So here’s my conundrum…
I’m trying to decide whether I should spend a year going to a post-bacc program or just focus my attention on doing well on the MCAT.
My “credentials” are as follows:
UGPA: 2.94 (science) 3.11 (overall) – biology and classics double major
Grad GPA: 3.7 – PhD immunology (Emory Univ/Dr. Rafi Ahmed)
GRE: i forget the exact score… but i did ok – verbal: ~650; quant: ~750
MCAT: i have not taken it yet
** two first author papers in respectable journal and 3 non-first author papers **
thanks for any advice/suggestions
well I’m confused? you did a PHD in a science and did well at 3.7 so what is the post bac for?
found this post by you:
- Quote:
'm a 29 year old PhD student in Immunology looking to graduate in the next couple months. I'm heavily contemplating going to med school afterwards, but leaning towards taking a year of Post-Bacc to raise my undergrad science GPA and also to refresh myself before I take on the MCAT.
I was wondering what your experiences were like with the Post-Bacc program... meaning were you able to work at all. I guess my primary concern is having no income to live off of if I just take classes alone. I know Drexel has an evening post-bacc program that is a year and a half or so... so I was thinking work during the day, classes at night, and study instead of sleep???
I also noticed that many post-bacc programs are "linked" to many near by med schools... meaning if you do well... you get accepted assuming you have a certain MCAT score. Anyone have any experience with this?
I was wondering what your experiences were like with the Post-Bacc program... meaning were you able to work at all. I guess my primary concern is having no income to live off of if I just take classes alone. I know Drexel has an evening post-bacc program that is a year and a half or so... so I was thinking work during the day, classes at night, and study instead of sleep???
I also noticed that many post-bacc programs are "linked" to many near by med schools... meaning if you do well... you get accepted assuming you have a certain MCAT score. Anyone have any experience with this?
I'm not sure this is a good idea, some schools, from what I understand, will look down on redoing the science.
If I was in your place I would study for the MCAT and take it now. Then if the score is good (30 or better) apply to medical schools then, both MD and DO schools. WIth those stats and a decent MCAT I think you have a shot.
Well… that’s why I asked.
The primary reason for my wanting to do a post-bacc would be to help “increase” my undergrad science GPA.
Re-taking the pre-reqs is something that did cross my mind, but I’m more leaning towards doing a post-bacc with the likes of Drexel MSP or UPenn special sciences. I believe these courses are post-bacc programs geared towards those that have done their pre-reqs, but wanted to increase their GPA.
My thought is that you should really talk to a few medical school admissions offices and get their opinions. There are a whole host of issues that medical schools might want to see you address. Having a PhD in a science makes your case a little different. For some medical schools, that, coupled with an excellent MCAT, may be enough. For other schools, the age of your pre-reqs, coupled with the original ugrad GPA might be an issue.
I have a feeling that a lot of them, without seeing an excellent MCAT, may tell you initially that they want to see some recent science courses (despite the PhD) because of the age of the pre-reqs and the GPA. There was a guy on here a while ago who had pre-reqs that were several years old, who rocked the MCAT (40+, I think) - med schools initially told him he needed to retake the pre-reqs and/or some upper levels until they heard that. I think his original GPA in those was pretty good, though.
See if you can get some feedback from med schools. Better to get a feel for what they want before you waste a year studying for the MCAT and then another year applying only to find out that they really would have liked to see some more science coursework. I don’t think that there are many people on here who have done a formal post-bacc program. There is an entire forum dedicated to post-bacc programs on SDN that you may want to check out. Keep in mind that a formal program is usually NOT necessary - each individual has to do the cost/benefit analysis for their own circumstances.
Good luck!
Yes I agree with Emergency on this. I think you have done really well in the PHD and that helps your case a lot.
You may not need the Post bac in the end.