Community College Grades vs. 4-Year University Grades

[Amber032]

I've been out of HS for a few years now, and the colleges I applied to said they want me to take 1 or 2 semesters at a different college and then apply again as a transfer to a 4-year undergrad university. So I'm doing 1 or 2 semesters at a community college 1st.
I read on the forums here that medical schools want to know that you didn't do better at a community college than at the 4-year university. I'm doing the basic classes at the community college (like biology 1, english 1, pre-calc., etc) in the 1 or 2 semesters I'm there. Right now I have above a 4.0 GPA at the cc because I've been doing extra credit. Also, typically the cc classes are easier. Do medical schools care if I get a 4.0 or higher at the community college, and then a 3.7 at the 4-year university, for example? How big of a difference are we talking about? (Most medical schools generally don't accept below a cumulative 3.5 GPA anway). Thanks

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[Fluidity of Movement]

The CC vs University difficulty is a myth. Course difficulty varies wildly from professor to professor, not so much institution to institution.

Most community colleges you will be sitting at 80-89 is a B and 90+ is an A, and you can be guaranteed no curve, maybe some extra credit for freshman classes. If you mess up slightly your entire GPA shifts from a 4 to a 3.

Many people overlook the fact that community college you generally have more access to teachers and professors and resources in which makes you a better student, instead of being one out of 200 people hoping to hear something from office hours down the hall.

This translates into better grades which people confuse for being easier. This is not in any way to dunk on universities as they are great obviously but there are advantages to certain classes at community college depending on the institution and professor.

I'll let One of the experts answer your question as there is still a perceived difference, But you should not feel bad one bit about your education or community college as an opportunity.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Agrees with @Fluidity of Movement

This myth serves just to intimidate applicants who don't come from a privileged path and to assure advisors that they really play necessary roles advising naive prehealth students (sometimes, that's what I believe). Prehealth advising does not get support in CC's, but that is slowly changing and in specific regions and systems.

There are many Ph.D.'s who love teaching at community college, and science workforce diversity (Ph.D.'s) shows CC's play a role contributing to higher education diversity (faculty and administration). I'm sure it also extends to overall higher ed workforce diversity.

In light of SCOTUS, I would expect more attention will be paid to honor CC work.