Thoughts on my plan? Getting a second bachelors at UMBC rather than diy post-bac

[strawberrydeer]

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Hi everybody, I wanted to post about my situation here just to get a few more perspectives before I'm fully thrown into things. I graduated with a BS in neuroscience spring 2025 with a cGPA of 3.27. I have all my prerequisites, so I'm most worried about my downward trend (my junior year performance was great, my senior year....). I know that I need postbac work in order to prepare my med school application. I intend to take a total of three gap years (meaning I will start applying in May of 2027), and I plan to take the MCAT (for the first time) in summer of 2026.

I was planning on just applying as a non-degree seeking student at UMBC here in Baltimore and doing approximately 30 credits of upper-level coursework over the next three semesters (starting SP26), but diy I'd have no access to financial aid and I'd get screwed over during class registration. So, I started considering just attending UMBC with a major in something like biochemistry, transferring as many credits as I can, and trying to complete a second bachelors before med school hypothetically starts. Either way, I'd also need to be working at least part time, as well as getting my clinical hours and continuing my research projects. So I'd have a maximum of 5 semesters to complete a biochemistry degree, (not taking into account that I can complete some required courses during the summers)

Only I can figure out what works best for myself, and with that knowledge I'm leaning towards just getting the second bachelors. However, I'd greatly appreciate anyone with insight on how a second bachelors degree might impact my application, particularly if it's a red flag lol.

 

[glycolysister]

Hey there!

You wouldn’t be the first student to pursue a second bachelor’s degree primarily to access financial aid. Completing it isn’t usually necessary, but doing so wouldn’t be considered a red flag either.

 

[polymerization]

I agree with @glycolysister. I think an additional consideration is that you’ll want to be taking upper-division hard sciences primarily, and starting over with a new bachelor’s degree in a related hard science is either going to (a) coincide with courses you’ve already taken in your neuroscience degree, or (b) force you to take 101-level classes in an unrelated discipline that won’t help you for medical school purposes.

For example, if you switch to a degree in biology, you might have to take classes like ecology, evolution, botany, and zoology before gaining access to the broader range of classes you actually want to take (embryology, cell/molecular biology, immunology, microbiology, pharmacology, etc.). Though these will count toward your BCPM GPA either way, if you’re trying to be efficient about studying for the MCAT, only the latter set of courses would be directly relevant.

If possible, I’d meet with an academic advisor who could tell me whether I could find a bachelor’s degree program that allows me to skip straight to electives. Obviously, to some degree it takes a little navigating, because the university isn’t designed to be used that way—but read up on the school’s policies and experiment with the registration tool. The advisor’s goal is to push a student toward graduation. Your goal is to go to medical school.

I’m not trying to put you on the defensive (or imply you should elicit that response in others); I’m just saying that what you’re trying to do will require a lot of research on your part because you’re navigating an institution in a way that falls somewhat outside its formal structure. You’ll need to engage with your advisor almost as a peer at times or take the steering wheel yourself, because, unfortunately, they’re trained to deal with the typical student who’s just trying to complete four years and move into industry. You have to decide which pieces of advice to internalize and which don’t apply to your situation.

 

[glycolysister]

This is the way. You’ll likely satisfy most (if not all) of the institution’s core requirements. Choose a major with strong overlap with your Neuroscience degree so you can “shop” for classes that both demonstrate your readiness for medical school and help prepare you for the MCAT.

I’m not sure what the closest equivalent to Neuroscience would be, but I’ve known pre-med students who earned biology degrees and then pursued Biophysics. This route allowed them to qualify for financial aid while accessing upper-level coursework highly relevant to medical school. Many of them went on to gain admission to MD and DO programs across the country.

 

[strawberrydeer]

I agree with @glycolysister. I think an additional consideration is that you’ll want to be taking upper-division hard sciences primarily, and starting over with a new bachelor’s degree in a related hard science is either going to (a) coincide with courses you’ve already taken in your neuroscience degree, or (b) force you to take 101-level classes in an unrelated discipline that won’t help you for medical school purposes.

For example, if you switch to a degree in biology, you might have to take classes like ecology, evolution, botany, and zoology before gaining access to the broader range of classes you actually want to take (embryology, cell/molecular biology, immunology, microbiology, pharmacology, etc.). Though these will count toward your BCPM GPA either way, if you’re trying to be efficient about studying for the MCAT, only the latter set of courses would be directly relevant.

If possible, I’d meet with an academic advisor who could tell me whether I could find a bachelor’s degree program that allows me to skip straight to electives. Obviously, to some degree it takes a little navigating, because the university isn’t designed to be used that way—but read up on the school’s policies and experiment with the registration tool. The advisor’s goal is to push a student toward graduation. Your goal is to go to medical school.

I’m not trying to put you on the defensive (or imply you should elicit that response in others); I’m just saying that what you’re trying to do will require a lot of research on your part because you’re navigating an institution in a way that falls somewhat outside its formal structure. You’ll need to engage with your advisor almost as a peer at times or take the steering wheel yourself, because, unfortunately, they’re trained to deal with the typical student who’s just trying to complete four years and move into industry. You have to decide which pieces of advice to internalize and which don’t apply to your situation.

These are all very good points, thank you for your response. I have some more information that will make things a bit clearer. Last week I met with a premed advisor specifically for transfer students, and we had a long conversation about how I'd be able to transfer things/how quickly I'd be able to get to electives. UMBC doesn't have a neuroscience program, so a lot of my previous electives wouldn't necessarily be transferrable. Like you said, I'd have to take a sequence of lower level biochemistry classes, but I'd also be able to take some other upper level classes alongside that. I used UMBC's transfer tool website thing and it indicated that the credits I had entered put me at 35% degree completion. However, it's really important to note that several of the classes I took were not already in their database for transfer credits, so I sent course reviews in for 23 additional courses to see if any of those can transfer as well. I can transfer a maximum of 90 credits, and I have a feeling that I'll get at least a few more transfer credits once the course reviews go through. So right now it's all very much in the air how much of the prerequisite classes I'd actually have to complete again.

Thank you for the advice, I really appreciate it!

 

[strawberrydeer]

This is the way. You’ll likely satisfy most (if not all) of the institution’s core requirements. Choose a major with strong overlap with your Neuroscience degree so you can “shop” for classes that both demonstrate your readiness for medical school and help prepare you for the MCAT.

I’m not sure what the closest equivalent to Neuroscience would be, but I’ve known pre-med students who earned biology degrees and then pursued Biophysics. This route allowed them to qualify for financial aid while accessing upper-level coursework highly relevant to medical school. Many of them went on to gain admission to MD and DO programs across the country.

This makes total sense. It also makes me worried because UMBC doesn't have a neuroscience program, so the overlap I'm looking at is more limited. Of course I could look at other schools, but I wanted UMBC because of its positive science/research reputation so I'm sorta stumped. Thank you for your advice!