State U vs other postbac programs

[esca007]

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Hi,
I have a question that I hope anyone can give me some comments on. I attended UCLA with a science major. Since UCLA is considered to be a pretty prestigous school, is it better to do a postbac at other university of at least the same stature rather than a state university? I plan to do postbac at San Francisco state but it seems like I'm downgrading myself to a lower standard even if I get A's in classes at SFSU since the school is not as top as UCLA... do medical schools take that into consideration? Does it matter?

esca

 

[Pemulis]

I did my grad work at an ivy, have never taken the science classes, and am starting a post-bac next summer at a formal, fairly prestigious program. I was considering doing the same thing as you, and going to a state school for the cost and convenience of it. But the pre-med adviser at my school (the ivy one) talked me out of it. According to him, med schools do care a great deal that you take your pre-med courses at a well-known place. That doesn't mean you have to do them at Harvard or anything, but if you go to some school that most adcoms aren't familiar with, they will look down on it. As an example of this, he told me about a student he had who got his engineering degree at our school (with a great gpa), and then went on to do his post-bac work at a small college near his home, where he got a 4.0. He applied to 12 med schools, and didn't get a single interview, and according to this guy, there was nothing else wrong with his app (no bad LOR's, no bad essay, his MCAT score was competitive, etc). He's convinced that even though this student had a great academic record, the med schools just ignored him because he took the science pre-reqs at a no-name school.

I'm from the east coast, and don't know what SF state's rep is like, so if its decent in Cali and that's where you want to stay, it might be OK. But I pass the above along as food for thought.

 

[Febrifuge]

Hey, by the way Pemulis, congrats on your acceptance! (I owe you an email. Sorry 'bout that.)

To the OP, I agree with the above, in a qualified way. I suppose there is some value in diversifying your transcripts, so to speak. And I can see why it might look better to go from undergrad at a school that's a 6 on the "prestige-O-meter" to postbac at a school that's an 8. But I wouldn't get too locked in to any point of view. I think it's too hard to predict what will be on the minds of adcoms. Trying is probably futile.

But if your undergrad is at an 8 (like Pem's seems to be) and then you do postbac at a 4, or a school that adcoms just plain don't know, then I can see where that might be a question mark. I still think it's silly, but lots of things about this process are strange and unnerving. Good luck to you.

 

[esca007]

HI Febrifgue and Pemulis,
Thanks for the comments. Actually I already have a life science BS degree and I need to boost up my GPA. that's why it's a dilemma for me to decide whether or not do to postbac at SFSU since I will be taking mainly upper div science courses... so that's why I wory that med school will look down upon going to a school with lesser reputation in order to show I can do the work...

Hey, by the way Pemulis, congrats on your acceptance! (I owe you an email. Sorry 'bout that.)

To the OP, I agree with the above, in a qualified way. I suppose there is some value in diversifying your transcripts, so to speak. And I can see why it might look better to go from undergrad at a school that's a 6 on the "prestige-O-meter" to postbac at a school that's an 8. But I wouldn't get too locked in to any point of view. I think it's too hard to predict what will be on the minds of adcoms. Trying is probably futile.

But if your undergrad is at an 8 (like Pem's seems to be) and then you do postbac at a 4, or a school that adcoms just plain don't know, then I can see where that might be a question mark. I still think it's silly, but lots of things about this process are strange and unnerving. Good luck to you.

 

[DAL]

HI Febrifgue and Pemulis,
Thanks for the comments. Actually I already have a life science BS degree and I need to boost up my GPA. that's why it's a dilemma for me to decide whether or not do to postbac at SFSU since I will be taking mainly upper div science courses... so that's why I wory that med school will look down upon going to a school with lesser reputation in order to show I can do the work...

Call the schools that you're interested in, ask to make an appointment with the Dean of Admissions, and ask them that question directly. My guess is that some schools won't care where you do post-bacc, and some schools will. Every admissions director that I talked to didn't care where I did post-bacc (as long as it wasn't a CC). They just cared that I did well.

 

[scota]

esca007,

I also gradauted from UCLA (with a social science degree) and took classes at SFSU! SFSU is a good school. It has good connections with UCSF- their dental and med post bacs take science classes at SFSU. I personally knew of several post bacs admitted to top medical schools after completing their pre-reqs there. I would at least look into it, that's for sure. Good luck!

 

[flash]

agree...as long as the public school has relatively good science classes/offering, "rep", go for it.

I never understood why someone would do Columbia post-bacc vs. SUNY Stony Brook given cost and sign. med school debt around the corner (biased a bit, b/c I just finished up Stony).

 

[NYCmed]

agree...as long as the public school has relatively good science classes/offering, "rep", go for it.

I never understood why someone would do Columbia post-bacc vs. SUNY Stony Brook given cost and sign. med school debt around the corner (biased a bit, b/c I just finished up Stony).

Because the Columbia post-bac works better for some of us. 😀 Money sometimes doesn't factor into the equation.

 

[esca007]

To DAL,
What CC mean?
Which schools have you called?
Are you doing postbac to boost up your gpa b/c you didnt do your science courses so well as an undergrad?
Thanks

esca007

Call the schools that you're interested in, ask to make an appointment with the Dean of Admissions, and ask them that question directly. My guess is that some schools won't care where you do post-bacc, and some schools will. Every admissions director that I talked to didn't care where I did post-bacc (as long as it wasn't a CC). They just cared that I did well.