How the FAU Medical Post-Baccalaureate Certificate Program Can Help You

1. The FAU Medical Post-Baccalaureate (postbac) Certificate Program is designed as a career enhancer for students who did not receive acceptance into medical school because they may be lacking one or more key prerequisites. By augmenting your skills, experiences and strengths, you will become a more competitive candidate.
2. The program provides a comprehensive curriculum that assists prospective medical students in their professional and personal growth, with the ultimate aim of improving their opportunities for acceptance into a medical school, or other healthcare career opportunities.
3. The postbac program offers medical school-level courses taught with the same established curriculum used to teach matriculating medical students. Four medical school-level courses will appear on your transcripts, and provide you with the ability to demonstrate their course proficiency and time management to prospective admissions officers.
4. By exposing you to the rigors of advanced research, you will have the opportunity to discover the world of clinical research. Working with world-renowned research institutes, you will receive a hands-on experience in a research environment, and be expected to produce an abstract for submittal for peer review with the assistance of the research faculty.
5. An important emphasis of the MCAT is directed towards the synthesis and transformation of ideas. Additional individualized training will be directed towards applying sound testing techniques as well as cognitive learning and transformational techniques to apply to your MCAT exam.
6. You will participate in personal skills development, including planning, communications (written and oral, including preparation for interviewing and interviewing skills enhancement), leadership, time management, collaboration, brainstorming and teamwork. Medical school admissions reviewers are looking for depth of character and maturity, and a breadth of qualifications. These invaluable life skills will enhance you personally, regardless of your final career choice.
7. The postbac program has established volunteer opportunities with a variety of clinics and agencies that will afford you the opportunity to meet and interact directly with patients. Medical schools seek candidates that will relate to patients in an empathetic manner. Understanding patient issues, recognizing the importance of good communications, and having experience with diverse populations are key ingredients to developing patient relationships.
8. The program will provide you with the opportunity to become facilitators in the advanced use of simulation training for medical students. This opportunity will introduce you to a variety of medical scenarios and help you develop the understanding and importance of good history and physical assessment techniques. The facilitator’s role is both standardized patient (the remote voices for the anatomical mannequins) and direction of the logical paths the medical care case scenarios will follow.
9. You will have the opportunity to participate as standardized patients. These roles facilitate the medical school student’s interaction with patients in a controlled, orchestrated environment. By interacting with the medical students, you will learn techniques for appropriate patient/doctor communication and interaction.
10. At successful completion of the first semester, you are guaranteed an interview with Schmidt College of Medicine  provided   that you meet the  minimum requirements for admissions   . The scheduling of the interview shall depend upon the readiness of each individual student to be presented as candidates to medical schools, based upon the discretion of the postbac program directors. For most students, that will require the completion of the entire program, and applying in the following term for admission to medical schools. For others, it may be possible to submit an application in the middle of the first semester, with an interview early in the second semester at FAU and potentially, at other institutions as well.  Remember, the ultimate arbiter of the admissions process lies within the purview of the College of Medicine’s Admissions Committee. Their decision is the final word on candidate selection for medical school admission.