Change of career path?

[PharmDr.]

I am currently enrolled at a community college and hopefully will have a 3.3-3.4 GPA after this semester. I have taken Chem 1 & 2, Bio 1, Eng 1 & 2,Speech, and Alg. This summer I am transfering to St. Pete College which used to be a junior college but now offers bachelor degrees in about 4 or 5 areas. I have been working as a certified pharmacy tech now for a year and a half and have been pretty set on being a clinical pharmacist. I love the pharmacy profession but recently I have been considering going the physician route. My question is am I out of the running to be excepted to a med school if I have taken some of my science pre-req. at a community college? I have heard debates whether or not they look down upon my schooling. Any inputs would help a lot.

 

[Robz]

I am currently enrolled at a community college and hopefully will have a 3.3-3.4 GPA after this semester. I have taken Chem 1 & 2, Bio 1, Eng 1 & 2,Speech, and Alg. This summer I am transfering to St. Pete College which used to be a junior college but now offers bachelor degrees in about 4 or 5 areas. I have been working as a certified pharmacy tech now for a year and a half and have been pretty set on being a clinical pharmacist. I love the pharmacy profession but recently I have been considering going the physician route. My question is am I out of the running to be excepted to a med school if I have taken some of my science pre-req. at a community college? I have heard debates whether or not they look down upon my schooling. Any inputs would help a lot.

The quick answer is no. As long as you did well in them and have a steady GPA I don't think it will be too much of a problem. Just knock out the MCAT.

 

[theags]

I completely agree with the previous post. Grades are discriminatory based on if you come from a community college or a major university. The MCAT is absolutely none negotiable. If you score well, no one can argue that you received an inferior education at a community college. However, if you don't score well, then you don't have a big name university to back up your GPA. Bottom line, nail the MCAT!!!

 

[stoic]

Don't worry about the community college thing too much. Like the other posters said, continue to get good grades and work hard to kick the mcat in it's teeth and it shouldn't be an issue.

Aside from the academic considerations, I would advise you to make sure and start getting involved with community service/clincial experiences as soon as possible. These experiences seem to really bolster an application, especially in the eyes of DO schools.

By the way, a Doc who is writing one of my letters did his first two years at a community college and it obviously didn't keep him out of med school!

 

[doctordes]

Absolutely not. I took my first year of bachelor degree science at a community college and never was asked one question about it. Side note: One thing I can say, though, now that I'm almost done with my 2nd year of med school, is if I had ONE thing I could have done differently it would be getting a job as a pharm tech in undergrad. Pharm is a whole different language; it's not that I can't do it but man it would have been so nice to get a jumpstart on it. Whatever you choose, you're well on your way to succeeding in school, whether it be pharmacy or medical.
No problems with community colleges, though - they're fine for your introductory level science courses. Good luck to you!
D

 

[buomyta]

For your self, definitely call a couple of the schools that you are interested in. I called one of the schools that I will be applying to and they said they don't look at the name of the university or whether or not you took classes at a community college. Community classes are just fine but they did recommend some advanced science courses if you have the time. They want to make sure you can do the work. They look at the entire applicant. The admin counselor told me that you can get in with low MCAT but they recommend that you take it again for improvement. They want to see effort. Passion, sincerety for the profession and perseverance will get you in.

 

[PharmDr.]

thanks a lot for your replies. The more and more I think about it, the physician route seems better in all aspects. I absolutely love learning about the human body and all the illnessess that can occur within it. I love knowing that I could one day be able to diagnose a patient and cure them. The pharm tech job I am working at has allowed me to learn several hundred medications, including their drug name(generic) brand name (proprietary) their use and class. I also have took it upon myself, since I was so set on being a pharmacist, to learn briefly how some of the classes of drugs work in the body. I plan on shadowing a doctor and either volunteering or getting a paid position part time at a hospital. So far I have done some community service to help with my pharmacy admissions. I have also studied for the PCAT which includes most of the MCAT material except for the physics. I have done several practice tests recently and have scored pretty well. I guess I never thought of the doctor route because of my wrong perception about med school admissions. Thanks!