Community college classes vs. 4-Year School

[jkhamlin]

---

Members do not see this ad.

In defense of the committee, they do not want to discourage anyone from taking "extra" courses. If two people have taken all or most of the requirements at a 4 year school, & than one goes on to take additional courses at a CC that person should not be penalized. You may not agree, but they have a reasonable position.

I'm confused about your statement. I agree that someone should not be penalized for taking classes at a CC. It also depends on what everyone means by "CC." People tend to use it as a catch all between 2 year colleges and public open admission colleges. These are two different things. Most (if not all) 2 year colleges are open admission, but an open admission college is not necessarily a 2 year college. I guess it all comes down to what they are accredited as. If a 2 year college is teaching upper level O chem then that would be questionable, however if an open admission 4 year CC offers O chem, then there is no valid reason to question it unless they are not regionally accredited.
The confusing thing about the statement from UNECOM is that they seem to be saying "If you take your prereqs (which are mostly lower level classes) at a CC, we may not like them. Take them at a big university where your lab instructors will be grad students instead. If, however, you want to take advanced classes that are above and beyond the prereqs, and are much more intensive, a CC is fine." WTF
For fun, check out the current Surgeon General's CV:
http://www.hhs.gov/about/bios/sg.html
He got a GED, and got an Associate of Arts from a CC.

 

[Stump]

I for one am a huge advocate for community college. I got all my med school prereq's at C.C. except of O-Chem. I attended a D.O. school (by choice), and will soon be starting anesthesiology residency at Yale. So ignore all the naysayers that say C.C. credits are inferior and adcoms will not look at you. It all boils down to being a well rounded applicant. Get Good grades, do well on the MCAT, good LOR's, and show that you have a genuine interest in medicine and you'll be fine.

 

[San_Juan_Sun]

You'd be surprised how similar some applicants are when admissions committees are deciding to throw some out and keep the others.

With all due respect, do you (as a first year student) sit on an admissions committee? I'm just curious, as you keep bringing up the inner workings of the desicsion process.

And even if you do, remember that there are 20 or so DO schools out there, and all of them have differing methods of choosing applicants. What occurs at one college certainly may not apply to any of the others nessecarily.

Back to the OT: Most of us that took community college courses did so because we had to. Nothing wrong with that at all. But, in my personal opinion an applicant ought to take as many courses as possible from large, established universities. I've taught and been taught at community colleges and the reresources simply are not on par with small schools. Not that you won't get a good education at a community college, but you'll definately be in great shape if you succeed at any large, respected university. (And no, it does not have to be an Ivy. 🙂

Real quick Ivy rant: I sometimes wonder while reading SDN "Do any of these Ivy braggarts think anyone cares all that much about an Ivy education?" I certainly respect someone with an Ivy degree, but I'm not quite ready to worship the ground they walk on either, ya know? 😉


Back to the OT again: Do the best you can, wherever you are. Challenge yourself as much as reasonably possible. If you work hard, get good grades and MCAT scores, and you aren't a tool, you'll probably get in somewhere.

 

[OSUdoc08]

With all due respect, do you (as a first year student) sit on an admissions committee? I'm just curious, as you keep bringing up the inner workings of the desicsion process.

And even if you do, remember that there are 20 or so DO schools out there, and all of them have differing methods of choosing applicants. What occurs at one college certainly may not apply to any of the others nessecarily.

Back to the OT: Most of us that took community college courses did so because we had to. Nothing wrong with that at all. But, in my personal opinion an applicant ought to take as many courses as possible from large, established universities. I've taught and been taught at community colleges and the reresources simply are not on par with small schools. Not that you won't get a good education at a community college, but you'll definately be in great shape if you succeed at any large, respected university. (And no, it does not have to be an Ivy. 🙂

Real quick Ivy rant: I sometimes wonder while reading SDN "Do any of these Ivy braggarts think anyone cares all that much about an Ivy education?" I certainly respect someone with an Ivy degree, but I'm not quite ready to worship the ground they walk on either, ya know? 😉


Back to the OT again: Do the best you can, wherever you are. Challenge yourself as much as reasonably possible. If you work hard, get good grades and MCAT scores, and you aren't a tool, you'll probably get in somewhere.

I've spoken with both students and faculty on the admissions committees with several allopathic and osteopathic schools about their policies. I have also been involved with the admissions process itself.

The information I've given is objective, and not subjective. A simple call or email to individual schools will yield similar information. If you are still skeptical, take the time to find out for yourself. You obviously wouldn't need to read this forum anyway if you'd rather not take the advice of others who have been through the experience.

 

[jkhamlin]

Back to the OT: Most of us that took community college courses did so because we had to. Nothing wrong with that at all. But, in my personal opinion an applicant ought to take as many courses as possible from large, established universities. I've taught and been taught at community colleges and the reresources simply are not on par with small schools. Not that you won't get a good education at a community college, but you'll definately be in great shape if you succeed at any large, respected university. (And no, it does not have to be an Ivy. 🙂

Actually, the 2 year CC I went to had better, newer, more up to date science facilities. The university I go to now has older decrepit equipment. I didn't even get to use the NMR when I took O chem at the university because it was well past its prime. I was ill prepared for that on the ACS final as well as on the MCAT.

Real quick Ivy rant: I sometimes wonder while reading SDN "Do any of these Ivy braggarts think anyone cares all that much about an Ivy education?" I certainly respect someone with an Ivy degree, but I'm not quite ready to worship the ground they walk on either, ya know? 😉

This goes for established universities and 100 fold for Ivy Leagues: The accreditation process for these schools is a cake walk. They can do what they want, especially Ivys. Do you really think Harvard gets the white glove treatment that CCs get? Harvard gets a free pass. In fact, I would bet that the only thing holding the accrediting agency from just doing a 5 minute inspection over the phone on Harvard is the probability that the Harvard officials wine and dine them and tour them around campus like royalty.

 

[Funkdoctor]

I for one am a huge advocate for community college. I got all my med school prereq's at C.C. except of O-Chem. I attended a D.O. school (by choice), and will soon be starting anesthesiology residency at Yale. So ignore all the naysayers that say C.C. credits are inferior and adcoms will not look at you. It all boils down to being a well rounded applicant. Get Good grades, do well on the MCAT, good LOR's, and show that you have a genuine interest in medicine and you'll be fine.

From CC to D.O. to residency at Yale. Talk about being an underdog, gotta love it 👍!

 

[jkhamlin]

From CC to D.O. to residency at Yale. Talk about being an underdog, gotta love it 👍!

Dr. Richard Carmona, the Surgeon General, went from minority born in Harlem, to decorated Viet Nam Veteran, to GED, to CC in the Bronx, to MD school, to professor of surgery, to Sheriff of Pima County, to SWAT team officer, to Surgeon General, Vice Admiral, MPH, FACS, and crime fighting super hero (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2002/03/27/usat-surgeon.htm). And he kind of looks like Captain Stubing from the Love Boat in this picture:
http://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/images/carmona_kids_012405.jpg 😀

 

[San_Juan_Sun]

I've spoken with both students and faculty on the admissions committees with several allopathic and osteopathic schools about their policies. I have also been involved with the admissions process itself.

The information I've given is objective, and not subjective. A simple call or email to individual schools will yield similar information. If you are still skeptical, take the time to find out for yourself. You obviously wouldn't need to read this forum anyway if you'd rather not take the advice of others who have been through the experience.

Easy tiger. No offense was intended. I just feel it stands to reason that you, as a first year, may not be the world expert on the cloistered world of admissions criteria. I don't really care how many people you've spoken with, unless you've actually been in the room while the decisions were made.

Bottom line: schools have different criteria for selecting applicants. This is not exactly a newsflash. Some schools may look at CC courses in a more skeptical light, I admit. But you ought to admit that this may not be a true and fast rule for every (or even a majority) of schools.

As for advice, I used this forum extensively when I applied three years ago. I appreciate your help and all, but since I'm a year ahead of you I doubt there's much you can teach me about med school admissions (until you sit on an adcom). Then we'll talk. Good luck to you though.

 

[mynameistino]

Let's face it people, if you want to be a physician, you shouldn't be taking your science classes at community colleges. I don't understand why any medical school would consider a candidate who had chosen to undertake his or her coursework at a community college instead of an accredited four year institution.

I went to an Ivy League school where the median grade in organic chemistry was set at C+. Any student who got above at D in my organic chemistry class would almost certainly get an A at any community college.

It makes us all look bad if osteopathic admission committes are going to let people in with shade credentials from shady community colleges.

Man what the heck are you talking about. I see so many people that became great doctors that started at a community college. I see many professors at a university that specialized in eurology that once started from a community college.

 

[DaveinDallas]

you guys need to realize that some of us who have already graduated from a 4 year university cannot afford going back and spend more money when you could easily take the same class at a CC for much cheaper, with more courses offerd at night

take me for example, I have already graduated from college, gotten married, and had a baby... There is no way I could stop working or cut down on work and afford to go back to a University.

Don't forget that some look at course load in terms of # of hours attempted at one time. In Texas they like to see 9 to 12 credit hours of science per semester as an indicator of academic ability.

 

[OSUdoc08]

Man what the heck are you talking about. I see so many people that became great doctors that started at a community college. I see many professors at a university that specialized in eurology that once started from a community college.

What is this? specializing in European patients?

 

[jkhamlin]

What is this? specializing in European patients?

It might be specialization in wide patients. That's happening more and more these days.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=eury