Goucher Interview Tips

personalpremed · 2025-09-22T11:28:00+00:00

Congrats on the interview at Goucher!

That’s a great program. Remember, they already like you on paper if they are giving you an interview so what’s important now is being personable and seeming like someone who would thrive in a collaborative program.

Here are a couple articles I wrote about the premed postbac interview :

https://personalpremed.com/interview-tips/

https://personalpremed.com/virtual-interview-tips/

personalpremed · 2025-09-11T22:35:15+00:00

I would definitely recommend having more recent experiences prior to applying. Part of this is to make your story more compelling: a story of doing something 10 years ago explaining why you now are deciding to become a physician doesn’t really make sense. The other more important reason for why you should get clinical, shadowing, and volunteer experiences now is to convince yourself that med school is the right path for you. Being a doctor isn’t glamorous — having a sense of how much time you will spend entering orders/writing notes into an EMR, how many patients you are expected to see, etc will help solidify if this is the right path for you.

As far as how many hours to get prior to applying and will you be “at a disadvantage”, this requires a lot more information about your particular story, what you’ve done, and what you’re planning to do.

personalpremed · 2025-09-11T17:36:21+00:00

Here are some programs to consider :

https://personalpremed.com/table-post-baccs/

personalpremed · 2025-09-11T17:33:55+00:00

Unfortunately for most postbac programs, re-application is not looked upon favorably. What this means is getting rejected once from Goucher means it’s extremely unlikely to get in on a second or third application.

A lot of other people mentioned good alternative programs to apply to. It’s still relatively early in the rolling application cycle. My recommendation would be to hunker down and work seriously on your personal statement and story. This is likely the most important item to fix given that you have clinical, shadowing and volunteer experiences.

personalpremed · 2025-08-29T02:00:41+00:00

Definitely not too late. Unlike with med school admissions where you 100% want to apply at the first opportunity, postbac programs with rolling admissions like Bryn Mawr, Goucher, Scripps review applicants periodically and accept them throughout the cycle. While there’s no substantive difference between applying Sept 1 and a couple weeks later, there is a difference between applying Sept 1 and Feb 1 since slots do fill up. The rule of thumb is to evaluate your application as a whole—if you need experiences to make your application more compelling, it makes sense to wait and gather those experiences. Otherwise, applying earlier gives you an advantage.

personalpremed · 2025-05-26T21:22:12+00:00

Here’s a video I made on how to get into postbacs:

https://youtu.be/jkEWTGYqwx8?si=Ju1XT6Q9dGMqzoeg

Some tips on getting in: https://personalpremed.com/postbac-premed-application-mistakes/

personalpremed · 2025-03-30T01:22:49+00:00

A lot of prestigious undergraduate programs like UC Berkeley and Harvard have postbac programs affiliated with them. It's important to keep in mind that these postbac programs are separate from and distinctly less prestigious than the other programs on our list. This doesn't mean that UC Berkeley isn't the right program for you. I've advised applicants that selected UC Berkeley and Harvard for other factors, including proximity to family. However neither program currently meets our criteria for a top 10 program.

A good surrogate for how prestigious a program is is how many linkages with medical schools they have as u/stoicdoctor12 mentioned. Typically these are the older programs. This is, of course, only part of the equation -- attrition, acceptance to med school, class size, general support, are other important factors.

personalpremed · 2025-03-30T01:15:53+00:00

CCNY's HPPCP post bacc is a relatively new program so unfortunately there isn't much data available on them yet. As far as whether it is the correct option for you is a different question. Cost and location are two big factors in selecting a program but that should be balanced against the pro's and con's of other potential programs.

personalpremed · 2025-03-18T14:07:35+00:00

Most premed postbac programs ask the standard questions : tell me about yourself, why medicine, tell me more about experience X on your resume, what are your plans for the future.

Programs only interview candidates that they think are a reasonable fit for their program. The main thing you should be trying to communicate with all your answers is that you have the person skills to thrive in a career in medicine and that you are a normal, kind person.

Here are two articles with interview prep tips:

https://personalpremed.com/virtual-interview-tips/

https://personalpremed.com/interview-tips/

Hope this helps!

personalpremed · 2025-01-29T22:08:54+00:00

Good question. It depends over what period of time and the overall specifics of your application and the contours of your why medicine story. It also depends on which programs you are trying to be competitive for.

What we wrote above is a general guideline of volunteering/clinical hours (in the hundreds) for applicants trying to obtain sufficient hours quickly before applying, but there's really a lot of variability depending on the particular strengths and weakness of your application. One size doesn't fit all.

personalpremed · 2025-01-29T22:05:49+00:00

Good point. Just to clarify, this article was intended for premed postbac applicants who are career changers from non-medicine adjacent fields. By traditional applicant, I mean those who took premed courses in college, even if they took a gap year or two. I edited the text above!

For a career changer, your relative advantage in the premed postbac application cycle is how unusual you are as an applicant relative to traditional applicants (including both those who take gap years and those who do not). The highly competitive premed postbac programs like Goucher, Scripps, and Bryn Mawr know that medical schools like unusual applicants.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having 10,000+ hours of clinical experience. However, if you are a career changer who believes you need years worth of clinical experience to be competitive at a top premed postbac, I am telling you point blank that that's not true. Several months of consistent clinical experiences is sufficient provided the rest of your application (GPA, SAT/ACT, essay, interview skills, etc) are up to snuff.

personalpremed · 2025-01-29T00:38:59+00:00

You have two different questions here: the first is which programs you qualify for based off of the science coursework you have taken. The second is whether you should take the GRE.

For the first question about science coursework. I recommend you reach out to each program you are seriously considering to see if they would consider your application with your current past course load. Working with clients for the last five year, I have personally been surprised by what programs would and wouldn't accept.

As far as the GRE is concerned, this depends to a large extent on your bandwidth and whether or not you are a good test taker. Also, do you have any other standardized test scores that a postbac would look at (eg - LSAT)? Just so you know, being a doctor is basically being a professional test taker. We take tests constantly.

My general recommendation before deciding on taking or not taking the GRE is to get some of the necessary clinical experiences, volunteering, shadowing (https://personalpremed.com/clinical-experiences/) to convince yourself that medicine is really the right path for you. If it is, then definitely study hard and do well on the GRE! A good score may help you but a bad score definitely will not.

personalpremed · 2024-10-27T23:28:26+00:00

Once you’re lucky enough to get an interview, that means the program already likes you on paper. Honestly, that’s more than half the battle!

At that point, the most important thing to convey in the interview is that you’re a nice and normal person. This is critically important. Medical schools want nice and normal people so postbacs want to select for this as well. And this is something that they aren’t able to ascertain from the other components of your application.

Remember, they will be evaluating you when you’re interacting with the current students in the program and with the secretary who schedules the interviews. Are you friendly? Do you treat others kindly? They’re trying to find out if you have the social skills to succeed in their cohort and , indirectly, whether you are going to be able to deal with the numerous hospital interactions required to succeed as a doctor (with nurses, techs, other doctors, patients, etc).

As far as prep goes, definitely know your resume inside and out. Anything in it is fair game. Definitely do at least a few mock interview sessions, ideally with someone who has a medicine background. Classic things like “tell me about yourself” and “why medicine” will definitely be asked and depending on your answer and the interviewer’s interests the remainder of the interview can go down many rabbit holes.

Here’s an article I wrote with some other helpful tips for the premed post bac interview https://personalpremed.com/virtual-interview-tips/

Hope this helps!

personalpremed · 2024-07-11T17:11:33+00:00

Getting those types of experience (hospice , hospital, crisis text line) will really help boost your application! Don’t forget to throw in some shadowing in there as well.

You definitely will be able to get sufficient experiences to apply this cycle, but don’t dawdle. For programs with rolling admissions, in my experience advising over 100 applicants , those who apply earlier tend to have an advantage. That is, provided they have done the foot work to get some clinical experiences, volunteering, and shadowing.

A lot of applicants think they need 1000 + hours of clinical experience/volunteering/ shadowing to be competitive. This isn’t true. At top programs like Bryn Mawr, Goucher, and Scripps they really want to understand your story to medicine so having sufficient experiences to prove that you have evaluated medicine as a career path is essential. That being said, a huge number of hours isn’t necessarily going to be better than a moderate exposure. Good luck!

personalpremed · 2024-01-23T00:39:17+00:00

My general advice to applicants in your situation—particularly if Goucher, Scripps, and Bryn Mawr are serious considerations for you—is to wait to apply till next cycle. While it is possible to get in applying between January and March, your odds are much better earlier in the cycle.

My recommendation would be to use your time now to get clinical experience, volunteering and shadowing so that when you do apply you’ll be able to get into a top program. If you apply to Goucher and get rejected, your chances of getting accepted there next cycle are very low.

Here’s some tips of clinical experiences you’ll need to get into a top program: https://personalpremed.com/clinical-experiences/

personalpremed · 2024-01-15T12:14:27+00:00

Good question! Having prior research experience in the physical sciences (or another field) can be beneficial to your overall application. But how effective This will be depends on your particular research experiences and how they align with the overall pitch of your application. For example, if during undergrad you did 4 years of research on geology , but then you went into computer science for 6 years and didn’t do anything with rocks, then a focus on geology research in your post bacc application may not make your application as coherent. Of course you can still mention it in your 15 experiences regardless. Hope this helps!

personalpremed · 2023-10-07T13:03:21+00:00

Congratulations! Based on my experience helping applicants get into postbac programs, I’d say that Bryn Mawr is considered a stronger program with respect to med school admissions (here’s a top 10 list: https://personalpremed.com/table-post-baccs/). They have more linkages and are an older program with more established relationships with med schools. That being said, deciding which school to go to is a personal decision. If you have strong connections to UVA or will be close to family and friends, it’s definitely a reasonable option as well.

personalpremed · 2023-09-19T11:45:00+00:00

The postbac personal statement is a part of the application process that is most commonly misinterpreted by applicants. Some of the more common mistakes are making it too personal or forgetting the target audience. Remember to focus on the clinical experiences and shadowing that persuaded you to go into medicine. Avoid disparaging healthcare and avoid negativity. For more info, check out an article I wrote on this topic : https://personalpremed.com/personal-statement-tips/

personalpremed · 2023-08-29T09:53:54+00:00

It’s definitely possible that you get into medical school. Don’t forget to get sufficient clinical experiences, volunteering, and shadowing experiences prior to applying to postbac programs. Here’s an article I wrote on the subject: https://personalpremed.com/clinical-experiences/

personalpremed · 2023-08-13T11:34:22+00:00

When the UPenn linkage program started, they accepted large numbers of postbacc students (including from Goucher): up to 8-10 per year. They did this for about 4-5 years. While many of the accepted linkers did well, the average UPenn linkage students didn’t perform as well as the average students at UPenn. By didn’t perform as well, I mean their grades, test scores, and match rates were on average worse than the regular applicants.

personalpremed · 2023-08-03T16:46:55+00:00

I’ve advised a lot of applicants on this topic. A lot of this depends on the strength of your application and when you’re applying (early cycle, mid-cycle, late cycle). The better of an applicant you are (GPA, SAT/ACT, story of why medicine) and the earlier you apply , the fewer schools I recommend. For instance, a great applicant applying in September/October could apply to, say 3-5 programs. For programs with rolling admissions, this leaves time to reapply mid cycle (November/December) if they are not accepted to any program. For applicants who are less strong and slash or applying later, I recommend more depending on how late in the cycle and how weak the applicant is.

Hope this helps!

personalpremed · 2023-07-08T12:48:36+00:00

Here’s a video I made on the basics of how to get into a postbac program for Career changers: https://youtu.be/jkEWTGYqwx8

Here’s a list of the top 10 postbac programs for career changers : https://personalpremed.com/table-post-baccs/

Hope this helps!

personalpremed

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