UC Berkeley Extension Post Baccalaureate Program

[zellantus]

Does anyone know anything about UCB's post-bacc program? I've only found this blurb on it on their website: http://www.unex.berkeley.edu/sciences/
I'm wondering how much it costs, what the courses are like, if it's a formal program with advising and committee letter, etc. I hope it's not like UCLA Extension's "program" (informal, enroll in impacted classes w/ undergrads) Thanks for any info.

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[relentless11]

I think its just a renamed UC Extension "Open Campus" program where they might add in some pre-health profession advice. Otherwise UCB would've made its own post-bacc program, rather than use its Extension. On their official site, they do not mention any program ( http://career.berkeley.edu/article/050211b-hh.stm) other than the ones from other schools.

All UC Extension's are essentially their own college, and operate more or less independently from the main campus. There might be two outcomes to this. You take UCB courses on their campus, or you take courses offered at the Extension facility itself. The former would mean you'll have last priority to register for a class since UCB students must take priority for obvious reasons, while the latter means less classes to choose from.

If its anything like taking Open Campus courses from UCD Extension, it will cost an arm and a leg. About $175/unit for undergrad courses. Most classes at UCD are 3 units, so taking two classes would cost you around $1050! Whereas undergrads pay what.....$1800 these days and take up to 21 units or something of class. Its more or less a rip off, but you sometimes gotta do what you gotta do. Are there any reasons why you have ruled out post-bacc programs at UCSF, SFSU, SJSU, and Mill's College? Not all are for URMs.

 

[zellantus]

I think its just a renamed UC Extension "Open Campus" program where they might add in some pre-health profession advice. Otherwise UCB would've made its own post-bacc program, rather than use its Extension. On their official site, they do not mention any program ( http://career.berkeley.edu/article/050211b-hh.stm) other than the ones from other schools.

All UC Extension's are essentially their own college, and operate more or less independently from the main campus. There might be two outcomes to this. You take UCB courses on their campus, or you take courses offered at the Extension facility itself. The former would mean you'll have last priority to register for a class since UCB students must take priority for obvious reasons, while the latter means less classes to choose from.

If its anything like taking Open Campus courses from UCD Extension, it will cost an arm and a leg. About $175/unit for undergrad courses. Most classes at UCD are 3 units, so taking two classes would cost you around $1050! Whereas undergrads pay what.....$1800 these days and take up to 21 units or something of class. Its more or less a rip off, but you sometimes gotta do what you gotta do. Are there any reasons why you have ruled out post-bacc programs at UCSF, SFSU, SJSU, and Mill's College? Not all are for URMs.

UCB sounded nice cause it's very close to where I live, and I did my undergrad there too. I'm hoping the courses they'll offer are Extension only, and dedicated to just post-baccs...but maybe that's too wishful thinking. Yeah, the tuition costs are probably going to be high either way, which is a turn-off. Actually, right now my top choice is CSU East Bay because of their advising program, committee letter, and major affordability. The main thing I'm worried about is if adcoms will frown upon me doing my post-bacc at a CSU instead of a more "academically reputable" college. So I'm trying to see if there are any other good options out there. Formal programs sound great (e.g. Scripps, Mills), but the costs are SO high....I'll never be able to pay off my student loans! I did consider SFSU for a while, but after hearing mixed reviews about it I decided against it.

 

[relentless11]

UCB sounded nice cause it's very close to where I live, and I did my undergrad there too. I'm hoping the courses they'll offer are Extension only, and dedicated to just post-baccs...but maybe that's too wishful thinking. Yeah, the tuition costs are probably going to be high either way, which is a turn-off. Actually, right now my top choice is CSU East Bay because of their advising program, committee letter, and major affordability. The main thing I'm worried about is if adcoms will frown upon me doing my post-bacc at a CSU instead of a more "academically reputable" college. So I'm trying to see if there are any other good options out there. Formal programs sound great (e.g. Scripps, Mills), but the costs are SO high....I'll never be able to pay off my student loans! I did consider SFSU for a while, but after hearing mixed reviews about it I decided against it.

In my opinion, I don't think adcoms care which school you go to in terms of post-bacc. They'll probably have problems with taking CC courses since they are not upper division. The most important thing is to take challenging upper division classes, and do well in them, thats pretty much it. They can't complain if you had a 4.0 post-bacc GPA.

If you want the added benefit of study skills courses, med school application workshops, and MCAT prep, then maybe a formal post-bacc is more useful. From personal experience, if one hasn't gotten their act together at this stage, classes on study skills won't help much since each person learns in a different way and would take a while to get these people into academic shape to do well consistently. While MCAT prep courses are available outside of post-bacc, and free med school workshops pop up each year. So the "need" to do a formal program isn't that big.

For Scripps, and Mills, those are cool because they link you into a med school. So meeting the performance requirements = getting into med school, rather than "maybe getting in"..haha. Of course as you said, its competative to get in, and expensive to do those programs.

Just look at it this way, if there was such discrimination between CSU vs. UC, then a lot of CSU people would get denied from med school. If you were to compare to 4.0 mechanical engineers, one from SFSU, and one from Cal, ok, the person from Cal will be better in terms of GPA. Why? Cal has a more competative engineering program. But beyond that....its pretty even, and since you don't have any degree-emphasis in post-bacc, where you go is moot. Just get A's.

 

[ssingh0]

new sentence on webpage:

"Discover how you can prepare for medical school with Extension's top-flight science courses. Meet with instructors and staff to discuss how to start a career in medicine. "

guess it's geared towards those that haven't done any prereqs?