How is a post-bacc different (or similar) from undergraduate and graduate studies?

Although my long absence is admittedly due in part to the pre-Turkey Day workload and the post-Turkey Day coma, it is also due to the fact that this is actually the hardest question to answer. In fact, one of the disadvantages of a post-bacc program is its rather ambiguous position, being neither an undergraduate program nor a graduate program. Whenever I tell someone what I am doing this year, I have trouble getting it across to them that this is not just a 5th year of undergrad, and that I will also not have a Master’s at the end of it.

At the most basic level, since this is a certificate program, at the end of it you theoretically get another piece of paper that, in the words of a good friend of mine, “says you know stuff.” The program is also now on your transcripts, and this proves to graduate schools that you are serious about your education, since you have already postponed your life one year in pursuit of your goal.

A post-bacc can also offer a student extra opportunities that are not necessarily available to undergraduates. As mentioned in a previous post, a post-bacc student may be able to take classes with graduates, often pass/fail. In this way a student can experience the workload and pace of a graduate-level class without all of the pressure, making the post-bacc sort of like a baby-step into grad school. A student may also get the opportunity to be a grader.

I guess that’s the last of the post-bacc series. If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask away! Meanwhile, good luck on all your end of the semester activities and I promise to devote some of the holiday break, when I’m not filling out grad school applications, to thinking about what I will be posting next.

Happy Holidays!