NYC Post-Bacc at Fordham University VS Second Bachelor's at Manhattan College

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
#1

I am 27 years old. I got accepted by both schools. A pre-med Post-Bacc at Fordham University. A Second Bachelor B.S. in Biology at Manhattan College. Which one should I choose? The graduation time will be the same for both schools, will take about 2 and 2.5 years. I am a veteran so I have GI Bill, I do not worry about tuition. I have a low undergraduate GPA, in the 2s. I need to raise my GPA.

Fordham
Schedule: weekday evenings and weekends, because it wants to be convenient for people who have other jobs. Students will be of different ages, friendly for mature students.

Manhattan
Schedule: Full-time college, will take classes with recent high school grads, such as 17-22 range. I do not know how I will feel about sitting with people 10 years younger than me.

#2

Hey! I am a post-bacc student at Fordham, currently in my application cycle. Hopefully, I can shed some light to help in your decision-making.

To your points:
• Schedule: Most of the core science classes are on weekday evenings. The classes are 3 hours long instead of 1.5 hours on two separate days. Therefore, you need only one weekday per class (labs not included). This will give you the flexibility to do volunteering, shadowing, clinical work, etc., during the day/weekends to build up your application. Also, labs are the only weekend classes that I can think of.

• Age: I would say that most students in my class were undergrads. In a class of 20, there were probably 6-8 students who were older nontrads. I became friends with the older students and a mentor to some of the undergrads. My suggestion is to not worry about it much – focus on your grades and do the best you can. There are a bunch of veterans in the program, so you may find support through them. FYI - I was around the same age as some of my professors, and it didn’t bother me much.

• Other tidbits: At the end of the program, the prehealth committee will write you a letter of recommendation and help you to prepare your application ahead of time.

You might want to check out this podcast episode: Should I Get a Second Degree or Just Take More Classes?. The gist is that it doesn’t matter where you go, do well in your classes and the MCAT.

Overall, I had a generally positive experience with the program. Feel free to ask me specific questions you may have.

#3

Hello there,

By weekdays evening classes, when do the classes start? like does it start at 5pm, or 6pm, or 7pm. I am just worrying if it starts at 7pm, then does that mean we will finish the class at 10pm at night? It takes me an hour to get home from Fordham. Any day time classes?

#4

Evening classes typically start around 6pm (+/- 15 min) and end around 9 (+/- 15 min). The latest I stayed was maybe 9:30pm. I also had a long commute so I know where you’re coming from.

Day time classes are generally reserved for undergrads (i.e. they get priority over post-bacc students), but it is definitely possible to get into some of the classes. I took maybe 3-5 day courses.

#5

Thank you, helped a lot :grinning:. I just got a phone call today, they told me that I cannot use GI bill for Fordham’s Post-Bacc. I was disappointed. They suggested I study for a second bachelor’s, to apply for the B.S. in Natural Science undergrad.

#6

Sorry to hear that they didn’t accept the GI bill for the Post-bacc program and no worries. Glad to have helped. Good luck on your journey!