Quentin Quinn said:
I know the classes at HES are about half the cost of those at Penn, which may be a deciding factor in and of itself... though that advantage is offset somewhat by Boston's ridiculous cost of living. I am wondering if Penn's other advantages (some Sat. classes since I'll be working, and the ability to obtain a second bachelor's through CGS if desired) are worth paying a bit more in tuition.
Doesn't Penn also have linkage with some medical schools (Pitt?)? For those who want to skip the glide year, that's a significant advantage. I've heard Penn has an excellent, but competitive, program.
I'm at HES. In answer to OP, anyone can pay their money and take the courses but to be sponsored by Health Careers Program you need to apply and pay your $100. What you get for $100 is sponsorship (LOR, assistance with applications) and HCP sponsorship seems to have a pretty good track record as others have noted.
However if your u/g grades are below ~3.2 or if you have some poor science grades then they require you to get MCAT score of 30+ in order to "earn" sponsorship. What this means in real life is that if you do the whole program in one year (gen chem in the summer, then bio + orgo + physics during the school year) then you MUST take the April MCAT and do well on it in order to receive sponsorship. If you wait until August MCAT in order to have the entire summer to focus on prepping for the test, it'll be probably too late for sponsorship this year. Doing the program over two years is probably the best way, if you have the time.
The HES courses are excellent; though the professors vary in quality they all seem to teach to the MCAT. That is, they teach you to think and apply and integrate the concepts rather than just slavishly do the mediocre textbook exercises. General chemistry has a whole book of problems which are much deeper and provocative thinking problems than what the textbook provides. The bio exams and problem sets appear to be patterned after MCAT exams and are great preparation. These people know what they're doing, in other words.
The courses at HES are currently $800/semester, which in Boston at least is quite inexpensive. It's comparable to what residents pay for U-Mass Boston, and the quality is certainly as good if not better in some courses.
Some gripes I have: they don't issue you a university ID card for the semester courses (in summer school you're paying $4000 for the 2-semester equivalent, and you have all the privileges of a full time student for 2.5 glorious months). So to get into the library just to study, you need to show them your receipt, and you can't check out books. Annoying. Also, orgo is not up to the quality of bio; the professors seem unorganized, there are mistakes in the lecture notes and handouts, and generally they seem inexperienced as teachers, though they are very bright people who know their organic chemistry. Gen chem has great professors both in the summer and during the school year.
I did summer general chemistry, am taking bio and orgo now, and will probably do physics next summer and (possibly) the August MCAT, so it's a 14 month effort. I'll cross the sponsorship bridge when I get to it. Right now my goal is to learn the material, do well on the exams, and have fun while I'm at it!
Just my own experiences.
-bg
