Greetings,
I think it’s true that more information is always better than less. That being said, I would be wary of things you see on SDN. There is a ton of “advice” given out on the forums there, and it is free, which should tell you something about its value. Was any data or evidence provided that indicates that somehow the program is of lesser value because the professors are adjunct faculty? If not, then you should disregard it (something you will find to be useful if you end up going to medical school as well). Also, if these are people who are going through the process right now, then they have absolutely zero idea how their applications are being evaluated; weight their advice accordingly. Personally, and in retrospect, I found almost none of the advice on SDN (that is not “general” advice that you can get from more reputable sources and/or just plain old common sense) when I was applying to be of value; again, YMMV.
Essentially the value of these courses is to prove that you are able to hack it in class after being out of school for a long time. The material itself, aside from being useful for prepare for the MCAT, is of virtually zero value in medical school itself. The only factor I know which can take away from where you do the prereqs is if it is in a community college environment. Since that’s not true at Extension, it’s not an issue.
What you may be thinking of is a linkage/postbac program à la Goucher, Bryn Mawr, Columbia, Harvard etc. These indeed are very competitive, very expensive, and you are basically just thrown into the same classes as the undergrads (which is why these universities run the programs as they are, in effect, a cash cow). They also offer the possibility of linkage, which UCLA Extension does not. Finally, these programs require you to be a full time student, whereas you can continue to work while you do Extension (difficult, as I mentioned above, but doable).
Also, you won’t be taking any upper division courses for your prereqs, so if I were you, I wouldn’t be concerned about that.
Again, let me know if you have any other questions. Just my $0.02 worth, if that.
OWH