UC San Diego & the School of Medicine
The UC San Diego Post Baccalaureate Premedical Program partners with the UC San Diego School of Medicine (SOM) in both the development and implementation of the Post Bacc Premedical program. The program advisory board includes SOM faculty. While there is no guarantee that applications by Post Bacc students to the UC San Diego SOM will be accepted, many alumni have applied and been offered admission to UC San Diego.
When designing the new UC San Diego Post Baccalaureate Premedical Program, the Advisory board studied programs from around the country and identified a number of elements common to the most effective (in terms of medical school admissions) "career changer" programs:
- a cohort-based format
- about 30 students per cohort
- strong, experienced advisors with only a few students each
- tutoring
- coaching on application portfolios
The UC San Diego planning team took these elements and applied them to a "record/academic enhancement" model. Additionally, UC San Diego School of Medicine had a Post Baccalaureate Premedical program for 23 years. This program, which closed in 2013, included many of the key characteristics noted above and focused on academic record enhancement. Hence, building on the success of the previous program, incorporating the attributes of the most successful programs and focusing on strengthening the medical school portfolio, was a natural approach.
The UC San Diego Post Baccalaureate Premedical Program has a conditional linkage to Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, an osteopathic medical school.
Fun Facts
- The UC San Diego Post Baccalaureate Premedical Program has an 94% success rate, meaning that 94% of our graduates who successfully completed the program (GPA > 3.3) and applied to medical school were accepted.
- 85% matriculated to Allopathic medical schools
- 15% were accepted to Osteopathic programs