Should I take recent courses?

I have been out of my undergrad for 4 years and I am hoping to apply for Medical School in 2004. I have all the necessary requirements, but have been advised that I should have some recent course work before I apply. My hope is to be able to take some courses over the next year and then apply in the Spring. I am looking for suggestions on what I should take and what route would be best. I don't necessarily want to get a higher degree, so I was hoping to just take some classes at a local college. I have learned that just taking classes without working toward some degree is difficult. I have found that many schools limit the classes you can take and what you can take. Are there any 1 year degrees that I should pursue, should I continue to try to just take some courses, do you think recent course work is that necessary. It is a weird place to be, I don't need to start over, but just need to take some classes, its not as easy as I thought it might be. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Blessings…

I’d probably take the recent classes then. See what the local school’s rule on non-degree seeking students is, but if you have to, sign up as a degree-seeker and just don’t complete the work for the degree. From what I understand a lot of the post-baccs do this so that they can qualify for financial aid and it’s not “frowned upon”. As far as one-year degrees they don’t exist…the shortest degree is the associates and those are 2 year programs but don’t have any upper division courses (and aren’t usually available at 4 year schools anyway). As far as recent coursework being necessary? It depends on how good your scores were to start with and how long ago your prereqs were done. If you took those your freshman and sophmore years it has been quite awhile since you took the classes you’ll need for the mcat so it would be a good review to take something similar but maybe more advanced. I think the other reason it’s good to take classes nearer an app cycle is that sometimes things do change in classes. It’s likely that some of the upper division type science classes (like genetics/molecular bio) have had many advances since you may have taken them (if you’ve taken them at all) so taking recent courses will help fill in any gaps.
Good luck!
–Jessica, UCCS