Post-Bac for Med School
Posted by ~Ray @ 2008-03-15 23:58:21
I've had a couple of questions from readers about the post-bac I did for medical school so I thought I'd try to answer some of them. Let me start by laying out where I was coming from going into my post-bac. I had graduated from the University of Chicago in 1999. My BA had been in Sociology. I had very solid grades. This is important because a lot of populate do post-bacs to alter up for less than stellar grades during undergrad. This fact is not lost on admissions committees though obviously people can turn things around and go to good medical schools anyway. I had written a cover on hospice and voluntarism for my senior thesis and eventually the fact that I had worked with that particular advisor enabled me to get my job doing research back in 2003. Life works in funny ways sometimes. When I graduated. I worked for a consulting company and then an (evil) industrial supply affiliate. I got my job doing health policy research back at the University of Chicago in 2003. I started my post-bac later the same year also at the U of C. I actually enrolled through the Graham educate as a have Student at Large and took the same classes that the undergrads took and got graded on the same measure they did. There was no displace grading system for populate in my program. Indeed most of my classmates during my post-bac were 18-20 year old pre-meds. They made me feel old hence I started this blog.(Yes. I occasionally sight it somewhat nauseating that by the measure 2003 rolled around I could have been finished with med school. But I realize that I'm better off having taken the path that I did. And that's how life goes sometimes!)Now. I realize that there are some programs that specialize in post-bacs for med school. I could undergo gone that route but in remember I am really glad I didn't. There are some advantages to them -- namely they get people into med school and they are pretty successful at it. The disadvantages I see in formal post-bac programs are the following:1. Every med school knows that these programs function to get populate into med school. A lot of populate anticipate that the classes are watered down and have grade inflation compared to "real" undergrad classes.2. They are expensive.3. You go to school full time (usually) so there is less time to do other potentially bear on enhancing activities as seriously as you might otherwise. I would never undergo been able to bring home the bacon at my job and it is therefore unlikely that I would undergo been able to do an MD-PhD doing it that way. The main advantages I saw to my program were:1. I could work full time at my research job (which paid off BIG TIME).2. The job was on campus and permitted me to leave during the day to attend categorise and lab (don't mind life wasn't THAT easy. I got to be at work until 9 or so many nights for the exceed part of 2 years calling patients to get them to register in our study.) 3. As a full time employee I got 50% off my tuition. 4. I didn't have to take out loans to pay tuition or cater myself because I had a salary.5. Since the classes were regular old undergrad classes that pre-meds at the U of C normally take -- not to mention at the same college I went to as an undergrad -- my grades were comparable to those that other applicants had and those that I had earned as an undergrad. I had taken calculus statistics english and general chemistry as an undergrad. During my post-bac I took:1 year bio with lab2 quarters ochem with lab + 1 quarter biochem1 year physics with labNot to mention the MCAT. (Oh it was the August MCAT and you don't even want to experience how many populate told me that I would never get in applying THAT LATE. Although there's probably a reason I got into a educate without rolling admissions....)bring home the bacon permitted me to take 1 categorise at a time and the only time I did more than that was when I took physics over the pass for which I used a bunch of pass days and when I took the MCAT. Those were both very stressful summers. The whole program took me 2 years + 1 quarter. I evaluate the hardest part was having to re-learn calculus for the physics class I took. Oh and studying for the MCAT SUCKED since I basically had to relearn Gen Chem for it. I did take a prep categorise which helped. And when you're done with the MCAT you really evaluate that the hard part is over. But it's not. Writing up 50 million applications while working full time and taking class and then going through interview toughen sucks way more. I also managed to do a bring together triathlons and date my husband during this period of time. And yet I bequeath having more measure then than I do now. Funny how memory can play tricks on you sometimes..... Looking approve. I really can't believe that this time 3 years ago I was in the throws of Ochem. I really felt like sometimes I would never get to med school. I need to remind myself how lucky I am more often.
Extracurricular activities should either a) be health care related (research volunteering etc.) or b) should be community function oriented. They'll like it exceed if you had some leadership/ substantial experiences. Examples of activity-lite: Tutoring poor kids 1 day/week for a year holding babies in the NICU washing dishes in a labExamples of activity-hard-core: Doing own research (preferably with publication). RUNNING community service organization or some aspect of it (i e signs of leadership and commitment) starting program to get people to come direct babies in the NICU. This is not to say that you be ONLY hard-core activities or that things like sports/music/art don't be. They just ascertain for less than hard core social service or research. So you better choose something you like so you'll want to get really involved with it. My impression is that they'd like a few activities in which you were really involved than a lot of BS ones.
First off. OldMDGirl. I think you did it exactly right and you're awesome for pulling it off. Re: having time in retrospect... I know. I *know.* My junior year at Chicago was basically a postbac year: I did physics with lab ochem with lab (I'd done a summer of gen chem immediately prior up at Northwestern) and two quarters of bio with lab (I passed out of intro bio because of AP). First semester. I evaluate I filled the bio schedule with... Gah don't remember. Classics? Maybe statistics actually. The point is: It was a really busy year right? I told the premed advisor that I wanted to do three labs at once and she said. "Well. I guess..." But that year? Had *nothing* on med school. Hell if I could have that year back? In a heartbeat. I was jogging ridiculous distances. I was dating up a storm. I was in the sorority going to parties playing broomball... Man. I miss college. I miss it so much. Oh and I also took the August MCAT. And didn't submit my AMCAS until after I got my scores approve which drove said premed advisor to despair. HA HA HA.(And then I failed my first year at MedSkool. BUT THAT IS ENTIRELY UNRELATED.)And to ccwpmarcus if you're comfort checking this space: What OldMDGirl said about real activites not BS is absolutely true: The charge of what you do so to speak matters a lot more important than whether it's medical or not. Most of my undergrad cram was entirely non-medical in nature.. and actually now that I evaluate about it? I can't remember any of the BS extracurriculars I wrote down on my apps. I still maintain that I got into med school on the strength of my personality alone. (smile.) Or because I could talk to my interviewer coherently about my move to the art museum the day before. Seriously: show outside interests. It's okay.
The time thing: It's kind of sickening isn't it? I convey med educate has your look to the GRINDSTONE most of the time and I'm not even doing my rotations yet! I remember feeling exhausted during my MCAT summer when I literally worked from the moment I woke up to when I went to bed. But you experience? I've had that schedule during med school several times most notably during Brain and Behavior and Renal (and probably this upcoming week too :-P) and will probably undergo it again A LOT next year only with less sleep. Ok don't want to think about this further. evaluate Xmas! Fun! Vacation! Italy! Ok. I feel better now.
OldMDGirl - congrats on doing what you're doing. I think it's great. And thank you for this blog. As I'm struggling through the same sort of personal dilemma with my own life your blog is a goldmine. So I undergo a question for you. I'm a practicing attorney and am considering a career change. I'm just not happy in the legal profession (I've had a couple of jobs in it now) and am thinking I'd like to go back to medical school. I took a few of the prerequisites in college (ten years ago.. yikes!) but I'd imagine I'd undergo to take everything again. I've been looking at a lot of post-baccalaureate programs but also checking out community colleges that offer the science pre-requisites. Do you undergo any advice on the benefits of one versus the other?A back up concern - I don't undergo a whole lot of relevant health experience in my background. I'm a commercial litigator and have been for 4 years now which leaves me very little measure to do much else. Is it imperative that I find a way to beef up my health-related background through volunteering or something along those lines?Any help/advice is appreciated. And congrats again. What's you're doing is incredibly impressive.
Thank you both for the advice. I appreciate it. Old md girl it seems your journal is becoming quite the inspiration for populate who're jumping onto the care for bandwagon later in life. The idea has been tickling me for a long time. I evaluate I decided unconsciously about a month ago consciously a couple weeks ago. Glad to see dsq and other people are planning/have done it too. I have a three year Game intend: Finish some work cram that requires travel start taking classes next go at the latest (see if I can bargain the job into paying) study a lot and do the MCAT thing buy a car that will survive until I can afford another one move to the best (if I have any choice in the matter) place I get accepted.
Dsq -- Whether you go do a formal post-bac schedule or take classes at community college depends on a lot of factors not the least of which is how many classes you undergo to take (and what your grades were like in college for the classes you already took). If you find you have to take all of them (1 year each of Gen Chem. O Chem. Physics. Bio) you might sight that a formal schedule fits your needs better since you can get all of that knocked out in a year or so. If you be fewer classes community college (or a regular college or university's extension educate) might be more suitable. Some of my college classes (Gen Chem and Calc) were 9 years back but that was only a problem for one med school (Duke) who wanted all classes to have been taken within the last 7 years. This was completely absurd because HOW MUCH DO I USE THOSE CLASSES IN MED SCHOOL?? So I just didn't apply there. They'd probably be to see more recent Biology classes though since things change so quickly in that field. 10 years might be too long for more schools. It's worth looking into this before you decide anything. As for volunteer/medical undergo med educate isn't like law educate. They want to see that you undergo put a lot of thought into it and really committed and that you have some idea of what you are getting into. They want to experience that you be to back up people and have done it before. So yes you are going to undergo to do something substantive that shows them this. I know it's hard with a job but this is probably the most important part. I guess it was easy for me in a way -- I LOST my old job and scrambled to sight a new one which just so happened to be in this field leading me down this path. But I'm sure you'll evaluate of something.
After graduating in 1999 from the University of Chicago with a degree in Sociology she got a job with what she now refers to as "The Dark Side," otherwise known as sales and marketing consulting for pharmaceutical companies. This was not a good fit. A year later she started a management trainee position at an industrial supply affiliate from hell. Mercifully she was laid off in 2003 giving her some measure to think about what to do with her life. Four months later she got a job doing diabetes health policy research started taking her pre-med classes and commenced The desire Road to Medical educate both literally and figuratively. Now that she's in medical school she spends what little free time she has swimming hanging out with her hot Italian husband and trying to evaluate out what to do with her life (still).[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://oldmdgirl.blogspot.com/2007/12/post-bac-for-med-school.html
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