Washington University in St. Louis Post-Bacc Enhancement program

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BeTheBall

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How is this program for someone who has graduated with a degree in the sciences but had a lower GPA (3.3 to 3.5ish)?

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What makes you say that? Did you take this program?
 
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I have heard bad things about it. Expensive, no value for money. Post bac students very much an 'afterthought' with lack of official access to facilities available to undergrads, rude assistants in the office (Holly) etc etc.
 
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I have heard bad things about it. Expensive, no value for money. Post bac students very much an 'afterthought' with lack of official access to facilities available to undergrads, rude assistants in the office etc etc.

What do you mean by "no value for money"? It seems students have a wide option of EC opportunities available to them, including paid positions. Also it has coursework available in the sciences from an institution that is a great school and also a top medical school.

In regards to the post bacc students being an afterthought, could you provide some more information on this? I've never gone to a school like this, so I'm just wondering what sort of facility access to students is usually available? Is it just tutoring and extra lab time or something? I've only ever been at a school to do the coursework, both lectures and labs, that's it. But I've never studied in the US either. Could you/someone fill me in on what "official access to facilities" might mean? What sort of facilities/activities specifically?

Is your stance sort of a relative thing? Do you think there are better programs out there which would thus mean this one seems to be providing less value? Which programs do you think are better than this one? I looked at most of them and I really liked this one (in terms of a post bacc that is strictly undergrad courses at least), from what I've researched anyways.
 
I have the experience of doing both my undergrad and postbac here. It is more expensive compared to taking classes at a state school and there is a clear delineation between day school vs post-bac students, however I felt there were more pros that heavily outweighed those two cons. Things to not underestimate would be the rather easy access to do research work at WUSM and also the opportunity to tailor your coursework. I would say that the success rate of getting into medical school is heavily dependent on the student's ability and less dependent on the assistance from the program as an entity. I was also able to manage working full time to pay for my classes, so the cost of attendance can be manageable.

U-college is really a cash grab for the school. Keeping this in mind could change your perspective.
 
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I was a post-bacc student at WashU, not in the enhancement program tho. So I won't pretend I know the quality of the courses in the enhancement track.

The school is expensive. The evening courses are cheaper than the day courses (undergrad) tho. Yet having classes in the evening means that students can study, work, or volunteer during the day. Like the post above, I think the EC opportunity here is huge. Students often volunteer at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital or do research at the School of Medicine, both are top-notch facilities.

As far as the undergrad resources, I have used their career center for things like mock interviews, the writing center for PS workshop and personal writing advisory, LOR collecting/mailing/cover letter service, and many TA sessions. We also have full access to libraries, student health center, gym, free bus/metro pass, etc.

I'm really curious about what prettyinparadise has heard in detail. I personally know people here going to top-10 schools or people improved a lot from <3.0 undergrad GPA going to MD schools. We certainly won't think that it's a wast of time or money.
 
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Hey everyone. Did any of y'all apply and are planning on attending this program?
For those of you in the program, would you mind if I DM you with some questions? Thanks.
 
Just sent in my application two days ago. I've heard great things from another student in a similar position to me. We did not feel we were cared for or taught well at our undergrad institution and he couldn't speak more highly of this program and the people in charge of it. Does anyone know what their acceptance/admission criteria are?
 
Just sent in my application two days ago. I've heard great things from another student in a similar position to me. We did not feel we were cared for or taught well at our undergrad institution and he couldn't speak more highly of this program and the people in charge of it. Does anyone know what their acceptance/admission criteria are?

I think as long as you write a check you can be admitted.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
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I just started the program this summer. Taking my bio sequence now, chem/physics in the fall. I'm happy to answer any questions people may have, although like I said, I'm a new student. But here's what I can provide:

As far as admissions are concerned, I'm not really sure how competitive it is. I had a 3.7 as an undergraduate, put a lot of thought into my personal statement and got some pretty good recommendation letters. I have an entrepreneurship/management/finance degree. Science & medicine is my passion, but realized that later (hence why i'm a postbac lol). I was accepted without any sort of interview.

I don't think it's extremely competitive, but i'm not sure that's such a bad thing. As others have said, the opportunities are there for the taking, but it's up to the student to take advantage. There isn't much handholding (at least not yet) or telling you what you should be doing. However, everyone seems to be approachable and willing to help if you ask. Top medical schools seem to be obtainable, but I can't really speak much on that yet.

The students in my current bio2 class seem like intelligent people and the class isn't easy. Granted, it's a summer course, so the acceleration may be making it more difficult. Both our professor and lab professor are pretty remarkable people and have impressive backgrounds--so they're definitely qualified, and i'm excited about future courses. Our professor teaches it in more "medicine-y" type of way--focusing more on the material that'll be more present/applicable on the MCAT and in our future careers, and also by providing lots of clinical and pathological examples. Basically, they know why we are there, what we want to learn, and what we need to learn. For example, we spent waaay more time learning about prokaryotes and bacterial strains than we did vascular plants and zoology. Our lab portion in Bio II is 4 weeks, 2 or which are strictly dissections (so I guess that's good).

Overall, I think it'll be good. Barnes Jewish is right down the street, and I've had plenty of opportunities to shadow remarkable physicians, all of which seem very accommodating towards WashU students. I get 3-4 emails a week from my advisor with different work-study or research lab opportunities. There's a welcome lunch/meet-and-greet in 3 weeks with the staff and new students. The majority of the classes are small, and they're almost all post-bac students, so I think that's another plus. I'll be going through my courses with the same group of people, so I hope to make some good friends. I'm not sure if the prestige from the Washington University name will carry over into applications, but it certainly can't hurt.

Saint Louis isn't bad. It's not great, but there's plenty to do. Cost of living is cheap. The cost of the program isn't, but it was a good $15,000 less than others. I think it made sense for me because I had ZERO science courses in college, so I need to start from scratch. For others it may be different.

Anyway, that's all i have. Feel free to message if you have any other questions.
 
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I just started the program this summer. Taking my bio sequence now, chem/physics in the fall. I'm happy to answer any questions people may have, although like I said, I'm a new student. But here's what I can provide:

As far as admissions are concerned, I'm not really sure how competitive it is. I had a 3.7 as an undergraduate, put a lot of thought into my personal statement and got some pretty good recommendation letters. I have an entrepreneurship/management/finance degree. Science & medicine is my passion, but realized that later (hence why i'm a postbac lol). I was accepted without any sort of interview.

I don't think it's extremely competitive, but i'm not sure that's such a bad thing. As others have said, the opportunities are there for the taking, but it's up to the student to take advantage. There isn't much handholding (at least not yet) or telling you what you should be doing. However, everyone seems to be approachable and willing to help if you ask. Top medical schools seem to be obtainable, but I can't really speak much on that yet.

The students in my current bio2 class seem like intelligent people and the class isn't easy. Granted, it's a summer course, so the acceleration may be making it more difficult. Both our professor and lab professor are pretty remarkable people and have impressive backgrounds--so they're definitely qualified, and i'm excited about future courses. Our professor teaches it in more "medicine-y" type of way--focusing more on the material that'll be more present/applicable on the MCAT and in our future careers, and also by providing lots of clinical and pathological examples. Basically, they know why we are there, what we want to learn, and what we need to learn. For example, we spent waaay more time learning about prokaryotes and bacterial strains than we did vascular plants and zoology. Our lab portion in Bio II is 4 weeks, 2 or which are strictly dissections (so I guess that's good).

Overall, I think it'll be good. Barnes Jewish is right down the street, and I've had plenty of opportunities to shadow remarkable physicians, all of which seem very accommodating towards WashU students. I get 3-4 emails a week from my advisor with different work-study or research lab opportunities. There's a welcome lunch/meet-and-greet in 3 weeks with the staff and new students. The majority of the classes are small, and they're almost all post-bac students, so I think that's another plus. I'll be going through my courses with the same group of people, so I hope to make some good friends. I'm not sure if the prestige from the Washington University name will carry over into applications, but it certainly can't hurt.

Saint Louis isn't bad. It's not great, but there's plenty to do. Cost of living is cheap. The cost of the program isn't, but it was a good $15,000 less than others. I think it made sense for me because I had ZERO science courses in college, so I need to start from scratch. For others it may be different.

Anyway, that's all i have. Feel free to message if you have any other questions.

Thanks for your thoughts! I'll be a student in the enhancement track in a few weeks.
How did you go about getting your shadowing opportunities?
 
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Thanks for your thoughts! I'll be a student in the enhancement track in a few weeks.
How did you go about getting your shadowing opportunities?
Hi! I'm currently interested in the enhancement program. Can you provide any feedback or your experiences of it thus far?
 
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Nekoatsume, did you end up enrolling in the WUSTL enhancement post bacc program? So curious to know your thoughts on the quality of program, support, advising, EC opportunities, changes for med school acceptance??
 
Same here, thinking about it for my gap year while I applu
 
Bump! I was recently accepted and since the due date for the enrollment procedure's July, I wanted to see how this program was and the experiences of the current students were!
 
Hi! I applied to the Enrichment program. Anyone have any pros/cons for this program!
 
Does anyone know about the successes of the linkages?
 
Does anyone know about the successes of the linkages?
Anecdotal but a girl I know said 4 or 5 people in her class went to Case, and I know of one guy who did the program and went to Case.
 
Anecdotal but a girl I know said 4 or 5 people in her class went to Case, and I know of one guy who did the program and went to Case.


Thanks! How big was the class? How was your experiences for the program either positive or negative?
 
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