what do you think of postbacs : CU

[mdforlife]

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what do you guys think of Columbia Un. Postbac premed program. I just got, so wanted to know your honest opinions.
How is the reputation? And what are the chances (if I do well) to get into top 20 med schools?
Some pros and cons, and hints?

Also, will schools look less interested in me b/c I'll have postbacc instead of going straight to premed after high school?

Btw, I just graduated from an average school with a Finance degree, have lots of ecs and great internships at major Investment banks and their best departments, great activities and honors. D you think this will make up for the fact that I went to Finance initially?

 

[juddson]

I looked seriously at this program as well. I was impressed with their website and the description of the program. Also, it has direct entry agreements with a bunch of schools, which saves you the "glide year", which is HUGE for a post-bacc. Also, I was impressed with the description of the board reccomendation process. My impression was that you had to do well AND impress them in order to get the board reccomendation. Given that it appeared to be so tightly controlled (if it is in fact), my impression was that it would carry some weight with medical schools. Certainly, it would carry some considerable weight with the schools they have a linkage program with.

Stop worrying about getting into a top 20. Let the kids worry about that.

Judd

 

[Supadupafly]

Doesn't CU have a linkage with Jefferson? To be assured acceptance to Jeff is incredible. It's truly a great school, so regardless of how the CU end is, you're on your track to an excellent medical education.

U.S. News generally places Jefferson in the 30's, but if you take out the really unpalatable schools and state schools that don't really take nonresidents, Jefferson is probably close to top 10-15.

 

[Ragzpie]

I did the CU program for a semester and was so dissatisfied I left to continue my post-bac classes at my state University.

The board recommendation is written by your advisors who are not very interested in the students. They just want the highest percentage of students to be accepted, so instead of trying to write stellar recommendations, they dissuade "lower qualified" students from applying. I met with one of the advisors when I was registering for classes. She was on the phone with her son (non-emergency sounding sitch) practically the entire time I was in her office.

Another thing that turned me off was that they don't let you take classes over the summer and thus the program takes two years. Almost all the other programs I looked at allow you to complete all the prereq work over one year. Hence, if you do linkage, you enter med school at same time other people who did other programs enter school.

Also, most of the post bac 2nd years didn't even consider doing the linkage program. They said that the workload of applying, studying for the MCAT, and taking orgo/bio was too much. Also, they didn't want to put in that much effort for a smaller selection of schools. They too were initially drawn to the program for the linkage opps.

On a side note, my state school offered premed advising and committee letters for post bacs.

I was an Econ/French major in undergrad and my grades were not great. I hadn't taken any science courses. I finished my post bac work at my state school, did well, have one acceptance and eight interviews.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.