community or 4-year?

[Livineasi]

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I know this conversation has been asked before and I've always seen and heard mixed answers -- so I'm taking a poll...

I already have a BA in sociology.
I have been taking my science pre-reqs at a community college in order to continue working and go to school at night. I have been getting As.
I still need to take O-Chem, Physics, Bio Chem and a semester of Bio.

What would make me a stronger applicant......

a) continue working and getting As in Community college classes?
b) quit working and get As in classes at a 4 year college?

 

[JamieMac]

The real problem that you may have is that many schools do not accept CC classes. The best thing for you to do is to contact the schools that you're interested in attending and ask them if they do (accept the classes). If they do not, then you have your answer.

You can also do a search of these forums to find more threads with this specific topic.

Good luck.

 

[burgler09]

biochem is not offered at community colleges

 

[Pyriots]

As stated above, Biochem is not available at community college.

Also, why would you have to quit your job to take the classes at a more reputable institute. My college (and several others I know of) offers some of the common courses like orgo and bio in the evenings as well.

I would definitely switch to a four year college as soon as possible. Remember that your job right now is not what you want your career to be forever. Your job should just be something to pay for what you need on the path to becoming a dentist. So quit your job, get a better education (bc it will hurt you a lot if you dont have as comprehensive a background in the core sciences as your peers in dental school), and get another job that works with your school schedule. Its a no brainer.

If I was on adcom and you told me that you took CC classes because you didn't want to switch jobs I'd think "well hes just not dedicated to becoming a dentist at all." You can easily take maybe 2-3 science classes a semester (try to take classes over winter intersession and summer semester too) and be ready to apply next fall.

As previously noted, a vast majority of the dental schools straight out say on the website that they wont accept CC credit. The rest pretty much say that "4 yr college is strongly preferred" which means youre not helping yourself at all.

 

[E Nigma]

I know this conversation has been asked before and I've always seen and heard mixed answers -- so I'm taking a poll...

I already have a BA in sociology.
I have been taking my science pre-reqs at a community college in order to continue working and go to school at night. I have been getting As.
I still need to take O-Chem, Physics, Bio Chem and a semester of Bio.

What would make me a stronger applicant......

a) continue working and getting As in Community college classes?
b) quit working and get As in classes at a 4 year college?

I am a transfer from a comm. college to a four year university. IMO, if you did not already have the BA in sociology, I would work PT and go to a 4 yr university. However, with the BA in sociology, I say do whatever you want. The four year college will look better but I think dental schools would understand your reasoning.

 

[diane07]

You can do whatever you want.

Your chances depend on the schools you apply to and also your competition.

Do some research on the schools you're most interested and try to make yourself as competitive as possible for those schools. Btw - most schools will list on their websites their position on community college credits.

 

[bucci]

dont waste money on tufts, no CC credits accepted there at all.

 

[burgler09]

talked to an adcom from UMich today.. they said it is not a big deal if there are community college credits as long as you have a Bachelors degree which would obviously prove that you can handle classes above the pre-reqs...saying you major in something like biochem. Just another + to majoring in a "harder" degree. If you can pull off above average grades the major doesn't really matter, but I think that a chem/biochem degree will really help out the applicants in the 3.2-3.3 range.