1. Fall Semester I took Biochemistry 503 (5 credit - Mandatory), Physiology 501 (5 credit - Mandatory), Embrology (2 Credit - Elective, 2 week course), Intro to Human Anatomy (2 credit Elective, starts after Embrology ends). Fall semester schedule was pretty much recommended to everyone and was essentially "mandatory." I thought the electives were fair in difficulty, but it's hard to compare a 2 credit to a 5 credit class. I really liked that Embryo finished before Human Anatomy started so we were only dealing with 3 classes/12 credits at a time. In previous years they took Histology instead of the two 2 credit electives.
Spring Semester I am taking Biochemistry 504 (5 credit - Mandatory), Histology (5 credit - "Highly recommended" by VCU Adcom), Shadowing Elective (1 credit - nongraded), and Neuroanatomy (2 credit - Elective). Spring semester has just started but I've heard from previous CERT students of past years that Spring semester is supposed to be a little more lax so you can get things like volunteering hours/shadowing hours/research. I would say most electives are relatively the same in difficulty - although I have heard from others that Cardiac Health and Function is supposed to be difficult but my friends currently in the class say it's not as bad as people make it out to be. But that could depend on how well you understood the Cardio unit in Physiology 501/how interested you are in Cardio
2. I knew a lot of VCU SOM medicine students coming into the program so I wouldn't have an accurate answer for you. On a day to day basis, you aren't really encountering a lot of VCU SOM Students unless you go out of your way to talk to them. So far while shadowing in Spring semester, I have encountered many M3s and I strike up conversations with them about their rotations and the surgery at hand.
As for faculty, many of the professors who teach our CERT classes are professors for VCU SOM Students. I don't know which exact ones but there are definitely some overlaps.
I mean I wouldn't say you can try to network your way into Medical School but there's a definitely some opportunities to talk to VCU SOM ADCOM (Dr. Baker is a Biochem professor and Dr. Whitehurst-Cook speaks with the CERT class at least twice about VCU's Medical School/CERT related info). The Med School has interest clubs but I don't know many people in CERT who are involved with them.
3. We have two program administrators that are pretty involved with us and their door is pretty much always open for you to talk to them about CERT or anything really. They aren't necessarily trained in career advising but they tend to be the previous year's CERT students who are currently applying to medical school. I think the MCV campus also has career advising available but I haven't gone to them. We also get a recommendation letter from Dr. Silberg who sits with us and talks to us about our motivation to pursue medicine and I've heard her sitdown with you helps in writing your personal statement. Dr. Collelo is our program director and he's a pretty great guy - I haven't really gone to him to talk about advising but I'm sure he could help in some capacity if you needed more resources.
4. This is more personal I would say, but prior to starting the program all the biochemistry I knew came from studying for the MCAT. I had never taken biochemistry in undergrad so I took the undergrad version at VCU over the summer since I was already in town by then.
Also there's not much time to do a lot of things outside of CERT so maybe focus on the non-academic part of your MD application over the summer. Volunteer, Scribe, Shadow, Research, whatever you feel like is missing in your application.
I also suggest just relaxing a bit. It's really easy to get burned out studying while in CERT so come into it with a fresh mind and be prepared to work.
5. I chose between VCU and Georgetown. A couple of factors definitely played into it.
a. Financial - VCU's tuition (28,000) is much cheaper than Georgetown's (50,000) as I am a Virginia Resident. Coupled with rent/living situations. My friend attends the Georgetown program and he pays ~$1000/month (without utilities) to live with 6 others whereas I pay less than $800/month (with utilities) to live with one other person in an apartment close to classes. I wanted to save some money at the post-bacc level so I'd have more financial flexibility when choosing a Med School.
b. Academic - I graduated with a poor GPA (~3) and I believed that the curriculum of the two definitely were comparable. Hard enough to prove I've fixed my mistakes yet manageable enough to do well if you put in the work/time. At VCU you are not taking classes with medical school students like at Georgetown. There are pros and cons to that. A pro being that your grade isn't based on a curve that the Med School Students can affect. A con is that I've heard many schools like a postbacc to be on the curve with MS students. But the faculty that teaches our classes are the same medical school faculty so it's not like we are getting easier classes/tests. (Note: VCU's classes are not based on a curve, so it truly shows if you do well how much work you put in to get the grade)
c. Reputation - From my understanding, Georgetown is more reputable than VCU in terms of the Post-Bacc (information from scouring the threads on here) but I still believe that according to Dr. Midlife VCU is one of the more reputable post-baccs/SMP in the country due to its longstanding nature. So I believed that despite choosing a program that wasn't the most reputable, VCU has done a good job pushing candidates into its own Medical School and others. After being in Richmond for a while, every Med School student I have talked to knows about the program and knows a few people who are in the VCU Med School because of it.
d. Guarantee - VCU guarantees you an interview if you perform in the program (>505 MCAT and >3.5 CERT GPA) so I knew that if I put in work I am guaranteed something tangible whereas there were no written guarantees in the other programs I was considering.
e. Personal - I have many friends at VCU, as well as my girlfriend, and I have been to Richmond many times. The transition into Richmond was easy due to this and it also prevented me from having to deal with a long distance relationship so I could focus on school.
6. I think one of the biggest things that was lacking my application was grades. I think performing well in CERT definitely will show MD schools that I can handle the rigor of Med School. I also think I could have used more shadowing and volunteering and I was able to get involved in those pretty easily here. I can't really compare it to another program but I've enjoyed my time in CERT/in Richmond. I think there are a lot of opportunities here that I was able to take advantage of and really can't say a bad thing about this program. It's hard, but not unfair. Definitely feasible to succeed, but you have to commit this year to school and no distractions. I know it's easier said than done but I know many people who got 4.0s so it's not impossible.
