Morning or Afternoon everyone!
I am currently taking classes as a student at large at Northwestern. I am quitting my job in the summer so that I can focus on school full time 
(some of you may recall this last quarter was quite nasty with a W in one class an a D in the other, so thinking this is the best bet.)
The problem is my fiancee will be covering EVERYTHING and I am considering taking my classes somewhere less expensive. I was thinking perhaps UIC?
Any thoughts on how this will look? The cost is just too much without me working too and working full time was just wow…not a good idea for me.
Has anyone received/ heard an opinion on this?
Also slightly related…has anyone actually sat down with an admissions counselor from a medical school rather than the post bacc or undergrad program?
Just curious what you were told and if they gave you sort of a plan on what you need to do to get in. I was thinking of trying to schedule something.
Hi Seth80
It’s funny that you ask these ??s because I actually sat down with an admissions counselor at UIC ; )
This was a few years ago mind you but he advised me not to try and be a student at large at UIC because it would be hard for me to get into the classes I needed. (i believe that there is someone on this site or someone who knows someone who did just that though with no problems)
At the time he sort of encouraged me to try one of the CCC’s (and I did for a semester) but since general consensus seems to be that it is safer to do classes at 4year schools I switched to the Loyola post bacc program.
I feel like there are a lot of options in our area however if $$ is the big issue (when isn’t it?) I personally thought the classes at Truman were good, maybe you could try a semester there and then take some upper level classes at another school?? (NW, Loyola, UIC ect:)
I know that UIC at least will accept CC credits…
And finally I also met with the dean of the medical school at UIC and he told me that to get in I should have a “good GPA (3.7 or so) and to try to get a 31 on my MCAT”
Which is pretty darn basic… Looking back I think what this means is that your stats are what they see initially but there are many roads to getting in and many types of experiences and that make people good applicants so beyond saying “do well” it is hard to draw a road map.
I have seen time and time again on this site and many others that those numbers are surely important but are not the beginning and end of an acceptance letter.
(at least that is what i am telling myself as I spend this last week before my, hopefully, last semester trying to relearn Phys, Bio and Chem 1 for the MCAT…yuck)
I hope that helped a bit, sorry if I ran a bit long!!
M