor]

How many of the "medical science" courses in HCP would it be sensible to take per semester? Could I also take non-medical science courses at the same time and still be sponsored/recieve financial aid?


Has anyone just taken do-it-yourself courses at HES? how was that experience for you? and how was your financial aid situation? Did you need to pay back your loans from undergrad while attending HES?