i am not into medical school or anything but you commented on a video and I said “eh I’ll check him out” and your videos are super professional for how small of a RU-vidd you are, you got a sub today
I find it strange that many of these Post-Bac Programs have a higher MCAT cutoff to even apply than most DO schools and even some MD schools average MCAT acceptance rate (Georgetown SMP for example requires a 508 to even apply :0) Thoughts on focusing on applying DO rather than paying a huge amount just to take an intensive courseload for a year only for a CHANCE to get into good MD programs? Just seems like a huge investment of time and money for something where the reward can be minimal
Ahmad Al-Husseini Yeah, it can be frustrating. I think if your scores are competitive for a DO school, consider what specialty you’d like to practice and what residencies you’d like to attend. If you meet the criteria for DO schools, and you can have the career you want, then it’s worth getting into a DO school without additional time and money commitment necessary for you to get into an MD school. I know plenty of DO’s who practice at high levels in different specialties alongside MD’s. Hope that answers your question.
So I'm currently debating whether to do a post-bacc program or a special Masters program. I graduated with a 3.1 science gpa and a 3.3 cgpa. I want to do a post-bacc to increase my science and cumulative GPA but I already a lot of units and took about 35 units worth of upper division science classes. Would you recommend a post-bacc or a SMP?
Jessi Villafuerte I would do a postbacc. You might need 2 years to build up your gpa depending on how many units you have and how well you do, but it can still go up.
I’m a chemistry magna cum laude graduate, but I am going into med. I was wondering if a DIY post-bacc would be better as the only thing I need to catch up on are bio lab, biochem, and stats. Pretty much like 1 semesters worth of classes. What do you recommend I do?
Hey, sorry for the late reply. If you have a good gpa and most of the prereqs I would probably just do the DIY postbacc and supplement with extracurriculars while explaining your situation in your personal statement
@@DrAdnan worddd thanks bro. that turned out to be my exact plan since I left that comment. Just got hired as a med scribe and got an invite to shadow my doc. Huge W. Thanks fam and Goodluck to you as well 🤞
Yeah, they had a pretty good selection and scheduling wasn’t usually too difficult. There may have been a few times I wasn’t able to get scheduling how I wanted, but I was usually fine. I don’t know your situation, but one thing that also helped me with scheduling was doing school full time and making it my main priority, so I wasn’t working or doing extracurriculars for crazy hours.
Hey Adnan, Can I please get your advice on when I should apply to post-baccs? I currently have a 500 mcat and 3.0 gpa and can apply now in January. But I’m talking the mcat in March and could apply in April. Do you think I’m better off applying now so early or later with like a 505-507 in April? Hope to get your thoughts!
Junis Citozi Hey Junis, I’m not sure if 500 vs 505 would make much difference unless a postbacc program specifically wants a 505-507 as a minimum. Imo you should aim for higher with your gpa to be competitive. As long as you have good EC’s, I would apply earlier and dominate the postbacc program. Make sure you get all A’s or as close as possible. This will help your gpa and your next mcat retake.
Adnan A thanks bro! I really want to go to the Western U program because of the location. What are your thoughts on their post bacc? Did you apply there?
Np! Sorry, I didn’t see this. It seems like the MSMS program is a good way to get into the WesternU school if that’s your goal. The classes look decent as well. Pomona is a nice area, I agree. I didn’t apply to the postbacc there, but I did apply to the med school.
Hi I am a little confused on something. Unless I heard you wrong, you said if you have a low gpa and mcat score, it'll be difficult to get accepted into postbacc programs, but what if you are a career changer who hasn't taken the mcat ?
Requirements vary but a lot of programs especially career changer ones just require a GPA with a transcript, sometimes an essay, LORs, SAT, etc. You should be fine applying without an MCAT. Hope that clarifies things
Thien Truong No worries. In terms of content crossover? I think it helped cover some of the material you need to know in med school. Some classes are more relevant like endocrinology, while some classes like biochem has some carryover, but the biochem in phap was waaay more detailed than you need to know in med school.
Hi Adnan! So I am an IT professional having a masters in IT. I wanna pursue medicine and thinking to prepare for MCAT. Do I need to study undergrad level science courses for MCAT? Or high school level?
Textbooks were too dense for me. I stuck with the PowerPoint slides and outside resources like khan academy as needed. I used some Kaplan books for MCAT studying, but not for classes
You’ll have to see with individual programs, and also check with med schools to see if those overseas units count if you’re trying to practice in the US
You said something about going to a 4 year university which I go to it’s my senior year but I think after I graduate here I want to retake a course or 2 back in my hometown city at a community college. Is that okay? Will schools side eye me for this instead of just retaking at my university? PLEASE RESPOND !!!
Adnan A I didn’t fail them but I would like to get the highest grade in them. Only problem is I’m graduating and do not want to have to come back here after graduating it’s too far from my college to my home 6-7 hour trip
hello! I am a current junior studying econ/polisci, and I am strongly considering doing a post bacc program. Would I be put at a disadvantage if I am applying right out of undergrad compared to those who essentially have more life experience than I do?
Hi! Nope, it’s probably better that you apply right out of undergrad so you don’t waste time, unless you don’t meet the minimum requirements for the programs you’re applying to. You can get more extracurricular experiences during the postbacc if you’d like.
@@DrAdnan Thanks for your reply! As of right now I think I'm leaning more towards doing the post bacc program, do you have any suggestions on how I can make myself a more competitive applicant for that?
No problem, and sorry I didn’t see this reply earlier. I would say to try to do as well as possible in classes to show improvement/you’re able to handle an intense academic schedule, get some good extracurricular activities in if you can, get the best letters you can, make a really solid personal statement, do really well on the mcat if it’s required for the postbacc and you’re not a career changer, etc. If you have specific programs in mind I would look through their apps or research previous candidates that got in and try to do more of that. I’m not sure if you’re a career changer or someone who’s premed trying to enhance their gpa, mcat, etc so that plays a part as well.
@@DrAdnan I would be a career changer, I am currently majoring in political economy and have two years left, but I'd like to keep my options open for a possible career switch! It's always been a dream of mine to become a doctor and I guess I felt discouraged when first going into college, so I feel like waiting for a post-bacc may be the right move for me for now, since I do want to give a proper shot in a career in my major. I should look at post-bacc pre-med specifically since I don't have all the science courses required right? I've only taken intro to biology
Alejandra Diaz There are some premeds who do non-science majors in undergrad, so if you managed to fit in all the premed prereqs during your major and got enough EC’s, did the MCAT, etc in undergrad you could still apply. If you’re not completely sure, I would recommend talking to and perhaps shadowing different healthcare professionals especially if you’re planning on trying another career first. Perhaps being a physician assistant or a dentist would be a better fit, for example, or maybe you confirm that you really do want to be a physician. Mhm, you’d need a premed postbacc, and here’s a list: apps.aamc.org/postbac/#/index
周Adeline It depends on how many units you’ve taken, how many units you take in the program, and your grades. Usually a few tenths would be max. Mine went up around 0.1-0.125/year with all A’s but I had a lot of units from undergrad. You can try calculating your specific rise by looking at programs and factoring in a postbacc’s expected units for graduation.
Any specific questions? There’s way too much to say in one reply. I guess first I’d say to try and shadow a few doctors and make sure the reality of being a doctor is 100% what you want. Then, I’d try to figure out what specialty you’d like the most (this isn’t as big of a deal but it helps a lot). It seemed like almost everyone in my hs wanted to become a doctor, but most people went into other paths for a variety of reasons. One big reason was not really knowing what medical training involves or what being a doctor entails (along with pros and cons of both). Having a definite goal that you’re pretty sure on, especially if it’s specific, will really focus you and set you up to do well from a foundational level. As for strategies, I’m not sure how far you are in high school, but usually there aren’t a ton of avenues that have an impact on you getting into med school, since undergrad is really the focus of what they look at for applications. I know current med students and doctors who barely did anything med related or different from other students in high school. Med schools generally don’t even care much about things you did in high school unless it plays into the story of your overall development through undergrad and includes things you’ve been committed to your whole life (again, through undergrad). I’d probably recommend just trying to relax, follow your interests, and do well in school. Building good study habits now will probably be one of your biggest assets that will help you throughout your med journey. If you want to set yourself up to do well in undergrad as a premed or beyond, you can do the basic things like taking science classes and exploring areas you find interesting in medicine. Taking honors and AP science and math classes is a good idea and can help you do better in your lower division science and math classes you’ll need to do in college as a premed. If you could start helping out in hospitals as a volunteer or even be a part of scientific research projects that would be amazing. Joining and being active in groups like science clubs, premed clubs, volunteer clubs, etc would be a great idea. Also make sure you’re doing things outside of medicine consistently and to a high level, such as playing soccer all four years, joining the soccer club, becoming a soccer captain, etc. In this case you could actually keep doing it in college and continue raising the bar, like perhaps becoming a club soccer captain. You could then even combine it with another extracurricular like volunteering such as by organizing soccer events for kids in underserved areas. So generally, high school doesn’t matter too much in terms of if you can get into med school or what schools you can get into. The prestige of the college you go to does have an impact on getting into certain med schools, but’s it’s far lower down the rank of importance compared to other deciding factors. If you use high school to study hard, explore your interests (medical and nonmed), and have fun, I think you should be good. High school is more for personal development. Hope that helps. Lmk if you have any questions.
One more thing- if you’re 100% sure you want to be a doctor without any doubts, I’d recommend looking into 6 year or other direct to med school from high school programs to expedite your med training. This way you don’t have to waste time doing extraneous classes or activities since the whole medical training path is very long and costly as it is.
