community college organic classes

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up&atom

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I took organic I & II at a community college. I got B's in both classes. I also took physics I & II at the same community college and got an A and a B. I'm now at a four year university, should I retake organic or physics? Do med schools care? And if I take the classes over how do med schools view it?

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No do not take the classes over, unless you feel like your GPA is suffering from the B's achieved in Organic. But then you half to relize that your new grades will be averaged with the old grades, but if you plan on applying to D.O. schools, I believe that they wipe away the original grade and just keep the new one.

Just make sure you slam dunk your MCAT and you should have no problem.
 
why would you take it over?

the credits transferred over...you got good grades in them. concentrate on your classes now.
 
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I agree with the others that you should concentrate on your current classes, but be aware that some med schools (such as Wake Forest and Tulane) do not apply community college credit towards your required prerequisite coursework.
 
Originally posted by up&atom
I took organic I & II at a community college. I got B's in both classes. I also took physics I & II at the same community college and got an A and a B. I'm now at a four year university, should I retake organic or physics? Do med schools care? And if I take the classes over how do med schools view it?

I took gen chem and physics in a community college and no one even cared about this and I got in, so it should be fine. Just concentrate on the MCAT.:) :)
 
OP-
I concur with the entire sentiment expressed by the group. I think in whole, there are two things to think about:
1) Do great on the MCAT, and those CC credits will be a non-issue.
2) Some schools do have a preference for credits earned at a four year school. My school of choice is SUNY Upstate, and in my pursuit of prereqs they advised me to avoid CCs for the reason that SUNY-U uses a "weight" system to prorate the GPAs - a 3.8 from an Ivy is worth much more than a 3.8 from Utica College. They have the system in place for 4 years only, and lots of CC credits would leave SUNY-U without a means to rank me.

Good luck in any event.

dc
 
I would lean toward retaking both courses, because the courses at the university will probably be more rigorous than the community college ones.

Here are some questions for you:

1) Was the community college physics course a calculus-based course? If not, definitely retake it.

2) Was the organic course the toughest organic course the community college offered? And was that course designed for chem majors? If not, definitely retake it.
 
Calculus based physics is not necessary (or fun...blech)...just regular old physics for science majors or whateve they call the lowest physics for non-idiots course will do.
 
While we are on the subject of community college credits, do schools such as Duke, Vanderbilt, Emory, Baylor, Stanford, Washington University accept students who have completed at least half of prerequisites at community college? I would like to take my classes at my local university but unfortunately my full-time job restricts my classes to evenings only and only my community college has evening classes for certain courses. It is so very frustrating!! Any comments? Thanks!
 
Originally posted by 2112_rush
I agree with the others that you should concentrate on your current classes, but be aware that some med schools (such as Wake Forest and Tulane) do not apply community college credit towards your required prerequisite coursework.

I don't know where you got that thing about Tulane not applying community college credit but Tulane specifically states: "Prequisites must be taken at a U.S. accredited college/university and not be taken on a pass/fail basis. "

Regards to Wake Forest, they have said nothing about CC classes for the prereqs.

Originally posted by greggth
I would lean toward retaking both courses, because the courses at the university will probably be more rigorous than the community college ones.

Here are some questions for you:

1) Was the community college physics course a calculus-based course? If not, definitely retake it.

2) Was the organic course the toughest organic course the community college offered? And was that course designed for chem majors? If not, definitely retake it.

I don't think retaking courses due to having taken classes at a JC is required here. Regardless of how good a course prepares you for a 4-year school; retaking a course and getting a higher grade only has really no major effect IMO. Why? Doing well in a class where you have already had a years worth of experience in doesn't say much. It just says you were well prepared.

Med school's want to see how well you do in school, and how well you deal with the workloads. That means taking challenging courses, and balancing your life around it. Not retaking classes because it was done at a JC. Clearly, Tulane doesn't care, these are PRE-REQUIREMENTS. In truth, this is one MINOR aspect of what gets you even considered for med school.

What you do in your overall career as an undergrad is more important than where you took your classes. Clearly you must transfer to a 4-year university, and have taken at least 2 years of courses there. This would certainly make up for any negative feelings anyone would have on your time at a JC.

Lastly, calculus-based physics or not, I don't think any adcom would really care about that in regards to 3 quarters or 2 semesters worth of physics. Personally, I have (many) friends who got into med school by taking your run of the mill, non-calc-based physics. All of my pre-med friends who transferred to my school, who took OChem at the JC have had no problems getting in or getting interviewed at med schools.

I think it is completely bogus to think that your 2-years at a JC will be looked down upon. What you did in your freshman/soph years isn't as important as to how you conduct yourself during your junior and senior years when you're hit with the rest of your upper division courses. This is one of the reasons why AMCAS splits your grades in many different ways. By year, by quarter, cumulative, and cumulative science. They look at everything, and weight it accordingly.

If they weight it by school, fine whatever, most schools just use GPA's to figure out if you get a secondary or not. They may consider GPA's/MCAT's during secondaries too, but durnig that phase you'll have letter's of recs. If you do well in school, and sell yourself on your personal statement, i see no reason why you wouldn't get a secondary.

So in closing, DON'T WORRY! Transfer, do good at the 4-year university. Always challenge yourself with courses that interest you. THats the most important thing.
 
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