Advising
Students that are seeking live one-on-one advisor to advisee interactions and a strong peer support environment will positively enjoy our small cohort. The navigation process in the pre-health environment can appear as daunting and overwhelming. With access to nine pre-health professional advisors from the Biological Sciences Student Affairs (BSSA) in addition to their primary postbacc. advisor, our students will receive comprehensive personalized guidance and time-lined information applicable to their individual progress. These counselors are experts in the core curriculum and they have a solid foundation to provide advice for competitive candidacy for health professions programs. Prior to the creation of this program, the BSSA office has provided advising to UCI’s postbaccalaureate population for many years. Our philosophy to pre-health advising is collaborative advising. It is important to us that we that establish a trusting and respectful relationship with our students. Students are monitored closely on their academic progress by their primary postbacc. advisor. Our students are “in the know” of their academic standing and continuously work their advisor to create aspirational milestones applicable to their current standing.
Free Accessible Weekly Tutoring
Free peer tutoring is available for basic science course, biological sciences core classes, variable upper division biological sciences electives, as well as general and organic chemistry. All tutors are academically strong students that have taken and excelled in these courses. Tutoring sessions include practice worksheets, and midterm and final review sessions, literature that references the exact same lectures the students are enrolled. Peer tutors attend all the same sessions as their students and create study material based on their prior experience in the course and current professors lectures.
Entrance Exams
The postbaccalaureate curriculum is designed to help students meet admission requirements while simultaneously preparing them entrance exams such as the MCAT, which is required for admission into allopathic or osteopathic medical programs.
Research
UC Irvine is a proud innovative research leading institution. Students have access to over 230 research opportunities with faculty from the School of Biological Sciences and UCI School of Medicine. Every quarter, we have about 1,000 students engaged in research. Our students work with distinguished faculty on cutting edge scientific projects in state of the art facilities. Though research is not part of the program’s curriculum structure, high achieving postbaccalaureate students are encouraged to take advantage of the unique research opportunities on campus during their second year or post completion of the program.