CC Courses Before Undergrad

Started by ionou
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ionou said:
A year before my undergrad (4 yrs ago), I signed up for a CC course, but didn't show up for it. I received an F instead of a W because I was told that I would automatically be withdrawn from the course, but that never happened. Now, I'm reluctant to take courses at the same CC because that F will show up on my transcript. If I take courses now at the same CC for pre reqs, would adcoms look down on that one F? Should I take courses at a different CC?
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Does the CC have a system set up where you can retake that course and it will replace your grade? I would look into that.

If this was four years ago that this happened, I don't think it would ruin your chances for pharmacy school if you went back there. That's what the personal statement on your PharmCAS application is for. Explain why you never attended that class, and how you have since fixed whatever the problem was. Either way, it's a little impractical to go out of your way to avoid that CC because of a class from four years ago.
 
Regardless if you go back or not, the schools will know you had an F from that school since you're required to give them the transcript. However, you may be able to retake the grade at the school and have it replaced. Some schools don't replace and disclose both grades though, and in that case, PharmCAS does an average of the two grades.
 
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You'll definitely need to send that CC's transcript to PharmCAS so to avoid a delay on your application. I didn't think I needed to send a dual-enrollment course transcript from high school but apparently I did.
 
ionou said:
A year before my undergrad (4 yrs ago), I signed up for a CC course, but didn't show up for it. I received an F instead of a W because I was told that I would automatically be withdrawn from the course, but that never happened. Now, I'm reluctant to take courses at the same CC because that F will show up on my transcript. If I take courses now at the same CC for pre reqs, would adcoms look down on that one F? Should I take courses at a different CC?
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Petition the grade through appropriate channels at the registrar. If you can demonstrate that the grade was just a misunderstanding - they MAY remove it.

Regardless - for academic integrity, you need to disclose all of your grades. At some point, you will have to account for your past academic history - the portion of time that you were at said school.
 
Also the personal essay is a place where you can explain any questions they might have about your grades. Explaining that it was a misunderstanding will probably be fine, although obviously not ideal. Also, once you have over 100 credit hours that grade probably won't effect your cumulative gpa much as long as you do well in your other classes. If you get all A's and B's I wouldn't think it would be unreasonable for the adcoms to overlook one F after explaining what happened.
 
But technically, it was during high school. Will that still be looked at? I did retake the course.
 
Nope. I have no CC courses on my undergrad transcript.
 
ionou said:
Nope. I have no CC courses on my undergrad transcript.
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Even if you take classes at another CC, when you go through PharmCAS, you'd be lying through omission by not disclosing that you did receive an F from a prior CC. Whether or not you attended class, you failed to meet the obligation and planned poorly (You should've e-mailed the professor or shown up for just the first day to ensure that he or she would indeed drop you, most don't at the CC I went to).

That transgression should be accounted for, but in the long run, if you take it again at the same CC, and show excellent academic upward trend regardless, that one F will not condemn you. There are many SDNers who are in fantastic Pharmacy schools who were admitted with a couple of sub-par grades.

Above all else, integrity and honesty is at play here. I do not believe that there is any other option for you. What if you went through all the steps and an adcom, a sharp, keen adcom who sees lots and lots of apps, happened to audit your application an ddiscovered that F? Instead of extending you admission, they'd cut you.

In the end, you'll be better off my disclosing the F. Take classes at the same CC, re-take that course (or don't, whatever really...), and perform well in a heavy course-load and the F will never even come up (Plus all the As from your other classes will bring your PharmCAS GPA up anyway).

And, like Trailrider mentioned, you do have many outlets to explain exactly what happened. But you may not have that option to account for yourself later, if it's found out that you did not disclose it.
 
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