<p>I graduated MIT in 2009 in mechanical engineering and recently confirmed my decision to apply to Med school. I still need 4 of the premed requirements, though, and my questions have to do with the timeline/best places to take them. I still need Ochem, 1 bio, and 1 chem class, and I'm going to be living/preparing either in Boston or Seattle</p>
<p>Current class plan
Spring: 2010 Spanish class at Junior college in seattle. Online chem/bio class?
Summer 2010: Ochem classes and lab bio class at Harvard ext school or Northeastern
MCATS end of summer 2010</p>
<p>Questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Does the school where you take the pre-reqs matter to Med schools? (i.e. 4-year inst vs Junior college, vs state school, vs online classes. I was thinking of taking an online bio class through harvard ext school or northeastern since they have good extension schools)</p></li>
<li><p>Will additional bio/science classes on top of pre-reqs help my resume? (in terms of GPA boost/proof of interest)</p></li>
<li><p>Should I take biochem? what schools does it matter for</p></li>
<li><p>Is it realistic for me to apply for entrance into med school in 2011 based on this class/MCAT schedule? That is my goal, but I know realistically my app may not be ready.</p></li>
<li><p>I got a C in one of my physics classes. Should I retake it, and if I do could I take it online or would that look bad? </p></li>
<li><p>Should I look at post-bacc programs at Northeastern or Harvard? I only need 4 classes, but would this be a reasonable way to do it?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Any help and additional advice is much appreciated.</p>
<p>Look carefully at your timing and state of residence. Is one state school a better match for you? If you live in Seattle, download the UWSOM residency form, do you have time to become a resident before applying, so if you move to Seattle this month and are applying summer 2010, of which state are you a resident?</p>
<p>In most states it seems you need to be declared a resident at application not at matriculation to even be considered. Some states will base it on less than 12 months, but if you move from where you are now, can you be a WA resident?</p>
<p>Or are you from WA and went to MIT, in which case you could qualify if you came home, but might lose that WA residency if you stay in Boston after grad.</p>
<p>Important considerations, it would be possible to be a resident of NO STATE for admissions purposes :(</p>
<p>I grew up in Seattle - I’m pretty sure I am still a resident in WA. This doesn’t affect my decision about where I’m going to be living for the next two years as I prep for med school.</p>
<p>Med schools may not accept credits from a junior college/on-line programs for science requirements.
(I know someone who looked into junior college courses–to save $-- but med school said they had to be taken at 4-year college.)</p>
<p>Check this out with the med schools you’re looking at.</p>
<p>Does junior college = community college? You’re only taking a spanish class at a junior college which isn’t a pre-req so it shouldn’t be a big deal. I’m not sure how online classes are looked at, but it could be a problem because a lab component is required for those classes too. </p>
<p>I think a few schools might require biochem but a lot don’t. USC is one that requires biochem. </p>
<p>You might want to ask on SDN if you haven’t yet because the students there would be more familiar with what a good timeline would be.</p>
<p>BDM (Bluedevilmike) posted a good timeline on this premed forum awhile ago (on one of the sticky-threads here.) From time to time, I read that post again to refresh my memory. You can google it.</p>
<p>I think that it may not look good if you take an online course. Is there any 4-year state school where you live?</p>
<p>Online courses is definitely a no-no for med school apps. </p>
<p>Taking prereq’s at a junior college is not really great either. It might be worth the investment to attend a formal post-bac (like the ones offered at Bryn Mawr, Columbia University, etc.)</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses so far. I think my current plan is to move out to Boston within the next month or so and find either volunteer or find a job with clinical experience. Then once the Summer starts I will take Ochem and bio and chem classes at Harvard extension school and Northeastern. Realistically, I am not planning on preparing my application for submission until June 2011 since I have little volunteer/work experience in the medical field. </p>
<p>One question that hasn’t been answered yet is does anyone think its worth retaking a physics class that I got a C in? I’m going to have the time (a year and a summer to take these classes) and it would be extremely easy as a mechanical engineering major.</p>
<p>I am just a parent of a premed student who just completed his premed courses (with a medical-school-worthy BCPM GPAs), so please read my reply with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>1) For a premed course, the minimum requirement is C or above.
2) I think the first priority is to complete all the remaining prereqs first.
3) Since you are an engineering major, I would guess physics is one of the classes that you should have a good chance to do well on it. (It is rumored that mechanical engineering = applied physics.) If you are quite confident that you can do better by retaking it, you have the opportunity of proving to the medical school adcoms that the reasons why you did not do well for the first time are
either:
the bar at your first school is set higher due to the caliber of the students there.
or
You were young and immature or had other priorities (e.g., having too much fun because of the newly acquired privilege of being able to live far far away from the nagging parents :)) when you were a freshman.
If this is the case, it is then worth retaking it (ONLY IF YOU HAVE TIME THOUGH.) Both your old grade and the new grade will be taken into consideration.</p>
<p>Non-trad candidates are a distinct subset of med school applicants, so not all standard pre-med advice applies to you.</p>
<p>As previously noted, JC work and online work is unacceptable.</p>
<p>If you graduated from MIT in four years with a 4.2 and did well in your major, you could do bio, chem and organic nearly simultaneously. Retaking physics elsewhere and getting a A would be of little value in the grand scheme since the GPA bump will be small and an orange at MIT is hard to compare to an apple elsewhere. You do need to ace your bio, gen chem and organic courses so the physics grade appears to be an outlier. (Are the Harvard extension courses taken with the usual undergrad profs and students? If not, it may be better to take them elsewhere.)</p>
<p>Doing exceptionally well on the MCAT will be very important since your record of pre-med studies will be shorter than that of traditional candidates.</p>
<p>Volunteer work is not essential for a non-trad. Achievement in your engineering field and excellence in academics will do more to help your application than timecard punching volunteer work.</p>
<p>I would suggest you read the residency form to be certain. Being a WA resident before you leave the state for full time college education is not a problem, graduating and actually living in MA may very well change your status. Residency for school is not the same as residency for other purposes. Just review the requirements and make sure you meet all conditions</p>
<p>thanks for the advice. I agree that my priority should be to ace remaining prereq’s quickly. I also have the opportunity for a job position in an ER that allows me to follow doctors around and interact with patients (pretty rare from what I’ve heard). If I take it, I just need to find a school in the Seattle area to complete the coursework.</p>
<p>I don’t think you should worry about your physics grade. It’s not a prerequisite for medical school, I don’t think it will impact whether you are accepted or rejected somewhere.</p>
<p>Focus on the remaining classes you need as pre-requisites and take the job position in the ER. Stick with the medical things, don’t let yourself get sidetracked.</p>
<p>One of my friends from college decided she wanted to go to medical school and she didn’t have most of the pre-requisites and she did it. My cousin decided at the age of 40 to go to medical school, it had always been a dream of his but he got sidetracked in college.</p>
<p>Good for you for making this switch to pursue a dream.</p>
<p>I did more or less what you are considering doing. I took all my pre-med requirements after graduating from college. I took biology, chemistry, and physics simultaneously at Harvard Extension school over one school year, and organic chemistry at Hopkins summer school the following summer. This allowed me to take the MCAT and apply to med schools that fall. I still wound up with a “float year” to fill (you will inevitably have this because you have to apply more or less a year ahead of starting school). However, I found that the courseload was not overwhelming. I worked half-time in a lab. </p>
<p>When it came time to apply to med schools, only one school (Hopkins) indicated that they would not accept my pre-reqs because they were taken at extension school/night school. (There was no such thing as an online course at the time. But these are all lab courses so I don’t really see how you could take them online anyhow.) </p>
<p>Other schools were happy to have my application and the combination of an A- average from a top school (my degree was in psychology) and my 4.0 in my “night school” pre-reqs, confirmed by my decent MCAT scores, made me a competitive candidate as far as I could tell.</p>
<p>I went on to graduate near the top of my class, FWIW. I thought I’d be behind my bio major classmates who’d come directly from undergrad, but I wasn’t.</p>
<p>I don’t think you need a full post-bac program. The fact that your degree is from MIT will already send the message that you are a very smart guy who has been a high achiever since high school. </p>
<p>Speak to the admissions offices at the med schools most interesting to you and ask about the pathway for non-traditional applicants. They can probably give you some advice, particularly regarding the need to re-take that physics course. I agree that a C at MIT is probably more of an accomplishment than an A most anywhere else.</p>
<p>He mentioned he’d done poorly in “one of” his physics classes. Only intro physics is a pre-req. </p>
<p>Also, msb, I just noticed you were thinking of taking organic chemistry and biology over one summer. It was my experience that taking a full year of organic chemistry in a summer session was a full-time endeavor. We spent the morning in class and the afternoon in lab. I don’t know if you could take both courses in a summer session.</p>