another prereq question here

Started by harkasan
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harkasan

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do med schools care where you do your prereq's? I have a BS and a MS already, but I kinda goofed off in undergrad and my prereq's are a little on the weak side. a couple C's here, a couple D's there. I retook the D's and they are fine now, but I want to raise those C's. so the question is whether adcoms care if you retook and/or took other classes at joe schmo community college or if I need to go a little higher? thanks guys!!!
 
harkasan said:
do med schools care where you do your prereq's? I have a BS and a MS already, but I kinda goofed off in undergrad and my prereq's are a little on the weak side. a couple C's here, a couple D's there. I retook the D's and they are fine now, but I want to raise those C's. so the question is whether adcoms care if you retook and/or took other classes at joe schmo community college or if I need to go a little higher? thanks guys!!!
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There has been extensive debate on how acceptable community college classes are. As a synopsis - while there are many excellent community colleges and/or challenging courses at some community colleges, there is an overall viewpoint (by adcoms) that community college classes are not as rigorous. There are some medical schools that don't accept community college courses, but some do.

In your situation, having already taken the pre-reqs, I think you should strongly consider a four year school. You might consider talking over your situation with some admissions people. It's great that you've retaken the courses you got D's in. However, there will be varying opinions on whether or not you should retake the courses you got C's in or take some higher level science courses.

Consider it from an adcoms viewpoint: You retake these classes at a community college. As an adcom, I'm wondering if your good grade is 1) due to the fact that you are retaking and already had some knowledge base, 2) the course wasn't as rigorous as the one you previously took, or 3) you finally got your act together. Taking those three points into consideration, (as a hypothetical admissions committee member) I would want to see more evidence that you had gotten your act together and were capable of doing well. For me, this would include a good MCAT score and having taken, for the first time, some additional science courses and done well in them.

Good luck!
 
thanks for the advice amybemt.

I noticed in your name that you have emt and I can assume that you were doing that before you got into med school. congratulations on that. I am interested in working as an emt as something to do before I get into med school. you would start as an emt-basic right? I've been looking on the internet on what it takes to do that, but the only thing I can find is intermediate requirements and above. can you help me out here? how long does it take.....courses? thanks
 
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