Better chance getting in when taking prereqs at a University vs CC?

[persianprincess]

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Hey all, I am new to SDN and this is a pretty cool forum 🙂

I was wondering, does one has a better chance at getting accepted to pharmacy school when taking prerequisites at a university or community college? I am not sure whether i should take organic at a CC or a university, what about physics? Any expert advice?

 

[steveysmith54]

Hey all, I am new to SDN and this is a pretty cool forum 🙂

I was wondering, does one has a better chance at getting accepted to pharmacy school when taking prerequisites at a university or community college? I am not sure whether i should take organic at a CC or a university, what about physics? Any expert advice?

I took mine at a Community UNiversity

 

[hmmmmm]

i hope that uni pre reqs are valued higher than CC

its so unfair for peeps who took uni ochem vs peeps who took CC ochem

the CC peeps will say that CC is same as uni but thats not true.

even in my ochem class (2nd year) some peeps that transfered to my uni from CC hasn't even learned newman projections!!!!

there is no question in my head that CC is definitely easier than uni courses.

 

[persianprincess]

i hope that uni pre reqs are valued higher than CC

its so unfair for peeps who took uni ochem vs peeps who took CC ochem

the CC peeps will say that CC is same as uni but thats not true.

even in my ochem class (2nd year) some peeps that transfered to my uni from CC hasn't even learned newman projections!!!!

there is no question in my head that CC is definitely easier than uni courses.

yes, i know it is easier, but are you saying that there is a better chance of getting in if i take it at a university and do well vs. cc?

 

[steveysmith54]

i hope that uni pre reqs are valued higher than CC

its so unfair for peeps who took uni ochem vs peeps who took CC ochem

the CC peeps will say that CC is same as uni but thats not true.

even in my ochem class (2nd year) some peeps that transfered to my uni from CC hasn't even learned newman projections!!!!

there is no question in my head that CC is definitely easier than uni courses.

dude I am sure u'll find ONE CC that has a harder ochem class than some university.

 

[eelo]

i hope that uni pre reqs are valued higher than CC

its so unfair for peeps who took uni ochem vs peeps who took CC ochem

the CC peeps will say that CC is same as uni but thats not true.

even in my ochem class (2nd year) some peeps that transfered to my uni from CC hasn't even learned newman projections!!!!

there is no question in my head that CC is definitely easier than uni courses.

In the Virginia Community College system, lower lever courses taken at CCs with the ultimate goal of transferring to a four year school MUST meet the same academic requirements that the classes at te 4year schools meet. These classes are just as easy or difficult as the same class would be at the 4year school. In fact, many of the classes are taught by the same professors off te same syllabi.

I disagree with your blanket statement that the classes at a CC are easier.

 

[hmmmmm]

In the Virginia Community College system, lower lever courses taken at CCs with the ultimate goal of transferring to a four year school MUST meet the same academic requirements that the classes at te 4year schools meet. These classes are just as easy or difficult as the same class would be at the 4year school. In fact, many of the classes are taught by the same professors off te same syllabi.

I disagree with your blanket statement that the classes at a CC are easier.

i'm betting you took CC classes



yes, pharm schools probably don't care (right now) where you took your pre reqs be it uni or CC


most CC are easier than uni, but i'm sure there is the exception

out of the 1033 ppl taking ochem at my uni, 300+ will fail

average grade is 50-60%

and this is from peeps who had A average to get into the uni science program

 

[persianprincess]

Yes well cc classes SHOUL be easier b.c of smaller class sizes so one learns better, not because they give out As... now who can tell me if they know of ppl who had good gpas from cc that didnt get accepted over university students? thanks!

 

[fenixtnlfan]

If you are a good candidate you will get in. I don't think anyone really knows the answer to the question. There is a lot of speculation on a university giving you a better chance of admission or not. Just like there is speculation about the university you go to giving you a better chance. Lots of people who only attend a CC get into pharm school every year.

 

[eelo]

i'm betting you took CC classes



yes, pharm schools probably don't care (right now) where you took your pre reqs be it uni or CC


most CC are easier than uni, but i'm sure there is the exception

out of the 1033 ppl taking ochem at my uni, 300+ will fail

average grade is 50-60%

and this is from peeps who had A average to get into the uni science program

You are free to bet anything you wish but you'd be very, very wrong, so I'd discourage you from betting anything you might need in the near future.

Oh, and if that many people are failing a class, it speaks to either poor preparation on the part of the students or poor teaching on the part of the professors.

 

[Bluth]

It all depends on the school as far as the level of difficulty is concerned. Of course university people will disagree to justify all that extra money they spend.

 

[starrfishes]

In the Virginia Community College system, lower lever courses taken at CCs with the ultimate goal of transferring to a four year school MUST meet the same academic requirements that the classes at te 4year schools meet. These classes are just as easy or difficult as the same class would be at the 4year school. In fact, many of the classes are taught by the same professors off te same syllabi.

I disagree with your blanket statement that the classes at a CC are easier.

I totally agree with you. For someone to give an opinion that all CC's are easier than Uni. classes is a shallow generalization. Some really good university professors also teach at the CC's...some are talented and do both! And they're just as hard. It depends on the professor/school and where you're coming from.

In fact, I've had a teacher at CC who was crazy hard - he was trying to teach microbiology at a grad school level. I graduated from a uni. so I could sort of compare this CC professor with other uni. professors. He was an old geezer who talks miles a minute AND enjoys writing a 8 page syllabus and to top that off, weekly e-mails to his students!!! Even my uni. professors didn't take that much time doing these things.

 

[starrfishes]

i hope that uni pre reqs are valued higher than CC

its so unfair for peeps who took uni ochem vs peeps who took CC ochem

the CC peeps will say that CC is same as uni but thats not true.

even in my ochem class (2nd year) some peeps that transfered to my uni from CC hasn't even learned newman projections!!!!

there is no question in my head that CC is definitely easier than uni courses.

Isn't it a bit immature to say it's "unfair"? We're not little kids now! In the end, we're competing with ourselves and not with anyone else. Does it matter where you take your classes? The question is, how much info can you retain and apply after the class is over?

Not sure where you're coming from, but I've seen some exceptionally prepared students coming from the CC's. In fact, some outshine other students who are at the Uni. so keep in mind not everyone can afford to take ~$500 classes!

 

[WhiteSnows]

Hey all, I am new to SDN and this is a pretty cool forum 🙂

I was wondering, does one has a better chance at getting accepted to pharmacy school when taking prerequisites at a university or community college? I am not sure whether i should take organic at a CC or a university, what about physics? Any expert advice?

If you have university credits and still maintain a high GPA, then you will have more chances to get in than have CC credits. I am taking classes at CC just because it is a lot cheaper.

 

[hmmmmm]

Isn't it a bit immature to say it's "unfair"? We're not little kids now!

true. so i'm not going to whine about it.

if you look at pharm, you see it being more competitive and i do believe that later on, adcoms might put a greater emphasis on uni courses rather than CC so it all evens out i guess...

In the end, we're competing with ourselves and not with anyone else. Does it matter where you take your classes? The question is, how much info can you retain and apply after the class is over?

mmmmmm

BS

in the end, you still need at least a 3.6+ gpa to even have a good chance for being considered at a canadian pharm school. so gpa does matter, thus we are always competing with each other.

without competition, we'd all still be single celled organism - House 😍

Not sure where you're coming from, but I've seen some exceptionally prepared students coming from the CC's. In fact, some outshine other students who are at the Uni. so keep in mind not everyone can afford to take ~$500 classes!

sure there are those few exception. but i'm talking about generalization that CC are easier.

the transfers we get are from colleges like kwantlen 👎rolleyes:

 

[eelo]

in the end, you still need at least a 3.6+ gpa to even have a good chance for being considered at a canadian pharm school. so gpa does matter, thus we are always competing with each other.

sure there are those few exception. but i'm talking about generalization that CC are easier.

the transfers we get are from colleges like kwantlen 👎rolleyes:

So, your experience is limited to the Canadian community college system? I'm not familiar with that; I can only speak from 25+ years experience as a student, instructor and professor at US colleges- private, public, 4-year, community, and proprietary.

For those US statea in which the CC system is frequently a feeder program into the 4-year schools, the transferable credit courses are comparable in difficulty and in scope of instruction. As was stated earlier in the thread, some people find the CC classes "easier" simply because the classes tend to be smaller and there is more time for individualized education.

 

[pakbabydoll]

The CC I go to has the same exact classes as the university. We get students from the university who miss lectures in our class. The only difference is that CC classes are smaller 55 vs 100 students. Other than our tests are the same, our lectures are the same, labs are same.

Pharm schools don't really care. I know many pharmcy school students who took their pre- reqs at the same CC I go to now. One of them actually works with me at the pharmacy now. So don't worry about it. Rock the PCAT and have a GPA of 3.6ish and you are in. Most of the pharmacist I know went to pharmacy school right after doing their pre- reqs at a CC ( they did not get their undergraduate degree).

 

[njac]

depends on the school. I know my school wants your ochem from a university, while the school where I did undergrad didn't care where you did your prereqs. But any advisor at UNM will tell you to take ochem at a university.

 

[jonnyboi303]

I say that it depends. Are you at a university right now? The best argument I've heard regarding this is that most of the time it doesn't really matter, but that taking prereqs at a different school than your primary one might cause them to ask you why. This would probably be true of a major prereq like ochem so that might be something to consider. It's probably especially true if you're retaking ochem because of a bad grade the first time.

As for whether or not cc courses are as hard as university courses, I think it's a stupid question. Of course there are some hard cc classes, some as hard or harder than some university classes. On the same token, of course there are university classes that are harder than some cc classes. Is that really so surprising when you consider that classes some universities are harder than classes other universities? Often times there are even differences in difficulty between different sections of the same class on the same campus. It all really depends on the who's teaching, as any teacher can make any class really easy, or really hard. So if you want to go to a cc for an easy grade make sure that the prof is someone that actually that allows for easy grades. And remember that a harder class doesn't necessarily mean that you'll learn more. Of course if you go to Harvard or Yale then it doesn't matter because get grade inflation to help you out.

 

[Zarathustra22]

For my first post on the student doctor forums, I thought that I would bring up a topic that has been dead for months. I feel pretty strongly on this topic (IE I am bias) because I attend a community college in Des Moines, Iowa. I've had the opportunity to sit in on some Organic classes with my sister at Drake University, a private college here, over the summer. I have to say that my junior college chemistry classes have been much less intense in terms of outside coursework and the more difficult concepts and theories were not taught until much later in the semesters. That said, most of my teachers have doctorates or masters degrees in their field and are overall very good teachers. My Biology I teacher had a master's in Biology from the University of Iowa and my Inorganic I teacher had a Master's in Chemistry from Drake. I think the two main reasons it's just a little bit easier at my CC is because there are a lot of students in my classes who probably shouldn't be in there, kids who haven't matured, are lethargic, and don't care to consider what program they would actually want to pursue and because of this I think occasionally my teachers have a tendency to teach to them. Also, like has been stated, it's much easier to get one on one time with the teachers and you'll notice the people who can't keep up so well tend to try, often times successfully, to charm their teachers into a better letter grade. I used this technique myself in my anatomy class to pull an A because I really wasn't getting the memorization down the way I'd hoped and it became obvious the profs good opinion of me made my lab work a lot more lenient. For the most part, though, I'd say all of the pre-professional courses after the introductory level are equally as hard at my JC as any state school. Obviously the liberal arts courses are a lot easier but you've got kids in there that are majoring in art history and were doing stencils on the metro bus a year ago. My long winded two cents worth and first post, more to come...Thanks.

 

[esrodems]

I think how much a pharmacy school cares where you took your pre-reqs depends what pharmacy school you're applying to. I know of people who took all of their pre-reqs at CC and had a 4.0 and still could not get into some schools, the person did ultimately get into pharmacy school just not a top one.

Speaking from my own personal experiences, I took classes at a CC and at a university and in French and Canadian universities, I think it's much harder to take classes at a university. In my experience your level of understanding of the material has to be much higher at a unversity than a community college.

For those of you who are still applying to pharm school, I would certainly advise you to take your pre-reqs at a university if you can do it and still manage to get good grades at least for the chemistry classes since I think that those ones are more important than some of the other pre-reqs.

Just my opinion.