<p>Does anyone know what the process of applying for a spot in Columbia's Post Bacc program (psych) is like? Is this more of a money making process for the college (with a high acceptance rate)? Or is it more selective? Should I take non-matriculated classes in other schools (Baruch, NYU, etc) to try and bump up my sub-3.0 college GPA (from 4 years ago) or just try for Columbia straight away?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>The pre-medical post-bacc? I went to Columbia and most of the post-bacc people I knew went to top twenty schools. I’d imagine it’s very competitive.</p>
<p>No, not the pre-medical post bacc. The psychology department has a post-baccalaureate program for college grads who did not major in psychology in undergrad, but want to attend PhD programs in psychology.</p>
<p>I’m in Columbia’s psychology department as a PhD student, so I’ve TAed post-bacc students and a close friend of mine was one. I also currently TA for the head of the program. I think that admissions is competitive to the program; the post-bacc students that I know are accomplished individuals who have some work or study history behind them and seen very driven. One that I know of was a lawyer and is changing careers. Another was a successful businesswoman and television personality in her home country.</p>
<p>However, I will say this. The post baccalaureate program is mostly useful for the name and the ability to do research (often unpaid) with faculty. You’ll be required to take the undergraduate course sequence of psychology classes with the undergrads - intro psych, research methods, statistics, etc. It’s a very expensive program and there is no grant or merit aid; it’s all loan-financed. The CU website will say that you can earn some income by working in a lab, but that’s rarely true. Most of the lab positions are unpaid. I know our lab and the one that shares space with us does not pay post-bacc students (or anyone) to be an RA with us because we have far too many undergrads who are willing to do it for free. You could possibly find a paid RA position at the medical center campus if you were interested in health psychology or psychiatry, but even that’s a somewhat tricky proposition. The competition for those is stiff. You can also complete the program in 1 year, but realistically most people stay for 2 years so that they can apply for graduate school in the fall of their second year.</p>
<p>The program is nearly $5,000 per course, and you have to pay all of the university fees and such because it’s full-time. Personally, I think students would be equally well served by taking the sequence of psychology classes at a public university - like a CUNY or SUNY - and then finding a research position with a faculty professor at any of the New York-area schools (CUNY, Columbia, NYU, a SUNY, or any of the other universities in the city). Most programs don’t really care where you take the classes, as all basic psychology classes teach you the same stuff. Where you do the research is what important, but NYU and CUNY Grad Center are both respected psychology programs with prominent researchers, and Columbia labs aren’t restricted to only taking CU undergrads and post-baccs as RAs. We had an undergrad from City College in my lab last year and he was great.</p>