Session 18

Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan and Rich again dive into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you.

Today's question is quite interesting as it pertains to busy nontraditional students who may not have time to go to classes and the risk of taking online coursework over the in-campus classes.

OldPreMeds Question of the Week:

Can you use an online degree for medical school?

The poster considers doing an online degree as an older nontraditional student. They've email premed consultants and directly to medical schools and thinking about doing a BA online at the University of Florida. Final 30 hours would be online and completing premed coursework at a local campus.

Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich:

1. Some places online courses but most schools do not accept that.

• MSAR lists which schools will accept or not accept online prerequisites

1. Undergrad institutions providing online courses are putting their name on the course.

• These schools would argue that their online course is as good as any course that they teach in-campus so in all the transcripts you won't know whether it's an online class or not.
• Medical schools would like to see whether it's online or not. They may ask a question on your secondary to state if you're taking any online coursework.

If you're doing the prerequisites in an actual campus and the rest of the degree online, there still could be some risks to it.

• It could limit you to what medical schools to apply to
• It may put you at a competitive disadvantage in the applicant pool

Major takeaway from this episode:

• It is such a time-consuming and expensive process to apply to medical school so you wouldn't want to run such a risk. If taking an online course is a risk worth taking, go for it.
• Don't rely on one just one medical school to apply to. Do your research. Check out the MSAR or the CIB to arrive at the best decision possible.

Links and Other Resources

MSAR

CIB

If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question.

Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are.

Also check out the Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net.

Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review.

Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including The Premed Years and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned!

Email Dr. Ryan Gray at [email protected] or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.