UPenn Postbac vs. Drexel IMS

[camshaft]

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Hey guys,
First of all I did search, but unfortunately there isn't the same amount of info on the forum for pre-dents as there is for pre-med. I guess I'll start the cliff notes story - don't you love reading these at the beginning of so many threads? I just graduated from UPenn undergrad in may. I started out my first two years as an astrophysics major. I trudged through it not liking it at all and also performing poorly (sub 3 gpa), as it was difficult to be motivated and on top of that I had never known before in my life what hard work really was. I decided Junior year to switch towards the health direction as it was what I originally wanted to do for years before deciding I was interested in physics in highschool. So I became a bio major with a neuroscience concentration and managed just above a 3.1 for the junior and senior years. Because of my first two years as a physics major though my overall gpa is pulled down to a 2.8.

As a Penn alum now I can take as many ugrad classes as I want, so I'm doing an informal post bac now of full time evening classes, all science. Previously I had wanted to go to medical school, and had planned on doing the Penn classes for the 2 semesters this school year plus one class over the summer. Then I'd study for and take the mcat next year and apply to Drexel's IMS program. Now I'm leaning much more towards dental with the desire to then move to omfs (yes, I know it's quite a switch, but that's a different topic). I'm shooting for finishing the year of postbac classes with at least a 3.5 gpa.

Now the dilemma:
I can still go to drexel's IMS program as a pre-dental student. They told me they'll accept a dat score for admission to the program in place of an mcat score. What I haven't decided is whether I should do the one year of postbac classes at Penn, then take the dat next year and apply to drexel's IMS program, or whether I should just take classes at Penn for two years before taking the dat and applying to dental school. Obviously I'll find the time to discuss it with advisors and the appropriate people, but I'm still interested to hear your opinions as you seem like a pretty knowledgeable group and I pay attention to the info you guys post 😀
On one hand Penn is a pretty prestigious school, and as an alum I have access to the classes. But at the same time in 2 years I may be exhausting the available evening science classes available. Drexel's IMS program simulates the first year of med school, so that too would appear to be pretty rigorous.

Btw, my permanent home is a 40 min drive from penn and drexel which is why I was leaning towards the Penn and IMS program.

Thanks for any help!

 

[GatorDDS]

my brother did the drexel IMS program and is now in his first year at med school, he is killing all of his courses (all a's and the top of his class) and told me that the tests at drexel were harder than the ones he is taking now as a first year med student. That may be due to the fact that all the material is old for him etc but from my view it seemed like a solid program.