Alternate way to get into med school AMA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this is an option, but there is a cost. Time and money. A post bacc takes at least an additional 2 years of education. That’s 2 additional years of tuition and living expenses. Probably around $100K. Also wondering if the OP got ALL their medical school required classes while in post grad education. Some medical schools want pre reqs within a certain period of time. A 6 year old biochemistry class might not be accepted.

Yes, but you have to spend that time anyway in most cases. Most med students don’t go to med school right out of college these days. The average age of first year med students is 24. Med schools. Want to see something besides pre-med, with high gpa and and MCATs. A member of my family sits on the admissions committee of a top 5 med school and says that admissions is holistic. These other things matter, so her kid is spending a year after college doing something else before applying to med school. The PP is right on the money.

Right, but there is also MONEY. Post bac programs generally cost $30-40k and you cannot take out federal loans or get fin aid for them. So you'd either have to get private loans ( ) or have loaded enough parents who can cough that money up. That's not realistic for many (most?) students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a $150K option, OP.
$75K for the post-bac tuition plus the loss of income for that year (which I'm probably conservatively saying is $75K).

It's great if you have a benefactor: parents or spouse.

The two people I know in real-life who did a post-bac program were married to practicing physicians whose salaries paid for it. My friend's husband is an ER doctor. She did a post-bac and is now in a family practice residency.
My dermatologist's wife also completed a post-bac program.

I agree that this option *may* be pricey- it is a major flaw in this path. It depends how you do it. If you kids lives with you and goes to a local state school and works it won't be too bad. If you do the Bryn Mawr program, which has an 100% acceptance rate- then yes it is pricey. I've noticed in general most people in medical school have money and parents are willing to shell out big bucks to get them in. I had a spouse who worked and my mom helped pay for books and some of the tuition. Hopefully, I can repay her back in the future.

Again this path is really best suited for a good humanities leaning student who has done well in high school in the sciences but struggles a bit with the traditional pre-med weed out classes and just needs to take college as a time to grow and do well (develop their writing and communication skills). They then can focus on the science courses after college and do well. I don't think it will necessarily work for everyone- just wanted to put this option out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this is an option, but there is a cost. Time and money. A post bacc takes at least an additional 2 years of education. That’s 2 additional years of tuition and living expenses. Probably around $100K. Also wondering if the OP got ALL their medical school required classes while in post grad education. Some medical schools want pre reqs within a certain period of time. A 6 year old biochemistry class might not be accepted.

Yes, but you have to spend that time anyway in most cases. Most med students don’t go to med school right out of college these days. The average age of first year med students is 24. Med schools. Want to see something besides pre-med, with high gpa and and MCATs. A member of my family sits on the admissions committee of a top 5 med school and says that admissions is holistic. These other things matter, so her kid is spending a year after college doing something else before applying to med school. The PP is right on the money.

Right, but there is also MONEY. Post bac programs generally cost $30-40k and you cannot take out federal loans or get fin aid for them. So you'd either have to get private loans ( ) or have loaded enough parents who can cough that money up. That's not realistic for many (most?) students.

OP again just wanted to point out I was able to get some federal aid for the post-bacc. I owe about 12,000. Good news is that many job offers for physicians have loan repayment baked in so hopefully it won't be too bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a $150K option, OP.
$75K for the post-bac tuition plus the loss of income for that year (which I'm probably conservatively saying is $75K).

It's great if you have a benefactor: parents or spouse.

The two people I know in real-life who did a post-bac program were married to practicing physicians whose salaries paid for it. My friend's husband is an ER doctor. She did a post-bac and is now in a family practice residency.
My dermatologist's wife also completed a post-bac program.

What? Very few people with just a biology degree are making $75k straight out of undergrad. Most kids are making $55k at most at that age. Maybe different for HYP.

[Anonymous]

I know several folks who did MD/PhD programs with the PhD in a social science. The ones I know did health policy or economics. Duke, Yale, Emory, UCLA, Harvard, and Chicago all have them. They are fully funded (tuition and stipend) and have great entree into the upper reaches of government, philanthropy and think-tanks in addition to academia and pharma. If memory serves me, they did 2 years of med school, a year for their PhD coursework, the last 2 years of med school, then any leftover grad classes and their dissertation, and most do a residency. If your goals are beyond just practicing medicine, it's a great route for maximum social impact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know several folks who did MD/PhD programs with the PhD in a social science. The ones I know did health policy or economics. Duke, Yale, Emory, UCLA, Harvard, and Chicago all have them. They are fully funded (tuition and stipend) and have great entree into the upper reaches of government, philanthropy and think-tanks in addition to academia and pharma. If memory serves me, they did 2 years of med school, a year for their PhD coursework, the last 2 years of med school, then any leftover grad classes and their dissertation, and most do a residency. If your goals are beyond just practicing medicine, it's a great route for maximum social impact.

uh, ok. what does that have anything to do with the topic of this thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a $150K option, OP.
$75K for the post-bac tuition plus the loss of income for that year (which I'm probably conservatively saying is $75K).

It's great if you have a benefactor: parents or spouse.

The two people I know in real-life who did a post-bac program were married to practicing physicians whose salaries paid for it. My friend's husband is an ER doctor. She did a post-bac and is now in a family practice residency.
My dermatologist's wife also completed a post-bac program.

What? Very few people with just a biology degree are making $75k straight out of undergrad. Most kids are making $55k at most at that age. Maybe different for HYP.

hahaha. No. more like $40k. if they're lucky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know several folks who did MD/PhD programs with the PhD in a social science. The ones I know did health policy or economics. Duke, Yale, Emory, UCLA, Harvard, and Chicago all have them. They are fully funded (tuition and stipend) and have great entree into the upper reaches of government, philanthropy and think-tanks in addition to academia and pharma. If memory serves me, they did 2 years of med school, a year for their PhD coursework, the last 2 years of med school, then any leftover grad classes and their dissertation, and most do a residency. If your goals are beyond just practicing medicine, it's a great route for maximum social impact.

OP here- this reminds me of a classmate from college who was a public policy major (crazy high GPA and super smart) and then did the post-bacc later to get her science classes. She's now doing an MD-Phd in Religious studies. The new thing for med school is to have people who are humanities/ policy/ health equity oriented, especially in this current climate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know several folks who did MD/PhD programs with the PhD in a social science. The ones I know did health policy or economics. Duke, Yale, Emory, UCLA, Harvard, and Chicago all have them. They are fully funded (tuition and stipend) and have great entree into the upper reaches of government, philanthropy and think-tanks in addition to academia and pharma. If memory serves me, they did 2 years of med school, a year for their PhD coursework, the last 2 years of med school, then any leftover grad classes and their dissertation, and most do a residency. If your goals are beyond just practicing medicine, it's a great route for maximum social impact.

uh, ok. what does that have anything to do with the topic of this thread?

It is an alternate route. Med school is very expensive and there is no financial aid, so most young doctors come out of school deeply in debt. MD/PhD programs are often free (subsidized) and just as often pay a stipend. It’s the best way to come out debt free. But it does take 4 extra years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a $150K option, OP.
$75K for the post-bac tuition plus the loss of income for that year (which I'm probably conservatively saying is $75K).

It's great if you have a benefactor: parents or spouse.

The two people I know in real-life who did a post-bac program were married to practicing physicians whose salaries paid for it. My friend's husband is an ER doctor. She did a post-bac and is now in a family practice residency.
My dermatologist's wife also completed a post-bac program.

What? Very few people with just a biology degree are making $75k straight out of undergrad. Most kids are making $55k at most at that age. Maybe different for HYP.

hahaha. No. more like $40k. if they're lucky.

Hence the phrase “at most.”

[Anonymous]

Be wary of 100% acceptance rate to medical schools. Some colleges choose which students they will support through the medical school application process. If this advisory board doesn’t believe you have the qualifications for acceptance, they won’t allow you to participate in the recommendation process from their school. This is how schools skew their numbers.

[Anonymous]

A post bacc = post baccalaureate degree = masters degree +

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A post bacc = post baccalaureate degree = masters degree +

Post bacc courses are undergrad courses so it is not a masters degree

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be wary of 100% acceptance rate to medical schools. Some colleges choose which students they will support through the medical school application process. If this advisory board doesn’t believe you have the qualifications for acceptance, they won’t allow you to participate in the recommendation process from their school. This is how schools skew their numbers.

Very true. Again this path is best suited for students who have what it takes to be a physician but need a smaller environment to do the premed courses. Luckily most med schools are small so there isn't much of a need to be in a weed out environment to cut it in med school. Like discussed above the post bacc approach does not absolve you of having to do well on the MCAT and to pass all the exams and boards for medical school. I've read tons of posts of parents with kids at top schools who are struggling with the premed environments- most kids at top schools can go to med school period because presumably they have done well on the SATS and their AP science classes. It is really a matter of making sure they can succeed in the premed course work at the right place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this is an option, but there is a cost. Time and money. A post bacc takes at least an additional 2 years of education. That’s 2 additional years of tuition and living expenses. Probably around $100K. Also wondering if the OP got ALL their medical school required classes while in post grad education. Some medical schools want pre reqs within a certain period of time. A 6 year old biochemistry class might not be accepted.

Yes, but you have to spend that time anyway in most cases. Most med students don’t go to med school right out of college these days. The average age of first year med students is 24. Med schools. Want to see something besides pre-med, with high gpa and and MCATs. A member of my family sits on the admissions committee of a top 5 med school and says that admissions is holistic. These other things matter, so her kid is spending a year after college doing something else before applying to med school. The PP is right on the money.

OP here. Agreed. Another point to make- it would be better in general to not let you kid struggle via premed classes intended to weed them out. That has a high risk of turning you kid off from medicine in general and also potentially ruining multiple career options at once (low GPA making it harder to get into law school or consulting, for example). It is better to let your kid pick a major they can excel in and then take the science classes in a less punitive environment if they choose to do so in the future. Post baccs tend to grade inflate and are measure by how many students get into medical school so they have a strong incentive to get your kid to that place. I know other classmates who went with a state school- they mentioned that by being older and focused they were able to do much better than the standard college student who also wants to make friends and party. This also brings me to another point. Some college students are simply not ready to grind through premed classes at 18. I wasn't. I took Gen Chem freshman year and got a C. Thankfully, I stopped there. When I got to my postbacc, I was ready to study hard and I had no distractions. I spent the year tied to my chair doing practice problems and going to lab. I spent 8 weeks studying day and night for the MCAT. I simply wasn't focused enough to have done this as a undergrad- some people need more time to mature and get there.

Side note: it actually saved me money to do the postbacc route because we were able to save and I got a scholarship based on how "nontraditional" I was. It also helped to establish my independence from my parents (NOTE NOT ALL MED SCHOOLS LET YOU DO THIS).

😬 note to self – don’t use physicians who couldn’t handle college chemistry and went to grade inflated post bac programs.

Right, because being good at college chemistry is so so important for becoming a good doctor