About the Johns Hopkins University Postbac Program [Show Summary]

For many future doctors, the simple step between college and medical school is not so clear cut. For various reasons, some sudents will choose to attend a pre-medical post-baccalaureate program to help boost their skills and experiences and to help them get into medical school. Dr. Alex Tan is the director of the Johns Hopkins postbac program for premed career changers and founder and director of the postbac Health Science Intensive (HSI) program. Her approach to the premed experience is thoughtful and is strongly influenced by her passion for guiding students to med school and to better self-exploration.

Interview with the Director of the Johns Hopkins Postbac Program [Transcript]

Linda Abraham: Postbac programs for physician wannabees can make all the difference between rejection and acceptance for academic enhancers and career changers. Let's learn about the two postbac programs offered by Johns Hopkins University from their director, Dr. Alexandra Tan.

Dr. Tan earned her BS at the University of Central Arkansas and then went on to get her PhD in Biology at Johns Hopkins in 2009. Somewhere along the way, she got bitten by the premed postbac educational bug. She became director of Johns Hopkins post-baccalaureate pre-medical program for career changers in 2012 and founded and became director of the Johns Hopkins post-baccalaureate Health Science Intensive program, also in 2012. Her approach to postbac education is highly analytical and data driven. She's been working to identify objective predictors of success in the medical school admissions process and develop tangible steps that help students achieve that success.

Linda Abraham:  Let's start with the basics, what is the post-baccalaureate pre-medical program at Johns Hopkins and who is it for? [1:59]

Dr. Alex Tan: Sure. So, postbac programs, in general, for anybody who isn't familiar, are essentially programs that are designed to give students an extension of their undergraduate time to accomplish a particular set of goals. There are two types of postbac programs. They are classically called career-changer programs or academic enhancer programs.

The premedical program is a career-changer program, which means it's essentially designed for students who need that extra time to be able to complete the lower division science classes. These are students who haven't had the year of biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics. More specifically, Hopkins, in general, is true to its reputation for being very strong in research. We certainly care a lot about leadership and independence and support for our unique, individual students. So, this program also encompasses a lot of those other qualities, as well.

Linda Abraham: Okay, so the postbac pre-medical program is for career changers. What about the Health Sciences Intensive? How is it different, both in its structure and its outcome? [3:28]

Dr. Tan: Sure, yes, that's true. In both cases, the students have the same goals. That's very true. As I said, there are two kinds of programs. The Health Science Intensive program is categorically considered an academic enhancer program, which essentially means that you've had the biology, the general chemistry, the organic chemistry, and the physics courses, the associated labs, and all of that completed.

So, postbac programs vary a lot, if you just look at what they accept and nationally what they look like. But, generally speaking, students who are eligible for one program would be ineligible...