Community College

[ani007]

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I was just wondering how one goes about trying to pursue medicine or dentistry if one is currently enrolled in a community college? Are you suppose to wait until you transfer to a 4 yr institution to take core requirments such as bio, chem, physics, etc. or can those be taken at the community college? Thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice you can offer. 🙂

 

[Hoberto]

Here is a link to a long-winded response about this...I hope it helps.

 

[ani007]

thank you very much. that linked pretty much answered all my questions. I still have one question though. I did poorly my first year at UCI and transferred to a CC. Will med schools still see the UCI transcript because that will severly lower my cumulative GPA? thanks.

 

[MollyMalone]

thank you very much. that linked pretty much answered all my questions. I still have one question though. I did poorly my first year at UCI and transferred to a CC. Will med schools still see the UCI transcript because that will severly lower my cumulative GPA? thanks.

Yes, they want every transcript from everywhere you've ever been.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. 🙁

 

[Hoberto]

Yes, they want every transcript from everywhere you've ever been.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. 🙁

TheDarkSide tells the truth. Sorry.

You don't need to panic though. Loads of people overcome rocky starts and become doctors.

 

[gcomplex7]

They pay more attention to trends in ur grades. I went to a community college, took most preq. courses there and didn't do too well. After i transfered to an even more competitive school my grades went up. I was also told several times that trends are very important. I think u will be fine.

 

[ani007]

Will medical schools still see my transcript at UCI if I attend a community college outside the state I reside in?

 

[FrkyBgStok]

yep

 

[MollyMalone]

Will medical schools still see my transcript at UCI if I attend a community college outside the state I reside in?

Here's how it works. You apply through AMCAS. AMCAS requires you personally to contact every post-secondary institution you have attended and have your official transcripts sent to AMCAS. This includes places where you did not complete a degree, places where you withdrew from every class, places where you did not get grades for your classes, and even, I believe, places where you took classes for no credit or non-degree credit. They are going to want to see your UCI transcript, period, end of story.

If you withhold it and are ever discovered, you are in deep doo-doo.

Once again, sorry.

 

[ani007]

I want to pursue either dentistry or medicine but feel discouraged by my poor performance in the first year of college and how this will affect my gpa. I know that medical schools notice improvment but if my cumulative isn't good enough I doubt they will get to even opening my application. Any advice on how to handle this?

 

[DrBowtie]

I want to pursue either dentistry or medicine but feel discouraged by my poor performance in the first year of college and how this will affect my gpa. I know that medical schools notice improvment but if my cumulative isn't good enough I doubt they will get to even opening my application. Any advice on how to handle this?

Figure out whether you want medicine or dentistry and this will dictate how you need to proceed.

 

[ani007]

Well I realize that as an undergrad the curriculum will be almost identical for medicine or dental. My dad is a dentist and is really pushing me towards dentistry and I really want to keep it as an option. By not choosing dentistry or medicine in my first two years the only down side I can think of is not getting enough experience through internships, research, etc. I know I should be clear in my goals, however, my plan is after a year or two to make the decision and more likely or not my GPA at that point will make the decision for me.

That said there are two things that concern me a lot and that I do have to be clear about:

1) What courses to take at the CC? It seems that taking core reqs. at a community college is not necessarily the best thing to do and your MCAT scores better be as high as possible. I wanted to know how to plan my schedule accordingly. What classes should I reserve for the university and which ones for the CC? Will taking Ochem at the community college be detrimental, etc.?

2) What major to declare? Obviously for a pre-med/dental student bio is the common approach. I really love psychology though and truly believe that with a psych degree I will be well rounded in any profession I choose. The general consensus is that medical schools welcome any major yet many advisors I have spoken to warn that without a degree in biology I will not be prepared for the MCAT or DAT. They also point out that the core requirements of medical schools and the bio requirement are so similar it makes sense to go through as a bio major and perhaps just minor in psych. What do you guys think about this?

Thanks for all the input. Your thoughts and ideas really go a long way. 🙂

 

[Emergency!]

1) What courses to take at the CC? It seems that taking core reqs. at a community college is not necessarily the best thing to do and your MCAT scores better be as high as possible. I wanted to know how to plan my schedule accordingly. What classes should I reserve for the university and which ones for the CC? Will taking Ochem at the community college be detrimental, etc.?

2) What major to declare? Obviously for a pre-med/dental student bio is the common approach. I really love psychology though and truly believe that with a psych degree I will be well rounded in any profession I choose. The general consensus is that medical schools welcome any major yet many advisors I have spoken to warn that without a degree in biology I will not be prepared for the MCAT or DAT. They also point out that the core requirements of medical schools and the bio requirement are so similar it makes sense to go through as a bio major and perhaps just minor in psych. What do you guys think about this?

If you really love psychology, then major in it. Don't worry about the doom and gloom of "if you don't major in biology you won't be prepared for the MCAT". Check out these stats . I looked at a couple of different years worth of stats and biology majors scores were on the low end of the majors listed. Interestingly enough, social science majors averaged higher scores on every section but biological sciences. The MCAT is not just a test of science knowledge. Yes, you need to have a good background in the basic sciences, but by and large the test is a measure of your ability to think things through and reason.

So - with that in mind, pick your major FIRST. Then, look at all the courses you need to take for medical school and your major. Look at which of those courses HAVE to be taken at the 4 year institution and see how much room that leaves in your schedule to take pre-reqs there. If you are going to graduate in four years, you will probably have to take gen chem at the CC in order to take Organic your junior year and the MCAT in April of Junior year. Think about planning out your course load so you can do well in everything, keeping in mind that you need to have those core pre-reqs completed (or nearly completed) before you take the MCAT and that if you don't want a year off between college and professional school, that needs to be spring of your Junior year.

One other thing you may want to consider if you end up taking the pre-reqs at a CC, is to take some upper level classes at the university in those subjects to show that you can handle the hard science coursework. Also - you MUST do well in pre-req course work at a CC. Because of the perception that CC courses are easier (Note - I'm just stating this, I don't necessarily agree with it in all cases), you really need to shoot for an A.

Good luck!