I’m very close to graduating with a BS in Finance (just 2 classes after this semester). I’ve been out of school for the past few years and before I took my break I wasn’t doing to well, making about a 2.5 GPA with no science courses taken. Now I’m working hard and making A’s, trying to keep very close to a 4.0 for my remaining classes. I still need to take all of the prereqs for Med School.
My question is this, does it make a difference if I graduate with my Finance degree and then go back to take the undergrad premed prereq courses? I wish we had a post bacc program in the area but we don’t, and I’m unable to move to a school that does for family reasons.
Thanks!!!
Yes and no. There are pros and cons for doing your prereqs before graduating and after graduating. Right off the top of my head, I can come up with more reasons for doing them before graduating.
Reasons to do them before graduating:
- Scheduling. Depending on how scheduling works at your school, you could find yourself at a significant disadvantage in trying to schedule the pre-reqs after you've graduated.
- Financial Aid. It may be easier to get financial aid if you do them before you graduate. The financial aid rules change a little bit once you have a degree.
Reasons to do them after graduating:
- Separate GPA (maybe). If you take the pre-reqs before graduating, they will go under your original undergrad GPA. If you take them after graduating, there is a category for "post-bacc" courses and you will have an actual "post-bacc" GPA. Of course, this GPA is calculated with your undergrad GPA for an overall GPA. And, if you do them before graduating, they will most likely be on a separate line (i.e. 5th year) anyways. So, I'm not sure this makes a huge difference.
Don't sweat not having a formal post-bacc program to go to.