University of Washington has reputable premed program OPINIONS WANTED

[TrailRunr]

The catch with the postbac premed programs is that they are EXPENSIVE, and they also have huge opportunity cost in terms of time. You should be going to med school as soon as you finish your bachelor's. Don't waste time with grad school, especially when each year of delay costs you $200k+ with a doctor's salary.

A better plan is to get a bachelor's at the Big 3 and take all of your LL science courses butt-in-seat at the local community college. Skip the CLEP/DSST/AP when it involves a science class. If you think it will help, take a UL science course or two as a non-degree student at the local 4-year state university butt-in-seat.

[rebel100]

My suggestion is to find a college with a cadaver lab. This gives your anatomy class an amazing leg-up on the competition. There are not many, but if you can land in one of those colleges, you'll really have a great experience.

Secondly, choose a college that your test scores place you in the top 1/3 of the entering class. If you want to read more about this, check out Malcolm Gladwell's book David and Goliath. Your chances of success are almost always predicted by where you sit on the spectrum of incoming class. In short- don't attend a college where you "just" make the GPA/SAT cut off. Top third all the way.

Since you can go into medical school with any major (pre-med isn't a major, rather it's a set of classes that can fit inside of almost any major) you'll want to choose your passion. It might not be biology, but that's the typical path because it means no extra credit. If you choose a major like business, getting those 8 pre-med courses to fit inside your degree might add a semester or more to your degree, and not everyone is willing to do that.

My other suggestion is to consider that med school will be expensive, so keeping costs down at the undergraduate level means you're ROI happens sooner rather than later. You could either enter your career with a 5 year loan or a 25 year loan - obviously the person with less debt will be making BANK while the other will drag that bag around for most of their career.

Finally, this is a test-out forum, so finding out IF you can test out of your classes is important before you jump in. I'm 100% certain that you can NOT test out of sciences using CLEP. They won't give you grades or labs, both of which you'll need for your medical school application.

Good luck!

This should be framed somewhere.

[rebel100]

There are plenty of premed programs at the graduate level. Usually a Master of Science in Medical Sciences. These programs are designed to prepare you for the MCAT and satisfy med school entrance requirements. I have often wondered if someone with a Big 3 degree, hefty in credit by examination, completely rocked a postbacc program how it would play out. If they managed a perfect post graduate GPA with a high MCAT score, but have an undergraduate degree full of CLEP, DSST, ECE, TECP, etc. I wonder if they have a shot. My gut is that they would.

I believe Jonathan Whatley is more or less doing this now. TESC undergrad (I think) and now working through the Harvard Extension School pre-med program.

tuition is actually pretty cheap...but you gotta be in Cambridge which ain't usually cheap https://www.extension.harvard.edu/academ...al-program

[Mamasaphire]

My suggestion is to find a college with a cadaver lab. This gives your anatomy class an amazing leg-up on the competition.

No pun intended

[jgbenjamin]

sorry: I wasn't clear.
The idea was to begin and finish a bachelors of science in sociology at the University of Washington WHILE taking the med school prerequisites (I have no bachelors in anything currently).
IFFFF the chance to take the premed sequence (8 courses) is taught outstandingly in that university I would want that opportunity.

[TrailRunr]

sorry: I wasn't clear.
The idea was to begin and finish a bachelors of science in sociology at the University of Washington WHILE taking the med school prerequisites (I have no bachelors in anything currently).
IFFFF the chance to take the premed sequence (8 courses) is taught outstandingly in that university I would want that opportunity.

Let's say you learn all the ins and outs of biology from superstar professors but earn a B- average. You might as well go apply for a pizza delivery job, because you're not going to med school with a 2.7 (B-) GPA even with a perfect MCAT.

GPA preservation is your #1 goal. Go to the school where you are in the top 1/3 of the class as suggested earlier.

[jgbenjamin]

Thank you trailrunr; but, please give me a source making clear that GPA is more important than MCAT scores: isn't the mcat the top goal??

[jgbenjamin]

Will someone pls give me a recommendation for a univ that has a 50% or higher acceptance rate yet has a good academic standing for turning out students who pass the mcat??

[bjcheung77]

Will someone pls give me a recommendation for a univ that has a 50% or higher acceptance rate yet has a good academic standing for turning out students who pass the mcat??

I have been looking for this as well, any help appreciated as I have not found 1 in the last while searching.
I have found many international ones that Westernized or the First world countries flock to, and they somewhat mirror what the US teaches. But they're all cash grabs from them, mind you, they're expensive too.

[cookderosa]

There are plenty of premed programs at the graduate level. Usually a Master of Science in Medical Sciences. These programs are designed to prepare you for the MCAT and satisfy med school entrance requirements. I have often wondered if someone with a Big 3 degree, hefty in credit by examination, completely rocked a postbacc program how it would play out. If they managed a perfect post graduate GPA with a high MCAT score, but have an undergraduate degree full of CLEP, DSST, ECE, TECP, etc. I wonder if they have a shot. My gut is that they would.

I'm confident that this plan will work, however, it's mega expensive. Premed is at least 32 credits. Grad credit runs into the $1000 price range, putting this hope and a prayer somewhere up around the cost of a car- and that's after paying for your undergraduate degree. My money is on integrating this into the BA if possible. If not possible, through the community college. Even though I took mine through the community college, with the $$$$$ cost of labs, I spent roughly $10,000 just on my premed sequence.