UCDavis Open Campus

[AJSoprano]

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Has anyone ever done an informal post-bac through UCDavis Open Campus? Was it difficult to get into the classes you needed (upper division science)?
How many classes did you take at one time?

Gracias

 

[relentless11]

Has anyone ever done an informal post-bac through UCDavis Open Campus? Was it difficult to get into the classes you needed (upper division science)?
How many classes did you take at one time?

Gracias

For the standard upper div NPB, MCB, BIS classes, it was relatively easy to get in. Professors are willing to sign it, or tell you to wait it out and they will sign it later. Good news is the add deadline is way later than the normal undergrads..so you can wait longer than them. One big hassle was getting your name registered into the system EACH quarter. As in you don't have access to my.ucdavis (to take say online quizzes if they have it), check grades, or be automatically added to the course email list. I think to have access to myucdavis, you have to be enrolled by extension. The email list thing isn't too bad, the professor can manually add you. The other problem are the engineering (ENG, BIM, etc) classes. You need special permission, and need to have the head guy for the college of engineering or something sign it off. I did a bunch of biomedical engineering so that became a hassle. Engineering professors are somewhat hesitant on letting you in too, since 1) Skeptical on your non-engineering background, and 2) their classes are usually very impacted.

Cost was an issue too. I think the current rate is $1050 for 6 units worth of classes...essentially two classes. For your post-bacc to mean much, e.g: show the adcoms that you can handle a heavy academic workload and do well, you should try to go full time (12 units), so you're looking at $2100 worth of classes per quarter. Of course you need special permission to go beyond 8 units of classes or something too.

I did it though, 1.5 years worth of open campus (52 units). Cost me an arm and a leg, but yea. Anyway, couldn't take it anymore. I think the big thing was knowing that I'm just taking classes for no real reason (e.g.: didn't guarantee admission to med school). The cost sucked, and the hassle of being last priority for registration sucked more. My MCAT was too high (ironic) to be admitted to the post-bacc program, so went to grad school. UCD pays for my tuition...so can't really complain now 🙂 .

If you have no other choice, and are willing to pay, then go for it. I found it to be very helpful in terms of coursework. I went here as an undergrad so already knew the terrain. But god, Extension costs $$$$! Just depends on how deep your pockets are or how much debt you want to accumulate before getting into med school.

 

[BKMD]

I took summer session classes too. It is expensive, but still cheaper than a lot of private or formal post bacc classes or programs. It was pretty easy to get classes. The MCB were the easiest followed by upper BIS. NPB seemed to be full. It does really stink tossing a ton of money to classes just for a chance and nothing else, but you can use that in your interviews to demonstrate your dedication to medicine as your career choice. It shows you didn't play it safe by having a back up plan. Good luck with your choice.

 

[relentless11]

I took summer session classes too. It is expensive, but still cheaper than a lot of private or formal post bacc classes or programs. It was pretty easy to get classes. The MCB were the easiest followed by upper BIS. NPB seemed to be full. It does really stink tossing a ton of money to classes just for a chance and nothing else, but you can use that in your interviews to demonstrate your dedication to medicine as your career choice. It shows you didn't play it safe by having a back up plan. Good luck with your choice.

Summer session is a good relatively cheaper alternative. It is dealt with the summer sessions thing rather than Extension. Therefore not succeptible to the same fees. You also don't have to deal with the last priority crap, and having to have a prof. sign the open campus form. Just into summer session. Plus you take less classes as taking more than upper div 2 classes per session is essentially suicide.

 

[Fireboy]

The main problem with UC Davis is that if you are taking postbac classes there through the University Extension (as they have no official postbac program but a reapplicant one), then you will absolutely never be able to enroll in any introductory biology or physics course, as these are heavily impacted and priority is always given to regularly enrolled students. I know this b/c I tried over and over. This is an absolutely major problem.

Furthermore, the one year introductory biology sequence at Davis (1a, 1b, 1c) does not even include a full year of laboratory, so you have to take additional courses beyond this.

Thus, you must take them as summer courses if you do take them at Davis, which is problematic in and of itself as you cannot complete a full year's worth of courses at Davis in one summer due to the quarter system. Thus to complete a year of Intro Physics and Intro Biology at Davis would take you THREE summers!

Although you may be able to enroll in higher level courses without a problem, this matters very little if you cannot complete the most basic prerequisites for medical school.

Another problem with UC Davis is that it is almost hopeless to secure
adequate recommendations from professors within the timespan of merely
one year when you are but one of 400 students. There is no real
opportunity to get to know the professors etc and all of the laboratories are run by grad students.

All this being said, if you for some reason decide to take classes there and do manage to enroll, you will find that classes at Davis, in general, are relatively easy compared to other schools.

Good luck with your decisions!

 

[relentless11]

Another problem with UC Davis is that it is almost hopeless to secure
adequate recommendations from professors within the timespan of merely
one year when you are but one of 400 students. There is no real
opportunity to get to know the professors etc and all of the laboratories are run by grad students.

Securing letters of rec is really up to the student rather than class size such as the traditional going to office hours which are scheduled and most professors are open to appointments as well. Really, you would want a recent letter of rec, and ideally that would probably come from an upper division professor. Upper division courses, some are big some are small, but most of the professors are willing to get to know you if you are pro-active enough.

All laboratories are NOT run by grad students. I can see that happening to the pre-req stuff but other courses such as the biochemistry lab (MCB120L), microbiology lab (MIC102L) are run by professors. Even large classes such as systemic physiology, the professors are very open, and try to learn your name. I recall our biochem teacher encouraged us to come in. Coming in often can be applied to bumping your grade up if you are borderline...or so he said. That class was out of 150 people or so.

The professors make no distinction between Open Campus Student vs. regularly enrolled, other than where they send their grades to. Therefore to get a letter rec is up to how much you are willing to go to office hours, and so on. I do agree that it is easier to get one if the class was like 10 people. But there are ways just as good LORs in classes that are huge.

Anyway, other that, I agree with everything else. 🙂

 

[NRAI2001]

I was thinking about doing a post bacc next year at Davis (a few friends and cousins go to Davis) but it sounds like it will be a huge hassel trying to do that.

How difficult is it to get into the upperdivision courses? I have taken all my lower div except for physics II. 😕

 

[relentless11]

I was thinking about doing a post bacc next year at Davis (a few friends and cousins go to Davis) but it sounds like it will be a huge hassel trying to do that.

How difficult is it to get into the upperdivision courses? I have taken all my lower div except for physics II. 😕

I didn't have any problems getting all the upper div courses I wanted to take. Including engineering courses. Like I said, I had to run to the college of engineering to beg for their signature, it worked out. Other classes were easy. They signed it the first day of class. The longest I had to wait was about 2 weeks to get into the class, which is up to par with being on the waitlist. The only bad thing that ever happened was this one class where they had online quizzes. Like I said above, you need to be registered. So during that 2nd week of class, I wasn't registered yet, and the quiz can only be done at a certain time in the day. So I had to go hunt down the professor that morning. The prof gladly gave me a written quiz, but man that was a pain..lol. That was also the quarter where I realized this was too much of a hassle, so I applied to grad school. But it didn't get really annoying for me until I was 1.5 years into it. I also worked for UCD so I got an employee discount for open campus. But yea....its what you make of it I guess.

 

[NRAI2001]

I didn't have any problems getting all the upper div courses I wanted to take. Including engineering courses. Like I said, I had to run to the college of engineering to beg for their signature, it worked out. Other classes were easy. They signed it the first day of class. The longest I had to wait was about 2 weeks to get into the class, which is up to par with being on the waitlist. The only bad thing that ever happened was this one class where they had online quizzes. Like I said above, you need to be registered. So during that 2nd week of class, I wasn't registered yet, and the quiz can only be done at a certain time in the day. So I had to go hunt down the professor that morning. The prof gladly gave me a written quiz, but man that was a pain..lol. That was also the quarter where I realized this was too much of a hassle, so I applied to grad school. But it didn't get really annoying for me until I was 1.5 years into it. I also worked for UCD so I got an employee discount for open campus. But yea....its what you make of it I guess.

HOw did you like your time at UCD? Fun place to be?

 

[relentless11]

In my opinion, this is the ideal school for me since its more laid back than UCLA or UCB , less distractions, great opportunities, great faculty, and its a wonderful college town! Hehe.

I mean really, if you're a party person, you might find UCD as bland. The med research here is great, but in comparison to UCLA and UCSF, those schools are more research friendly. I don't think that'll will effect you as a post-bacc or undergrad though. Its more of a grad student and PI thing. There are PLENTY of opportunities for students to do research, they just have to look for it.

If you are here to focus on going to school, and getting into med school, you have found the right place. Housing is good, city is safe, food is good (although not as diverse as SF), near snow (if you snowboard/ski), relatively close to SF, and sufficient resources to live (usual stores etc). I knew a guy who came from Cal, and did the post-bacc program here a few years back. He also TA'ed the human gross anatomy lab for undergrads (taught by med school faculty). So that is an option for you too. So yea, PM me if you have any questions. Hope that helps!

🙂