Hello all! I’m here looking for some information and any advice that you may have to offer. I suppose a little background is in order. I graduated from Appalachian State University in May of 2003 with a degree in Applied Mathematics. My overall GPA was 3.21, with a comparable science GPA (don’t have the exact number right now). I am missing some key courses needed for medical school. Specifically, I have not had any college level biology or chemistry courses. I have been considering post-baccalaureate pre-medical programs. If anyone has any experience with these please share your thoughts. It will be about a year before I feel comfortable enough to quit my job and go back to school. Is there anything that is recommended to do to improve my chances of being successful in the interim? My work schedule is not the easiest to work with, but I’ve finally managed to make some arrangements that should enable me to volunteer at the hospital nearby. If anyone has any information about how financial aid would work in my situation, I would appreciate that as well. A big worry is that I’ve been trying to save money for a few years now, so any look into my finances at the time I’ll be applying would show substantial income in the previous year with significant money in a savings account (not nearly enough to pay for school flat out, but enough that I think it would disqualify me for aid). Thanks in advance!
Mike
Hi!
3.21 is not bad at all, if you have some undergrad science to still take then just sign up for it, AMCAS will count it in the undergrad GPA, so if you can ace these the GPA will go up and you get closer to the magic 3.4 GPA. You may not need a formal Post bac (they cost $$) the keys to to acceptance are:
GPA
MCAT
Shadowing
Pt. Contact exprience
Volunteering
With these and good LORs ( you can get these from the science you need to take along with the Docs you shadow)
IMHO you are in good shape here.
Is the formal post-baccalaureate route that much more expensive than just taking classes? I initially was just going to go back to school and make up the classes I would still need, but knowing a little more about myself now than I did five years ago, I think the additional structure would do me good. Also, the opportunities for shadowing and advising at many of the programs was appealing.
Yes the post Bac can cost a lot from what I see posted. A few here have done this so they can help you more, they have done both just make a plan to do the rest of undergrad and to do a Post Bac.
I think it probably depends on where you take your pre-reqs. If you are taking pre-reqs at a private school on your own, the cost probably isn’t that much different than the cost of a formal post-bacc program. If you were going to take your pre-reqs at a state school, then yes, a formal program could well cost considerably more.
Investigate the benefits offered by a formal program. Only you can determine if the benefits are worth the extra cost. Be aware that although many post-bacc programs tout their linkages with medical schools and their acceptance rates, there are strict requirements that you have to meet in order to be eligible for the guaranteed med school spots and that they usually manage to weed out those that they don’t think will get accepted prior to the application process so they don’t have to count them in their numbers. Admittance to many post-bacc programs is extremely competitive, as well, especially the programs with linkages. Many of us couldn’t have gone the formal route even if we wanted to, because of the GPA requirements for some of the programs.
Good luck with your decision.
- Emergency! Said:
Good luck with your decision.
How do the program GPA requirements fall
I thought one needed at least a 2.8 to get into most Post Bacs, but are there any for lower like the 2.3 to 2.5 range or are these people left to try to fight it out on their own without any easy route?
The post-bacc programs I looked at all required a GPA of 3.0 or higher. I’m sure there are some formal programs that don’t have formal GPA requirements, but the ones that advertise linkages or high acceptance rates usually do. I don’t think there’s any concise listing of GPA requirements anywhere - you would have to take a list of the post-bacc programs and check each one’s admissions requirements.
I know I haven’t found a list of program admission requirements for the post-baccs. Of the ones I’ve looked into, it seems highly variable. They run the gamut from no stated requirements (a call to the director said it’s basically open enrollment) to some very restrictive ones. Any idea what AdComms tend to think on this? I mean, assuming the same grades for the courses, does it look significantly better to have been in a program vice just taking the classes? I would think that regardless of a formal post-bacc program, the institution where the coursework was performed would have more weight.
I think getting accepted to a Post Bac designed to get you into Medical school is all that matters.
It never will hurt you to get into one and have a great GPA like a 3.5 to offset a poor undergrad, the reward coupled with a decent MCAT like 30 is that you get into a US medical school, it has been done.
The thing is time is the best thing on your side, it seems the more space from poor GPA’s the better it shows you are different and a really can do the Medical school work.