Advice on SF, CA Post-Bac Programs

After graduating from UCSC with a BA in lit I somehow wound up in public health, and love it. As of last year I’ve been aiming toward med-school, but made the mistake of taking a gamble, by only applying to the Mills Post-Bac program, and got waitlisted. They say it’s a “short” list, but it’s still a disappointment. So, now I have to hunker down again and look into other options: community college, SF State, etc. I have to admit that when it comes to navigating thru all these bureaucracies, especially in the face of a state budget mess with serious ramifications, I start to get dizzy. In short, any advice on doing pre-med course requirements in the Bay Area?
Thanks in advance,
Jake

As I think I mentioned to you in a post last year, I graduated from UCSC with a degree in anthropology, and got into public health in San Francisco; after which I went to SFSU. The situation has changed with budget cuts; the current options are summed up at


http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~postbac/


and the community of postbacs there seems to be very motivated to support each other. For that reason and others I still think SFSU is probably the best deal in the Bay Area for quality vs. price.





I liked my SFSU education a lot, although I was able to enroll as a second-bac student before the current situation–I don’t know how this will change things. As before, I recommend going and talking to Barry Rothman there and/or Cliff Berkman, the two advisors there who are both good. Probably start with Barry b/c he is usually more involved in formal advising. They can tell you the concrete aspects of how things are going to change or not change.





I had good options after my UCSC/SFSU combo. Feel free to email me offline at joseph_wright@student.hms.harvard.edu with more questions, with the usual caveat about my reply time, in this case b/c I have an exam on Friday and boards coming up soon.





Good luck!





cheers


joe

I graduated from UCSC with a degree in anthropology, and got sidetracked into public health in San Francisco; after which I went to SFSU. The situation has changed with budget cuts; the current options are summed up at
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~postbac/
and the community of postbacs there seems to be very motivated to support each other. For that reason and others I still think SFSU is the best deal in the Bay Area for quality vs. price.
I liked my SFSU education a lot, although I was able to enroll as a second-bac student before the current situation–I don’t know how this will change things. I recommend going and talking to Barry Rothman there and/or Cliff Berkman, the two advisors there who are both good. Probably start with Barry b/c he is usually more involved in formal advising. They can tell you the concrete aspects of how things are going to change or not change.
I had good options after my UCSC/SFSU combo. Feel free to email me offline at joseph_wright@student.hms.harvard.edu with more questions, although it may take me a while to reply as I have an exam on Friday and boards coming up soon.
Good luck!
cheers
joe

Joe,
I can always count on you for great advice, even if it’s been a while. Thanks! And best of luck on your upcoming exams. I’ll look into the open enrollment program at SFSU.
- Jake