<p>This is just a question I have been thinking about recently but I didn't really know how to phrase it. I am also pretty ignorant when it comes to graduate/post-bac work that goes beyond the typical/conventional undergraduate straight to graduate route.</p>
<p>Let's say you're an English major approaching graduation and you just had some sort of epiphany that you want to pursue a career in medicine, but you haven't taken any of the necessary courses required for medical school admission. Can you do it after the fact? How would one go about doing that? Does that require a second degree? Or do you take the classes individually (non-degree)? Do you need to enroll in a graduate program? </p>
<p>
Yes
Post-bacc pre med program that targets career changers would be easiest
No, but you could potentially get one.
You could also do it outside of a postbac program
No</p>
<p><a href=“https://services.aamc.org/postbac/”>https://services.aamc.org/postbac/</a>
search “career-changers” in particular</p>
<p>@MountSinai Thank you! That link was incredibly helpful. Would admission to such a program be particularly competitive or is that largely dependent on the school? </p>
<p>I’m looking at Brandeis and UMass Dartmouth which as undergraduate schools are very different in their selectivity, so I’m not sure if that would carry over into how selective their post-bac pre-med program is. </p>
<p>Competitiveness of formal pre-med post-bacc programs varies widely. Some (Georgetown, Mills College, JHU, Byrn Mawr, etc) are extremely competitive; others will accept anyone.</p>
<p>There are some post-baccs which offer linkages (guaranteed admission to partner med schools) to their top students.
These tend to be much more selective than other programs.</p>
<p>But aside from those, the selectivity of the post-bacc has very little bearing on your ability to gain an acceptance to med school–that depends on your performance in the post-bacc, your ECs, LORs, MCAT score, etc.</p>
<p>One consideration-- there is little or no financial aid for postbaccs except for unsubsidized federal loans (assuming that you haven’t already taken out the undergrad max in federal student loans). I wouldn’t advise going into substantial debt for a post-bacc for 2 reasons: 1) there’s no guarantee you’ll get accepted to med school; 2) med school is expensive and there is little FA except for unsub loans. </p>
<p>FWIW, my older D did a do-it-yourself post-bacc at a local college; she’ll graduate from med school in May.</p>
<p>@WayOutWestMom - Thank you so much! I was actually just looking at Brandeis and they mentioned explicitly that they do not have any grants/scholarships for their post-bac program because the tuition is reduced already - so the 40k it costs for the program in its entirety would have to be financed in loans (if savings/cash flow wasn’t an option.)</p>
<p>The linkage program concept sounds incredibly interesting (and really intimidating…). lol. 
</p>
<p>@preamble1776 </p>
<p>Future doc? :-? :x </p>