post bac or community college for premed?

[bruiseviolet]

Are there any advantages to doing a post bac program or should I just take my premed req at a community college? My GPA is only 3.0 so I assume I will need to go to a foreign med school. Is doing post bac useful in my situation?

[RavenFighter04]

Don't take your premed reqs at a community college. Some schools will not accept them.

[bruiseviolet]

Would it be ok if the classes I take at a community college are listed as equivalent to classes at my university? Does it make a difference to foreign medical schools? I only found one post bac program in my area and it's about $30,000. I don't want to pay that much unless it is absolutely necessary. Thanks.:)

[Tamim]

As long as you take the classes they look at, Physics, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biology, at a university, you'll be fine.

[jameslynton]

Are there any advantages to doing a post bac program or should I just take my premed req at a community college? My GPA is only 3.0 so I assume I will need to go to a foreign med school. Is doing post bac useful in my situation?Hi Bruised, On looking back at things - I really goofed up in college on several things. I had two friends who are now MD's who did the community college route vs the University. I did the University route at a University that was very premed unfriendly. I also did it working full time. Talk about too many balls in the air and guess what suffered the most - Grades!

Now my friends at the easy community colleges got A's where I got B's. I outscored them on the MCAT by bunches of points back then. Guess what they got in and I did not get an interview. I have been PM by a couple of people who are going to do the post bac route - but guess what none have PM me back to say I was wrong they got in.

I look at post bac thing as a big bait and switch joke by premed advisors. It is sort of a twist on the three big lies (if these jokes are still around) PM me and I will tell you one if you don't know them. Otherwise I would risk a TOS violation here. The bottom line for US schools is this - If you are not pretty (meaning you got the magic GPA/MCAT/LOR's) and you did not do it the first time - we don't want you - PERIOD! I saw 30-40 people do the post bac route - one got in. 40:1 are not good odds. This was pre SGU. So we did not have any options like now.

So what I would recommend is find a community college that you can get easy's A's for the rest of your medical school prerec's. Do what ever it takes to get those A's if you need to pay a tutor or several tutors - do it. Get your GPA up and apply first to US schools. Also get a great MCAT review book and practice MCAT type questions till you are doing the test well in timed practice sessions. If you don't get in a US school - then apply to Island schools.