<p>My son has a firm offer from USC, and we are all very excited. He is also considering SFSU but has not sent his application in yet as its due May 15 and he wanted to apply to the others with earlier deadlines first. (He is also very busy doing his Masters in Engineering program at the moment.) But it will be sent very soon. He is currently a Masters of Engineering student at Cornell and also graduated from there with a BSC in Computer Science and minor in EE. Basically, he has proven he can do well at a very tough engineering environment.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any informed opinions about either one of USC's or SFSU's Post Bacc premed programs? Especially with regards to the competitiveness of the programs. We hear that it is harder to get a good GPA at USC than SFSU but cannot find any supporting facts. Does anyone know where to find solid data? It appears that SFSU's program is also very competitive, and is totally different from its undergrad program in the sciences. Can anyone who has attended either USC or SFSU shed light?</p>
<p>I would also like some information about the quality of the teaching. My son is interested in doing research that combines his engineering background with medicine in the future. So I think being taught well with solid understanding of the subject matter is extremely important. If anyone has first hand experience of teaching quality at either institutions, please comment. </p>
<p>Finally - does anyone have specific stats about SFSU post bacc students' success rate at getting into excellent California UC medical schools and also Stanford? I read from one of the forums that the excellent UC medial schools accept a low percentage of CSU undergrads because the instruction in the sciences is "suspect" as someone commented. Lets say that is true, is it also true of the post bacc. premed programs? </p>
<p>If you can help us shed light on these questions, it would be much appreciated. </p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>The percentage of students from CSU undergraduate is likely low because most CSUs are not particularly selective, and the presence of UCs tends to pull away a large percentage of the top-end students from the CSUs. In addition, most students at CSUs major in pre-professional majors aimed at bachelor’s degree level jobs, and CSUs tend not to have much grade inflation.</p>
<p>You may want to private-message bernie12, who in other threads has discussed the rigor level of various schools’ chemistry and biology courses based on comparisons of final exams found on-line. Expect large lectures for pre-med courses at either school (see the on-line class schedules).</p>
<p>In theory, all of the pre-med courses can be completed at low cost community colleges (which may also have smaller class sizes), but many medical schools disdain taking pre-med courses at community colleges, which creates the market for expensive post-baccelaureate pre-med programs. Some four year schools do allow non-matriculated students to take courses on a space-available basis, so that may be worth investigating as well if there are low cost four year schools that he can get to.</p>
<p>On the other hand, is it necessary to go to medical school to apply engineering and CS to medical applications, if that is what he is interested in?</p>
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<p>It’s not the instruction necessarily, but the competition. A B+ from a Cal State is not perceived by med adcoms as the same as a B+ from Cal.</p>
<p>Also factoring into their lower admission rates, CSU students tend to be poorer test takers (based on SAT/ACT), so on average, they will not be able to score high enough on the mcat to be competitive for med school.</p>
<p>Finally, four of the Calif. med schools are in the top ~20 in the country. So, they have admission statistics to match.</p>
<p>If you S will already have a masters in Eng, I’m guessing that he already has completed some of the premed prereqs, including math & physics and perhaps Intro Chem. Thus, since he only needs Bio+Organic? and a social science course or two, he might look into the UC extension program.</p>
<p>Thank you for our responses. I think I didn’t make it clear that he was accepted into the post bacc. premed program at USC and we are trying to compare the Post Bacc. Pre-med program at SFSU with that of USC. I think the attentiveness they provide to the post bacc. students at SFSU is different. I am hoping that someone who has gone through it will respond and give us some input. Thank you again!</p>
<p>You maybe would have better luck in the premed area since you are posting in a forum where HS students post for college search.</p>