{"id":483,"date":"2016-08-17T16:34:13","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T23:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/mcat\/?p=483"},"modified":"2021-03-05T15:28:03","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T23:28:03","slug":"post-bacc-medical-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/mcat\/post-bacc-medical-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I Do a Post-Bacc Before Med School?"},"content":{"rendered":"

An increasing number of applicants are doing a post-bacc before medical school. For students in college, there might be a concern about whether or not doing a post-bacc would be beneficial for getting into med school<\/a>. This post will hopefully help answer some questions about post-baccs, especially if you are asking yourself, “Should I do a post-bacc before med school?”
\n 
\n\"Should<\/p>\n

What is a Post-Bacc?<\/h2>\n

A post-bacc is a “post-baccalaureate,” which is essentially taking undergraduate level courses after already having obtained a bachelor’s (baccalaureate) degree. This can consist of taking the basic science courses for admission to medical school, or taking some higher level courses to boost your learning, GPA, and medical school application.<\/p>\n

Should I Do a Post-Bacc Before Med School?<\/h2>\n

There are generally two main reasons why someone would do a post-bacc before medical school:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Have not taken or completed basic science course requirement<\/a> for application to medical school.<\/li>\n
  2. Have taken the basic science courses and wish to enhance and improve their application and GPA<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you wish to apply to medical school and have not taken the basic science courses required to apply to medical school, then I would highly recommend doing a post-bacc. It is the rare exception where a medical school will accept someone without having taken the basic requirements of chemistry, physics, organic chemistry, biology, and writing.<\/p>\n

    If you have already taken the required courses, but perhaps have struggled in terms of learning the material or your GPA, then taking a post-bacc might help in a few ways. First, it would help boost your overall science GPA if you do well in your post-bacc. Second, you will presumably learn the material better and be better prepared for the medical school science curriculum. Third, some post-bacc programs are actually master’s programs that award you a degree, which looks pretty spiffy on\u00a0your application.<\/p>\n

    Some advice about doing a post-bacc if you are a science major or have already taken your required courses: try to challenge yourself and take more upper-level courses or try for one of the master’s level programs. It doesn’t really impress anyone if you got a C in introductory chemistry and then got an A the second time around. You need to prove that you not only mastered and improved from when you did poorly, but can expand your abilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    An increasing number of applicants are doing a post-bacc before medical school. For students in college, there might be a concern about whether or not doing a post-bacc would be beneficial for getting into med school. This post will hopefully help answer some questions about post-baccs, especially if you are asking yourself, “Should I do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[2335],"class_list":["post-483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medical-school"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nShould I Do a Post-Bacc Before Med School? - Magoosh MCAT Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you're thinking about applying to med school, you might be asking yourself, "Should I do a post-bacc before med school?" 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