calculus course at community college over summer?

[rainberrybeanie5]

Hi! First time posting here and I would love advice on the situation I have right now. I’m planning to take calculus 2 at a community college this summer as a rising college sophomore. I also took calc 1 at CC the previous semester too because I was admitted to start during the spring semester at my university rather than the fall. At first, I was going to take math at my university but I was already taking a pretty hefty course load (bio and gen chem2 plus labs and other GEs) and I wanted a better balance of things especially during my first semester. I definitely struggled with this choice at first when deciding how to plan my first semester schedule but I believe if I had not done what I did, I would have risked my GPA a lot more. Now, I want to finish the math sequence this summer so that I could be done with it before I forget calculus too much, but I am balancing it with a psychology course and summer internship.

Therefore, I would be taking all the math courses for premed (except stats) at community college. At first, I was told by an academic advisor (not pre-med specifically) that this should be okay and that taking my math sequences at CC should not affect my medical school admissions.

But I recently spoke to my premed advisor who strongly discouraged taking calculus 2 at CC. She said since it is a pre-requisite I really need to get it done at my home university or I could risk med school admissions because they generally dislike CC courses and it can be a red flag and my reasons weren’t good enough. My university doesn’t offer calculus 2 as an online option and I’m an out of state student who is not on campus over the summer so I can’t take it through my home institution unless I fly back there for 2 months or take it during a later semester or next summer (but I want to have next summer free so I can do full time internship or research). I feel like it’s quite a struggle trying to take the best steps to “please” medical schools. from what I have gathered from talking to my advisor and other trusted adults, here is a list of some pros and cons of taking the math course:

pros:
- can finally finish calculus 2 and not worry about it anymore
- reduced cost at community college although TBH cost is not the biggest issue
- will be able to have a manageable course load to allow for a higher GPA over the next few years
- allows for more time during the school year to do research and other extracurriculars
- note: NOT taking this course because it is easier at CC. I just want to spread out my courses and calculus is inherently hard in itself no matter where one takes it, imo.

cons:
- i obtained a last minute clinical internship (med assistant at clinic) and I will have to take a break from it/reduce my hours to take this class. Could miss out on clinical hours and better relationship with the Dr.
- med schools will not like seeing this CC course especially since I would not be taking any calculus courses at my home institution at all
- if I don’t take this course over the summer, one of my semesters is going to be absolute hell… I’m worried about how to balance everything, and may have to rearrange my future schedule since calc will take up a lot of time.

If i do end up taking the calculus course at CC i have to decide if I want to do the psychology class at Cc (online) or through my regular institution (also online). Not sure which one would pan out better either.

edit: I know that not many medical schools require calc 2 specially but I believe many still want at least one semester of calc and one sem of stats, I think?

i am wondering what y’alls thoughts on this are and if I should reconsider the summer course. Any advice is appreciated!! I am so stressed lol. Thank you!

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[wysdoc]

Take statistics instead. CC classes are fine but try to take the psychology class in person instead of online if you can.
Why are so many of your classes offered only online?

 

[Catalystik]

But I recently spoke to my premed advisor who strongly discouraged taking calculus 2 at CC. She said since it is a pre-requisite I really need to get it done at my home university or I could risk med school admissions because they generally dislike CC courses and it can be a red flag and my reasons weren’t good enough.

edit: I know that not many medical schools require calc 2 specially but I believe many still want at least one semester of calc and one sem of stats, I think?

There're less than a handful of programs that "require" Calc 2. But I agree that taking math at a CC would generally not be an issue.

"Many" med schools want a year of college math, not necessarily Calc.

 

[Rapsidy]

I took every single prerequisite science course for medical school at CC and close to finishing my first year now. As someone else pointed out most med schools don’t even require Calculus as a prerequisite so you should be fine no matter where you take it.

 

[deleted314957]

As an aside, we had to have calc or the physics prerequisite would have been impossible. Not infrequently, the physics was pushing the math. not the other way around. (50 yrs ago).