Hello Everyone.
Well, I’ve decided that I made the wrong decision when I was 18 and picking a major :-). For a plethora of reasons I won’t bore you with I’m very interested in considering becoming an MD. However, I was a business undergrad and had very little science (AP Bio in hs and a ZOO class and Physics class in college). So, my concern is getting the pre-reqs for Med school out of the way. The question I have for all of you is how bad is taking night/weekend classes at something like a community college? Will that hurt my chances of getting into a good school - or even be accepted? If at all possible, I would prefer to keep my job (i.e. paycheck) until I start Med School, so I really would prefer to not have to take a full time post bacc pre-med program. Do any of you have any suggestions or experiences you could share on being in a similar position?
Also, I live in San Francisco, so if any of you know of any good pre-med programs out here where I can get my basic science requirements out of the way, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks in advance for your advice, and I’m very excited to see that this website exists.
regards,
-myway
Some 4-year universities do offer evening classes that you can take on a part-time basis, so be sure to look there first. Mine doesn’t, but fortunately I work on campus for a very accommodating director. I take one or two classes at a time and am poking along. Next year I’ll be ready to apply.
Don’t forget to start volunteering in a clinical setting (hospice, nursing home, free clinic, hospital) as soon as you can to make sure you want this and demonstrate your commitment–and to remind you why you’re putting yourself through this.
And welcome aboard!
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Hello Everyone.
Well, I’ve decided that I made the wrong decision when I was 18 and picking a major :-). For a plethora of reasons I won’t bore you with I’m very interested in considering becoming an MD. However, I was a business undergrad and had very little science (AP Bio in hs and a ZOO class and Physics class in college). So, my concern is getting the pre-reqs for Med school out of the way. The question I have for all of you is how bad is taking night/weekend classes at something like a community college? Will that hurt my chances of getting into a good school - or even be accepted? If at all possible, I would prefer to keep my job (i.e. paycheck) until I start Med School, so I really would prefer to not have to take a full time post bacc pre-med program. Do any of you have any suggestions or experiences you could share on being in a similar position?
Also, I live in San Francisco, so if any of you know of any good pre-med programs out here where I can get my basic science requirements out of the way, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks in advance for your advice, and I’m very excited to see that this website exists.
regards,
-myway
Hi there,
You are just in time to join us at our OPM convention in Denver in June. For practically the cost of air, you can soak up tons of great information and goodwill. You will participate in admissions exercises, hear great info on making your application competitive, and meet some of the greatest and most supportive folks on this planet.
See the threads about this year’s convention and come and enjoy!
If you don’t make it, keep posting and let us know how you are doing too!! Welcome!
Natalie
Hi MyWay…Welcome to OPM! I myself am just getting started…you have more prerequisites than me, which means I have zero. I’ve decided to quit my job and do the post-bacc full-time…love to have the paycheck, but the job drains me emotionally and sometimes intellectually…it just wouldn’t be possible. In any event, I feel like most people here in OPM and many non-traditional premeds have families, etc., so they don’t have the luxury of doing post-baccs full-time. A lot of time, non-traditional premeds have to take classes par-time while working PT/FT and being a parent/spouse full-time.
There is definitely a controversy regarding whether taking the prerequisites at a CC will give your GPA less weight. The truth is that I don’t know where I weigh in on all this…You might consider asking our own, Judy Colwell, who will be at the OPM convention this year…she worked in med school admissions and she might be able to tell you how much of this is fact or fiction. Honestly, I don’t think that a 4.0GPA from a CC is going to be viewed as chop suey, but 3.5 from a CC might not weigh as heavily as a 3.5 from John Hopkins undergrad, but those are extreme examples. Just to be on the safe side, I agree with samenewme and would look into taking classes at your local state/public university…I know mine offers a lot of night classes.
Let me know how it progresses…where both at the starting line. Good luck!
Welcome! Are you a Niner fan?
As an education major (Spanish, no less), I was in the same situation as you. I had NONE of the med school pre-reqs. I am currently taking them at the local branch of a 4 year college. Unfortunately, the courses aren’t offered at night, meaning I had to quit my job, but it would have been very difficult to teach (let alone teach well) and devote enough time to the science pre-reqs to do well.
As to the CC question . . . when I talked with a Dean of Admissions at a local medical school, his comment was that pre-reqs should be taken at a four year school and NOT at a CC. Many times, these classes won’t transfer to a 4 year university as the courses you need.
Good luck!
Amy
Have you looked at City College? That is if you want to stay local. Cal State Hayward has a post-bac. They have some night courses. Look at the Posts here labeld UC Concurrent Enrollment. Last but certainly not least is De Anza College in Cupertino. Still ranked one of the best CC’s in the nation. Good science courses. Good everything.
Thanks Amy,
How does the timing of a post-bacc work? How long is it, and does it dovetail with Med school? I’m guessing one shouldn’t take the MCAT until they’ve completed most of their prereqs, right? I thought I saw somewhere that people should take the MCAT 15 mos. before they plan on starting med school - is that right? If that’s the case, doesn’t that put a big fat year of downtime in between finishing the post-bacc and starting med school?
thanks,
-paul.
Thanks Calvin,
More of a Giants fan, but definately will cheer them along if I catch a game. Hmmm - this whole going back to school thing is definately going to hurt my Giant season ticket thing… maybe I should rethink this 
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…I thought I saw somewhere that people should take the MCAT 15 mos. before they plan on starting med school - is that right? If that’s the case, doesn’t that put a big fat year of downtime in between finishing the post-bacc and starting med school?
Yep. It’s called “the glide year.” You could take some pre-reqs while you apply; and you could take the MCAT in August instead of April; but, give or take that difference, it takes a year to apply. (First apps go in early June; final decisions aside from waitlists in May 15 of the following year.) Which isn’t to say that this year is a dead year; just that whatever you do during that year, you do it while you’re in the midst of the application process.
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…I thought I saw somewhere that people should take the MCAT 15 mos. before they plan on starting med school - is that right? If that’s the case, doesn’t that put a big fat year of downtime in between finishing the post-bacc and starting med school?
Hi Paul, It is known as “the glide year.” You could take some pre-reqs while you apply; and you could take the MCAT in August instead of April; but, give or take that difference, it takes a year to apply. (First apps go in early June; final decisions aside from waitlists in May 15 of the following year.) Which isn’t to say that this year is a dead year; just that whatever you do during that year, you do it while you’re in the midst of the application process.
A lot of people also take the MCAT while in the final month of their last semester of classes. As Joe mentioned, you could give yourself more time and take the MCAT in August. I think the reasons to take the MCAT in April v. August apply to post-baccs. Finally, some of the formal post-bacc programs have linkages, which allow to skip the glide year entirely (and in some cases, the MCAT). There was a pretty recent thread dedicated to these post-baccs with linkages…do a search in either the Premed General Discussion Forum or the Old Premed General Discussion. For those that apply regular admission, they often work/volunteer picking up more clinical experience during that glide year and many times they also take some helpful , but nonrequired classes like calculus, biochemistry, etc.