Anything wrong with applying to every medical school in the US

[Lukkie]

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funkydrmonkey is my hero!

 

[searun]

OP, you have made up your mind so trim your sails and go for it. Best of luck, and let us know how it works out. Your experience will be useful to the newbies in two years.

 

[Moonspun]

I haven't taken most of my pre-reqs yet. I need a year of chem, organic chem, physics, biochem, and 1.5 yrs of bio.

This makes up for pretty much all of the pre-reqs, apart from math, which I took at CC, and one course at uni.

I'm planning on taking everything at my local CC because, I'm done with uni...it's an hr away, and I don't want to keep commuting.

My local CC is 10 mins away, and free.

I will have to find out more about this, but I think for non-traditional students it's probably understandable why they're at a CC. Even for a transfer student whos major is bio, they would have taken pretty much all of their major pre-reqs (which are the same for med-school) at a CC.

So then why am I, a non-trad student expected to go back to uni...and take med-school pre-reqs?

I'm almost certain that if this was a big issue, the med school would state this on their requirements page, just like some do!


The question is how big of an issue is this. I think it depends on the school. For highly competitive schools it might be a big issue. Other than that, I don't see this being the hot topic that some of you are making it to be. Perhaps because I'm going to a CC I ought to get straight A's for me to look as convincing. This is what I plan to do. I still don't think that a B from a 4-year, looks equal to an A at a CC though

I'm certainly not one for absolutes, so I don't want to say you have committed suicide in this process, but you do seem a little bit naive. Most schools do expect you to complete your pre-reqs at a 4-year institution, and it is on the website of at least several schools.

Case in point, taken from VCU website:

Are community college classes accepted as prerequisite course credit?
They may be, but the Admissions Committee generally expects students to complete all prerequisite courses at a four-year undergraduate institution.
http://www.medschool.vcu.edu/admissions/md/faq.html#q11

You should really research this and contact the schools or other advisers before you commit to taking all your requirements at a CC. You may argue that this FAQ answer provides leeway and may apply to Non-trad students, but I really don't think that's true. There is still a strong bias against taking all your pre-reqs at CC.

And if you want to argue that you won't apply to the schools which explicitly state you can't take CC classes, then how could you originally post asking if you should apply to all US medical schools??

 

[RySerr21]

I thought it was like 168 or something? I am jsut saying that though because that princeton book talks about the "best 168 medical schools"...

it probalby includes osteopathic schools as well. There are about 27 osteopathic schools (i dont remember the exact number, could be 28, or 27), so the math adds up.

 

[rkaz]

If you are open to applying to osteopathic medical schools, I definitely recommend you do so. They tend to be quite non-trad friendly and more flexible. (Obviously this is a generalization, but I have generally found it to be the case. Possibly there may be some uppety DO schools who may look down at CC classes, but most admissions offices I encountered were really great.) I personally found them to be a lot more understanding of my situation and willing to work with me. Since there are plenty of non-trads in DO medical schools, I would think they would encounter the issue of community college classes much more frequently. So you may want to check in with them, as they may be much more understanding of your situation as well... since you live right near a CC and have free tuition.