Distance learning to med school

A few months back there was a thread about the difficulties of using distance learning on the path to med school. I ran over something today that I think might be an encouragement for some of you.

Harvard Extension has a pre-med diploma program (32 credits) that is open to anyone with a bachelor degree! It's priced well (under $10K), and even though it's on campus, it allows you to take your distance-earned degree onto med school. The require one year of college math, and one year of college English as an entrance program pre-req, but otherwise it is open enrollment.

Something else to note, if you meet the academic standards, they will "sponsor" your med school application.

They do not post success rate of applicants, but if you can take a degree from one of the big three and spend only 18 months on campus (at Harvard!)....it might be worth a look!

://www.extension.harvard.edu/2007-08/programs/hcp/overview/

 

It is important to note that their diploma, the Diploma in Premedical Studies, is available only to students who have never taken any of the included courses, 32 semester hours of hard-natural-science med school prerequisites, at another institution.

Students who have taken any of the courses may still take discrete courses in the Harvard Extension School Health Careers Program, and I believe many do just this to improve their medical or health-profession school applications, they just can't get that diploma in the end, or get some of the perks of enrollment in a Harvard degree, diploma or certificate along the way.

It is still a wonderful opportunity either way!

 

If one does graduate, being eligible to join the Harvard Club is also pretty cool.

 

>>

Yes, that is correct. You can take the regular gen ed intro science courses, but not the hard sciences. (The ones that usually have a pre-req) I emailed them to clarify- here is my email to them:

>I would like you to clarify the statement for me: "As a diploma
>candidate, you may not have taken any of these courses previously at
>another institution."
>
>As a BA holder, does this mean that gen ed credit in cell biology and
>general chemistry excludes a candidate from participating in the program,
>or does it mean that the credit is simply not transferred in and must be
>completed in residence regardless of prior credit earned?
>
>Thank you for your assistance!


Here is the reply I got back:

Thank you for your e-mail. Please note that the Diploma in Premedical
Studies is just a small subset of the Health Careers Program. If you are
ineligible for the Diploma in Premedical Studies by virtue of having taken
some of the basic science courses previously, you can still join the
Health Careers Program and seek to earn our sponsorship of your
application to medical school. I don't know if the gen ed credit you
refer to was earned in actual premed sciences, such as a standard intro
bio course with lab or general chemistry with lab. If these were not
premed courses, but core courses that every student takes to have an
educated person's understanding of science, then you could belong to both
the Health Careers Program and the Diploma Program.

With best wishes,
Owen Peterson
Assistant Director
Health Careers Program