Community College Credits

[BradenDO]

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Hey all,
I have a question for DO students, or those that are applying. I took Organic 1 and 2 from a community college because the professor is great, and based on the recomendation of my brother and his friends that also took it there. I haven't taken Chem 2 yet and was considering taking it there, as well. Do you think that having most of my chemistry credits from a community college would lessen my chances of getting into a DO school? Let me know what you think. Thanks!

 

[medicine1]

It really shouldn't matter whether or not you took classes from either a community college or a university. Just do really well, and try to make the grade. Learning is fun, and I think it was a good idea to stay and learn in a place that you know you will excel in.
Good luck with your application!

 

[J1515]

It won't make a difference at all for DO schools.

 

[Karmajunkie]

I took many of my classes at community colleges and some at U of Washington and some an U of MN. The community colleges provided a better teaching experience hands down. For this reason I believe I was better prepared when I got to med school. That said, I don't believe that all comm colleges are created equal and this may be specific to certain regions. Since my transcripts had several comm college classes I asked the admisions staff at the schools I applied to "Will my comm college classes affect my chances?" The responses were as follows:

UNECOM - "In our experience those students who've attended community college haven't done as well." - translation - you're at a disadvantage so your MCAT better be above average and your interview better be good.

DMU - "It doesn't really make a difference to us. In Missouri the best students in each highschool are offered free tuition at the comm college of there choice so to be prejudiced against such classes would put us at a recruitment disadvantage."

KCOM - "It doesn't make much of a difference to us." - probably for the same reason

The moral of the story is that this is a region specific issue. You would do well to consider this and consider where it is you would most like to go when you decide where to take your classes. I personally sought out the strongest OMM programs so it ended up not being an issue for me. I not only got accepted but I got scholarship offers from my top 2 choices. The 3rd one offered an interview that I rejected.

That's about all I got for ya. If you have any questions you should be able to e-mail me after looking at my profile.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[LVDoc]

It doesn't matter, but my advice to you is not take all of your science classes or medical pre-requisites at a community college. I went to a CC for 2 years but in that time I finished most of my GE's, and only a few things including general chemistry and organic chemistry. In the end, it really didn't matter to me because the major I pursued at the university-level was chock-full of microbiology, biochemistry, etc. So, I had a very even spread of courses and it was still possible to assess my performance in the sciences at the university-level regardless of having attended a CC before.

If you're planning on doing mostly your chem classes from a CC, I don't think it would really make a difference. By the way, how can you take Chem 2 after taking organic? Isn't that supposed to be a pre-req, or is "Chem 2" a higher level chemistry class?

 

[futuredo32]

Like the other posts have conveyed, I really don't think it matters. I took phys 1 and 2, gen chem 1 and 2, orgo 1 and 2 and two bio classes at a community college. I did take higher level bio classes at a university and the issue of classes being taken at a community college was never mentioned during a single med school interview.

 

[Chrysanthemum]

It doesn't matter, but my advice to you is not take all of your science classes or medical pre-requisites at a community college. I went to a CC for 2 years but in that time I finished most of my GE's, and only a few things including general chemistry and organic chemistry. In the end, it really didn't matter to me because the major I pursued at the university-level was chock-full of microbiology, biochemistry, etc. So, I had a very even spread of courses and it was still possible to assess my performance in the sciences at the university-level regardless of having attended a CC before.

If you're planning on doing mostly your chem classes from a CC, I don't think it would really make a difference. By the way, how can you take Chem 2 after taking organic? Isn't that supposed to be a pre-req, or is "Chem 2" a higher level chemistry class?

I went to a community college as well and it didn't seem to make much of a difference when it came to getting accepted to schools. I even applied to really competitive dental school internship program and I was accepted. The only thing is that I refused to take orgo at community college...instead I took it at a four year to prove to myself that I was up to the med school challenge and I did by getting a 4.0 that semester and a 3.8 the next. And I definitely did mention that in my essay.

if you want to make sure though... email the admissions people and ask them their opinion because that's who really matters right?

My question is how did they let you take orgo before taking gen chem 2?

 

[Assistant]

Also it might help if you could find out how the community college is rated. I went to a community college for my first two years and at the time it was rated second as far as junior/community colleges go. The instructors were really good in fact, most of the locals considered it better than the university in the next city over (about 15 miles down the road.) You can use this rating or even the reasoning that you listed above to explain why you chose the community college over the university. I can only assume this would show that you took time out to think about the quality of education you wanted to obtain and not just get the credit at an "easier" institution. (And in my case, I can safely say that my CC prof really made us work for our grades in O-chem, esp with a two hour credit lab!)

 

[BradenDO]

My question is how did they let you take orgo before taking gen chem 2?

Well to make a long story short...I was going to take Chem 2 during the summer to avoid taking it from this really horrible professor. I was told they were going to offer it, but they didn't. So instead of getting behind--Organic 1 and 2 are only offered at certain times--I went ahead and enrolled in Organic 1. The school just recommended that I take chem 2 first. Honestly, it hasn't affected my grades in organic--there were only a few concepts in chem 2 that we used in organic.