Post-bacalaureate programs

[Doc3k]

Hello,
I have a few questions regarding how medical schools feel about post-bacalaureate pre-med programs. I attended two public universities for my undergrad, the first a middle rung school that I left with about a 3.3 cumulative, the second the university of wisconsin-madison (which I loved) with a 3.7 and graduation with distinction. I have a definite upward trend in grades, including multiple 4.0’s to resurrect some early transgressions. My degree was Psych, but I have taken a lot of Bio, one chem, and one genetics. I flirted off and on with the idea that I would attend med school throughout college, and now, working with doctors and psychiatrists frequently with my job, I am sure that medical school is what I want. Q’s:

1) Is a post-bacaluareate the best route for me?
2) How kindly do medical schools view the Post-bac. experience?
3) Is there a large disparity in program qualtity and between the number of students that different post-bacs send to Med school (i.e. Bryn Mawr v. state U.)?

Thanks for your time and any answers would be a lot of help.

[yokelridesagain]

Given the information you’ve provided, it seems that you haven’t yet taken all of the pre-requisite undergraduate courses required for admisssion to medical school. (You need two semesters of intro chemistry with lab and two semesters of organic with lab, for instance). Enrolling in a formal post-baccalaureate program wouldn’t change those requirements–in fact, many of the programs specifically designed for med school hopefuls require that you’ve completed all necessary pre-requisites.

Your undergraduate overall and science GPA isn’t clear from your post. How competitive you are depends to some extent on whether those numbers are closer to 3.3 or 3.7–although a clear pattern of improvement does help.

Step one is to complete all of the medical school pre-reqs, then take the MCAT. If you have a 3.5 overall and science GPA and a 30+ MCAT, you may be able to get in without investing the time and money in a formal post-bacc program.

These programs are, in my opinion, most beneficial for students with mediocre undergraduate grades and good MCAT scores. The most impressive programs are those that enroll you in medical school courses and have you compete against medical students for grades, i.e. Georgetown.

Physician-resident

[Author]

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