About

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.
 

In April 2023, UC San Diego Post Baccalaureate Premedical Program instructor Steve Schneid and alumni Patrick Loehr (MS4, UCSD Prime-HEq), Nina Yu (MS2, UC Davis), and Clarissa Camarena (incoming MS1, UCSD Prime-HEq) participated in the Western Group on Education Affairs (WGEA) regional medical education conference in Honolulu, HI. They presented a poster, A Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program and Pre-matriculation Course That Prepares Students for Success in Medical School, which describes the post baccalaureate program's goals and curriculum. The poster presentation allowed the alumni to speak about their experience in the program and success into medical school to other medical school faculty, staff, and students throughout the western region.

Patrick is now a 4th year PRIME-HEq medical student at UC San Diego School of Medicine, Nina is a 2nd year medical student at UC Davis School of Medicine, and Clarissa is an incoming PRIME-HEq student at UC San Diego School of Medicine. All have served as former post baccalaureate liaisons. Steve Schneid, MHPE, is the Director of Education Development and Scholarship at UC San Diego, directs the UCSD SOM pre-matriculation course, and is the lead instructor for the Post Baccalaureate Premedical Program, teaching students throughout the entire program. Nina and Patrick also joined Steve for panel sessions as part of the conference.