Post bac programs

[Anonymous]

Anyone’s kid do a post-bac program after college? How did it work out.
My dd is a rising senior at a top 25 school. Thought of doing premed but let it go after freshman year.
Now she is revisiting her career goals and wants to go to med school. She wants to apply to 2-year post-bac programs.
We can afford it. Any one have success with this route?

[Anonymous]

When my DS graduated from medical school, I had the opportunity to read the graduation program which included this information about the current class. Some students had a Masters in Public Health. Does your child have any or all of the required classes for medical school? If not, the challenge will be fit everything in while doing a masters. Then, the additional 2 years to an already long journey.

[Anonymous]

I know three people who've done this successfully:

HS classmate who did a Columbia postbac and is now a surgeon;

the son of a colleague of mine who did a postbac at TJ in Philadelphia and is now a medical resident (not sure about his specialty);

my son's college classmate who did a postbac at BU and is not in med school there.

[Anonymous]

The Columbia post-bac program is well regarded but probably not easy

[Anonymous]

I also know someone who did this in SF after graduating from a liberal arts school with a non-science degree. They went on to complete med-school and are a doctor at local community medical center in a small-ish town.

[Anonymous]

I think it is mostly wealthy students who do post bac programs. They tend to be expensive and not a great idea if you already have college loans

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone’s kid do a post-bac program after college? How did it work out.
My dd is a rising senior at a top 25 school. Thought of doing premed but let it go after freshman year.
Now she is revisiting her career goals and wants to go to med school. She wants to apply to 2-year post-bac programs.
We can afford it. Any one have success with this route?

Why did she give up the first time and why does she think she wants to do it now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Columbia post-bac program is well regarded but probably not easy

I did this program in the early 90s, but did not end up finishing at Columbia. You take the post bac classes with college students and they are the same “weed out” type courses that the undergrads take. They were very very hard….like in my physics class the average test score would be like a 30% and that would be a B. It was very expensive at the time and kind of isolating because you are taking courses with Freshman but you are a post grad!

I left due to the finances and ultimately I figured out I could take the same courses at my state flagship for a fraction of the costs and my alma mater ended up writing me the needed recommendations.

I would say that if your kid has any of the prerequisites already, it’s probably not worth it becuase you really just need 4-5 basic courses to apply to med school (Bio, Chem, Organic Chem, Physics and maybe biochemistry).

[Anonymous]

Earn a masters degree while also working as a research assistant for a chem or bio prof.

[Anonymous]

Bryn Mawr also has a well regarded post-bac program.

[Anonymous]

My brother was a philosophy major and did a post bac program and went on to be an ER doctor.

As a previous poster mentioned, the classes are still "weed out" classes. My brother had several (half dozen?) post bac friends who did not make it into medical school.

Agree with another previous poster: why did your daughter drop this interest the first time? If it was aptitude for science classes she likely won't find it any easier in a post bac program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Agree with another previous poster: why did your daughter drop this interest the first time? If it was aptitude for science classes she likely won't find it any easier in a post bac program.

I am the PP that started the Columbia post bac...I will say that I had more aptitude for science that I did just a few years earlier because I had learned college level study skills, etc. So I wouldn't rule it out if the initial reason she shifted focus was the intensity of the courses. And it was easier balancing one or two at a time without a social life I am just saying that Columbia may not be the ideal post bac program.

[Anonymous]

Is it a situation where she made good grades and needs to fulfill prerequisites? Or the goal is both to salvage a poor GPA and fulfill prerequisites?

Agree with above posters- if it’s the second situation they don’t really need a “post bacc” Program. They can just take the needed classes in sequence while working in a medicine-adjacent job. It’s not any more impressive to med schools to have the extra degree or certificate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it a situation where she made good grades and needs to fulfill prerequisites? Or the goal is both to salvage a poor GPA and fulfill prerequisites?

Agree with above posters- if it’s the second situation they don’t really need a “post bacc” Program. They can just take the needed classes in sequence while working in a medicine-adjacent job. It’s not any more impressive to med schools to have the extra degree or certificate.

PP- meant to say if grades were good probably doesn’t need a full post bacc program

[Anonymous]

My kid is doing a post graduation year at community college to take some pre-med requirements. We will see how his applications go, but even after finishing the requirements this year, he cannot apply until next year and will need to kill a year working.