Im in CC, how important is it for me to take chem.?

Im in a community college right now trying to get my GE out of the way. how important is it that i take chemistry classes for GE requirements as opposed to something like astronomy or oceanography. I need to decide by tomorrow

bate18 said:

Im in a community college right now trying to get my GE out of the way. how important is it that i take chemistry classes for GE requirements as opposed to something like astronomy or oceanography. I need to decide by tomorrow

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What does astronomy or oceanography have to do with pharmacy? 😕

FutureRxGal said:

What does astronomy or oceanography have to do with pharmacy? 😕

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maybe I wrote it wrong, but, what I meant to ask was how important to pharm schools is it that I take chemistry in CC as opposed to taking other science classes to fulfill my GE req.

if science is in your GE, then you should go ahead and take chemistry. Even if you have to take it again, you are at least ahead of other people. Oceanography doesn't help you at all in pharmacy.

bate18 said:

Im in a community college right now trying to get my GE out of the way. how important is it that i take chemistry classes for GE requirements as opposed to something like astronomy or oceanography. I need to decide by tomorrow

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This is just a really weird question to me.

Take what you want to fulfill your GE requirements but realize that oceanography nor astronomy will be adquate for anything as far as pre-reqs for pharmacy.

I honestly about died when i saw this question.

Decide what you want to do with your life and go that way because it doesn't seem that you have a clue about the requirements for pharmacy

bate18 said:

maybe I wrote it wrong, but, what I meant to ask was how important to pharm schools is it that I take chemistry in CC as opposed to taking other science classes to fulfill my GE req.

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Why wouldn't you take the courses (i.e. chemistry, biology, physiology) that will only help you in pharmacy school or in getting to that point? I'm still confused as to why you even mentioned astronomy and oceanography.

Maybe s/he is questioning taking the prereqs at a cc VS. university setting 😕

Are you planning on tking your GE's at a cc and transferring to a university?
If I were you, I would go a head and take the classes (anatomy, physiology, chem, etc.) at your cc. It will give you a good foundation for the upper division courses you'll be taking at a university setting (ie, biochem), not to mention knock off some some prereqs for pharmacy school. You are trying to get into pharmacy school right?

ICA said:

Maybe s/he is questioning taking the prereqs at a cc VS. university setting 😕

Are you planning on tking your GE's at a cc and transferring to a university?
If I were you, I would go a head and take the classes (anatomy, physiology, chem, etc.) at your cc. It will give you a good foundation for the upper division courses you'll be taking at a university setting (ie, biochem), not to mention knock off some some prereqs for pharmacy school. You are trying to get into pharmacy school right?

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you got it. i plan on take my GE at CC and then transfering to get my bachelors and then hopefully pharm school. i used astronomy and oceanography as general examples of other science classes, i didnt mean for you guys to get hung up on them sorry for the confusion

bate18 said:

you got it. i plan on take my GE at CC and then transfering to get my bachelors and then hopefully pharm school. i used astronomy and oceanography as general examples of other science classes, i didnt mean for you guys to get hung up on them sorry for the confusion

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Ok well that's cool!

Just so you know some CCs don't really adequately prepare you for large universities so be aware of that fact... and that i said some not all...

Secondly... if you take chem at a university you will get more of a feel of what pharm school will be like (in my opinion) as far as class size, instructor involvement etc.

good luck!

i misunderstood and thought you were asking about taking the other science courses instead of chem....

bbmuffin said:

Ok well that's cool!

Just so you know some CCs don't really adequately prepare you for large universities so be aware of that fact... and that i said some not all...

Secondly... if you take chem at a university you will get more of a feel of what pharm school will be like (in my opinion) as far as class size, instructor involvement etc.

good luck!

i misunderstood and thought you were asking about taking the other science courses instead of chem....

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yea, reread my previous posts and i wrote them poorly. my bad 😀

Not to go off the deep end here, but I really believe the quality of education in CC's is better than that in 4 year universities. You are much more likely to be a name and not just a number in a CC and don't even get me started on useless lecture classes (in Universities) given by out of country grad students who don't have any teaching experience, much less the type of spoken english to adequately convey comples scientific subjects.

That said, I do believe grading in CC's is much easier and there are many other benefits to a University-many more clubs, research ops, and other support services offered to students interested in pursuing grad schools that community colleges just can't match.

I guess my point was that both types of institutions have major benefits and drawbacks, but don't just downplay a CC because it's supposed to be easier-you get out of it what you put in to it.

(sorry for going off on a tangent there!)

I suggest taking General Chemistry at the community college you currently attend. You'll probably have an easier time getting an A in general chemistry at a CC, compared to a university. Once you transfer with chemistry all done, you'll have more time to focus and excel in your other science classes.

adventurer said:

Not to go off the deep end here, but I really believe the quality of education in CC's is better than that in 4 year universities. You are much more likely to be a name and not just a number in a CC and don't even get me started on useless lecture classes (in Universities) given by out of country grad students who don't have any teaching experience, much less the type of spoken english to adequately convey comples scientific subjects.

That said, I do believe grading in CC's is much easier and there are many other benefits to a University-many more clubs, research ops, and other support services offered to students interested in pursuing grad schools that community colleges just can't match.

I guess my point was that both types of institutions have major benefits and drawbacks, but don't just downplay a CC because it's supposed to be easier-you get out of it what you put in to it.

(sorry for going off on a tangent there!)

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I think this depends on where the CC is located. Some of the local CC's pretty much handfeed you the answers for the exams. How is this going to help for a future in pharmacy? I know that there are a few people in my class who just did prereqs at local CC's and started pharmacy school and they're struggling b/c they never actually learned the information the first time.

Also, I hate to burst your bubble but many of my professors thus far in pharmacy school have had heavy accents and were foreign. There are many professors and researchers in the sciences that have thick accents. I'm pretty sure you'll find that anywhere, at least I have found that to be true with most FL universities. I feel that having experience with foreign professors has really helped me when trying to understand my current professors.

The CCs can be good or bad but just because it is a CC doesn't automatically mean a lower level of teaching. My Gen Chem "teacher" was a joke who had to look at the periodic chart to figure out where Sulfur was when someone asked him a question about it. My Org professor was the toughest instructor that I ever had...more so than any that I had in my graduate classes. But either way , whether you go the CC or not matters less than how much effort you want to put into it.

But seriously, why take a science course that isn't going to aid you later?

OoShimmeroO said:

I suggest taking General Chemistry at the community college you currently attend. You'll probably have an easier time getting an A in general chemistry at a CC, compared to a university.

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i disagree. if you want to go to pharmacy school, you should take all your (SCIENCE) prereqs at a UNIVERSITY. in cases like yours where you plan to transfer from a CC --> university to get your bachelors, you should take at the CC:
1) all your non-science GEs
2) NON-SCIENCE pharmacy prereqs (may overlap with 1)--EXCEPTION: physics b/c it's not considered to be a science by schools such as UCSF and UCSD

if you feel you are weak in some of the science pharm prereqs, i suggest taking an intro to it (e.g. intro to gen chem) at your CC prior to taking the actual science prereq at the university.

while it is true that the quality of education at a CC varies, the bottom line is you're not going to be as competitive of an applicant as you COULD be if you took all your science prereqs at a CC (even tho you may get A's at the CC and take lots of nice upper div sci classes at a university and get As too) b/c
1) it's almost implying that you're taking the easy way out (they want you to take classes, esp. the pre-reqs, in the most demanding and rigorous setting--i.e. university if possible)
2) pharm schools have THOUSANDS of applicants and the majority of them have taken their prereqs at a university.
3) you really are selling yourself short by not taking the classes in the most rigorous setting (university-level) to best prepare yourself for pharm school--yes, i know some CCs are really good!

i mean, if you have serious hardships that prevent you from diong this (science prereqs at a university, non-science can be at a JC) and you mention it in your app, then MAYBE it's okay and they may understand. but seriously, the applicant pool is enormous and will only increase in size--why sell yourself short? 🙂 best of luck!

I have classmates who did ALL of their prerequisites at a community college.

A good GPA is an asset, no matter where from. If you have a lower GPA, having gotten it at a community college will not help your application.