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Session 68
Our poster this week is trying to decide between two postbac programs in New York and is worried about picking one that may be looked less upon based on the name.
We take questions directly from the OldPreMeds.org forums and answer them here on the podcast. “Old premed” is a relative term as you could be a 23-year-old “old premed” or be a 40, 50, or even 60-year-old “old premed.” In this case, an old premed refers to a nontraditional premed student. So if you consider yourself one (or even if you’re a traditional student), you are welcome to be a part of our community and we’ll be happy to answer any questions from you.
OldPreMeds Question of the Week:
“I’m having a hard time deciding between Fordham or Hunter for my postbac. While Hunter is cheaper, I do not want to get caught up in their bad bureaucracy or have to take an extra semester because I couldn’t get a class seat. Additionally, I cannot apply to Hunter until January versus my Fordham admissions rep saying he would process my application in two weeks and I can start this summer. It’s more risky applying to Hunter and I don’t want to delay my goals for a year on the chance I might not get in.
Fordham’s night and weekend classes would usually free up my schedule for shadowing and volunteering while letting me study during my peak hours as a morning person. Hunter seems to offer more resources, guest lectures, advising. Both programs offer committee letters. My biggest fear is Fordham won’t be prestigious enough and harm my application. Is my final GPA truly what med schools care most about?”
Here are my insights:
[03:06] Is It Good Enough?
This comes up a lot when parents and students try to decide which institution to go to for undergrad, for postbac, or for medical school because you’re worrying about the name of the school and how it will affect your application to medical school or residency. “Is it good enough?” That is the never-ending cycle of question.
My simple answer is – Yes. It is good enough.
Schools are accepting students from all over the country and the world. They are taking students from community colleges or rural liberal arts schools. They are also taking students from the big names like Harvard. And it’s based on numbers.
My alma mater, the University of Florida, has one of the largest state schools in the country and they typically produce the most medical school matriculants every year. It’s a huge, well-known state school and it’s not known for the academics, in fact, it’s one of the top party schools. But it’s still a great school that produces a lot of students. Hence, it’s not the name of the institution that you will be judged upon by medical schools.
[05:06] How to Choose Your School
Sure, there are medical schools that would look at an institution’s name and some admissions committee members may have their biases. But this should not be the driving factor in your decision, but rather, everything else that you talked about in terms of how it works with your schedule, how it fits with your internal clock as a morning person, etc. This is how you should be judging these things and not based on the institution’s prestige.
On The Premed Years Podcast, I talk a lot about choosing a school that will make you great, not choosing a great school. Just because a certain school has a great name attached to it doesn’t mean you will flourish there. You need to choose a school that will help you be great and will let you shine.
Links:
Transcript
Introduction
Dr. Ryan Gray: The Old Premeds Podcast is part of the Med Ed Media network at www.MedEdMedia.com.
This is the Old Premeds Podcast, session number 68.
You’re a nontraditional student entering the medical field on your terms. You may have had some hiccups along the way, but now you’re now ready to change course and go back and serve others as a physician. This podcast is here to help answer your questions and help educate you on your nontraditional journey to becoming a physician.
Welcome to the Old Premeds Podcast, my name is Dr. Ryan Gray, your host for today and every day, every week here at the Old Premeds Podcast. If you are new here, thank you for taking some time out of your day to listen. We take questions directly from the www.OldPremeds.org forums and answer them here on the podcast. If you are not familiar with Old Premeds, it is exactly what the name says. Old Premeds. Now ‘old’ is a relative term. You could be a 23-year old old premed, or you could be a 40, or 50, or even 60-year old old premed. Old in this case means nontraditional premed student, and so if you are a nontraditional premed student, you are welcome here. Even if you’re a traditional one and we happen to be answering a question that you are interested in, I’m glad you are here.
Let’s go ahead and jump into today’s question about a student who’s asking about postbacs, and choosing a postbac based on prestige, or worrying about picking one of two postbacs, and picking one that may be looked down upon, or looked less at based on the name. And so let’s go ahead and read this question.
Postbac Institution Question
‘I’m having a hard time deciding between Fordham or Hunter for my postbac. While Hunter is cheaper, I do not want to get caught up in their bad bureaucracy or have to take an extra semester because I couldn’t get a class C. Additionally I cannot apply to Hunter until January versus my Fordham admissions rep saying he would process my application in two weeks and I can start this summer. It’s more risky applying to Hunter and I don’t want to delay my goals for a year on the chance I might get in or not get in. Fordham’s night and weekend classes would hugely free up my schedule for shadowing, volunteering, while letting me study during my peak hours as a morning person.
Hunter seems to offer more resources, guest lectures, advising. Both programs offer committee letters. My biggest fear is Fordham won’t be prestigious enough and harm my application. Is my final GPA truly what med schools care most about?’
Alright so I know this comes up a lot when parents and students are trying to decide what undergrad university to go to, when nontrads are trying to decide what postbac to go to, when students are applying to medical schools and worrying about the medical school name and how that will affect your residency. So this is a never ending cycle of ‘is it good enough?’ And let me answer that question with a very simple yes, it is good enough. When you look at medical schools, and you look at where they are accepting students from, they are accepting students from all over the country and the world, and they are taking students from community colleges, they’re taking students from rural liberal arts schools, they’re taking students from obviously the big names Harvard and elsewhere. Did you know- and it’s sheerly based on numbers here that the University of Florida which is my alma mater, they have one of the largest state schools in the country, and they typically year in and year out produce the most medical school matriculates every year. It’s a state school, it’s a well-known state school, but it’s also a huge state school, maybe that’s why they’re well-known. It’s not necessarily known for the academics, quite the contrary it’s usually ranked in the top for party schools, but it’s a great school that produces a lot of students. It’s not the name of the institution that schools are going to be judging you by. Are there some medical schools that look at it? Sure.
Are there some admissions committee members that have some biases? Sure. But that shouldn’t be the driving factor in your decision. The driving factor should be everything else that this student talked about, about how it works with the rest of his schedule, or her schedule, how it fits with their internal clock, this person is saying they’re a morning person, and so having those night and weekend classes would be better for that. So that’s how you should be judging these things, not the prestige of the institution.
I don’t know if I’ve said it on this podcast at all, I know I say it on The Premed Years often, and if you don’t listen to The Premed Years, you need to. It’s mandatory, I’m requiring you to go listen to that now, and you can find all of the podcasts that I do at www.MedEdMedia.com. But The Premed Years, I talk a lot about choosing a school that will make you great, not choosing a great school. Because just because the school has a great name attached to it, doesn’t mean that you will flourish there. You need to choose a school that will help you be great, let you shine. That’s as Forrest Gump says- actually it’s not Forrest Gump, it’s his buddy, I forget his name when he says, “That’s all I’ve got to say about that.” That is all I have to say about this topic.
Final Thoughts
If you have a question, like I said go to www.OldPremeds.org, sign up for an account, it is free, and we will hopefully answer your question here on the podcast. I know I always say ‘we,’ I don’t know why I do because it’s just me here. But I enjoy being here every week for you. Go listen to all of the other podcasts we’re doing over at www.MedEdMedia.com. Have a great week and we’ll catch you next week here at the Old Premeds Podcast.
