Conflicting Information

[Florida Cracker]

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Hi. I posted a while back about starting down the path of taking my pre-reqs, but as I've been talking to different advisers at different schools, I have gotten even more confused.

I have been asking around at the colleges and the community college here about what classes I need to take and where I need to take them. So far I have gotten conflicting information. One college advised me to take NO community college classes, because med schools will look down on them. They also said that I need to take full loads every semester or the med schools will not count those semesters for anything. Another college advised me to take a few courses at the community college and then go to the 4 -year school for the more advanced courses.

I'm not the kind of person that is trying to duck out of hard classes at the university, my only motive for going to a community college is to save some money. I have just moved to Arizona from Florida and would have to pay some pretty outrageous out of state prices at the state schools here. My plan was to take summer courses at the community college until I got my AZ residency (hopefully for Fall semester). I would probably go full time at the university once I got in state tuition.

So I guess my question is: will med schools really not accept a summer semester worth of classes from a community college? And is it OK to take a few courses at a time when you are just getting back into school?

 

[Bacchus]

They will accept these courses--you must report them. However, schools prefer you take your prerequisites at a four year university. If you want to take classes over the summer, use them for general-ed classes but not the prerequisites (biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics) or other science classes. Overall, the GPA is the determining factor. Thus, if you can't do well in a semester of 18 credits by no means do it to impress schools. They want you to do as well as possible to prove you can handle material. Try to stay around 15 or so credits, but don't fret if you stray from this number because of credits you have from outside sources.

 

[RySerr21]

Hi. I posted a while back about starting down the path of taking my pre-reqs, but as I've been talking to different advisers at different schools, I have gotten even more confused.

I have been asking around at the colleges and the community college here about what classes I need to take and where I need to take them. So far I have gotten conflicting information. One college advised me to take NO community college classes, because med schools will look down on them. They also said that I need to take full loads every semester or the med schools will not count those semesters for anything. Another college advised me to take a few courses at the community college and then go to the 4 -year school for the more advanced courses.

I'm not the kind of person that is trying to duck out of hard classes at the university, my only motive for going to a community college is to save some money. I have just moved to Arizona from Florida and would have to pay some pretty outrageous out of state prices at the state schools here. My plan was to take summer courses at the community college until I got my AZ residency (hopefully for Fall semester). I would probably go full time at the university once I got in state tuition.

So I guess my question is: will med schools really not accept a summer semester worth of classes from a community college? And is it OK to take a few courses at a time when you are just getting back into school?

According to the advice you have been given, I have done everything wrong. But somehow ive still been successful in the application process. I have had semesters with less than a full load (full is considered 16 units and ive had semesters with as little as 12, but i was still considered full time student), ive taken courses at other schools over the summer (both semetsers of physics at a state school in my home town, no one ever mentioned it). The idea that med schools won't accept CC courses is just plain dumb. They will accept your summer courses worth of classes, and it is okay to take a few courses at a time. Do what you need to do to fulfil your requirements and do well in them.

 

[Dr Lyss]

like everyone has said, taking courses at a CC is just fine -- and cheaper. Just try to avoid taking a lot of the prereqs there (orgo, physics, gen chem, bio, etc). You can take some of your liberal arts classes there. Summer classes are fine too. If you have to do a prereq over the summer try to do it at a cheaper local 4-year college. I did that with Physics and it worked out just fine. I have also taken 3 semesters with less than a full load and no one so much as batted an eye when they looked at my transcripts. First and foremost, worry about your grades. As long as you are taking enough credits to be fulltime and getting good grades you will be on the right path! good luck!

 

[flip26]

Hi. I posted a while back about starting down the path of taking my pre-reqs, but as I've been talking to different advisers at different schools, I have gotten even more confused.

I have been asking around at the colleges and the community college here about what classes I need to take and where I need to take them. So far I have gotten conflicting information. One college advised me to take NO community college classes, because med schools will look down on them. They also said that I need to take full loads every semester or the med schools will not count those semesters for anything. Another college advised me to take a few courses at the community college and then go to the 4 -year school for the more advanced courses.

I'm not the kind of person that is trying to duck out of hard classes at the university, my only motive for going to a community college is to save some money. I have just moved to Arizona from Florida and would have to pay some pretty outrageous out of state prices at the state schools here. My plan was to take summer courses at the community college until I got my AZ residency (hopefully for Fall semester). I would probably go full time at the university once I got in state tuition.

So I guess my question is: will med schools really not accept a summer semester worth of classes from a community college? And is it OK to take a few courses at a time when you are just getting back into school?

The underlined, your plan, is the only thing in your post we needed to know.

You will be perfectly fine with this plan.

Ignore the advisers.

 

[Neuronix]

They also said that I need to take full loads every semester or the med schools will not count those semesters for anything.

This is the most blatant piece of misinformation I have ever heard. Don't ever take seriously anything that person ever says again.

The only way that could possibly be true is if you do something really odd like get your degree over 10 years or something. If you can complete your degree in a normal amount of time (4-5 years), nobody cares how many credits you took per semester, or how difficult your courses were, or any of that other crap some pre-med advisors seem to think is the most important thing ever.

Another college advised me to take a few courses at the community college and then go to the 4 -year school for the more advanced courses.

The other posters are right on this. Med schools would like to see you took the pre-med reqs at a 4-year school. Is it going to big deal? Almost certainly not, especially if it's only 1 or 2 of them. If you took all your science courses at community college it might look odd.

 

[Florida Cracker]

Thanks for putting my mind at ease! I had a feeling that the one adviser wanted me to go full throttle at the state school was BSing me. That was at the university where I got my M.A. and the advisers there are famously incompetent. It's one of those schools where the liberal arts and science sides of campus are separated and the liberal arts side is ridiculously underfunded, compared to the science. So I figured that a pre-med adviser might be slightly more competent...guess not!

I already have a degree so I won't need to take any of the English or social science classes. Basically all I need is pre-calc, calc, and the rest of the science pre-reqs. I would love to take all of these at Arizona State, but it's super expensive. I guess I took the low education prices in Florida for granted all these years.

 

[seelee]

A good place to go to get accurate information is the AAMC website. Since you have already gotten your degree, then you probably won't be taking any classes beyond the pre-reqs, therefor this is your one shot to look good and get what you need.

It has been my experience that most college advisors are idots. I wouldn't trust them farther than I could throw them.

Despite what anyone says, CC classes are not going to be as rigourous as university classes. While some may say that you don't need O chem or physics for medical school, you do need to be comfortable with the workload as well as the concepts. I would recommend not doing any of your prereqs at a CC for this reason alone. The only caveat would be if you were going to take more advanced science classes later on. Then if you took the prereqs and followed up with upper level science courses at a university (and rocked them) then you could demonstrate that you could handle the harder material.

Good luck either way.

 

[ladeda]

I ended up taking the first semester of general chemistry and calculus 1 at a CC during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college (I decided to be pre-med at the end of freshman year and didn't want to be too far behind) and it worked out fine.

I would recommend only doing the first semesters if anything of the basic science courses and then when you take the second semester at a 4 year university just show that you can maintain the same grade you got at the CC so they know you can handle rigorous courses.

Also, you should mention in your PS why you took the courses at a CC.

Good luck!

 

[Revilla]

I ended up taking the first semester of general chemistry and calculus 1 at a CC during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college (I decided to be pre-med at the end of freshman year and didn't want to be too far behind) and it worked out fine.

I would recommend only doing the first semesters if anything of the basic science courses and then when you take the second semester at a 4 year university just show that you can maintain the same grade you got at the CC so they know you can handle rigorous courses.

I think it's a bad idea to take one semester of a course at one school and the second semester of the same course at a different school. Different schools leave off at different places because the curriculum might be different. For instance, at my friend's school, Physics I includes the chapter on electric fields. At my school, that's the first chapter of Physics II. If I had taken Physics I at my school and Physics II at her school, I would have missed that chapter entirely. Wherever you start a course is where you should finish it, IMO.

OP, like others have said, taking classes at a CC isn't the kiss of death. You're a non-traditional student, right? The CC "rule" is meant for traditional students who may want to take Basketweaving 101 at Yale, and then take Organic Chem at Podunk Community College to keep their GPA up. Your case is different. Schools understand that not all non-trads can take all their pre-reqs at a university. It isn't always conducive to work/family.

 

[ladeda]

I think it's a bad idea to take one semester of a course at one school and the second semester of the same course at a different school. Different schools leave off at different places because the curriculum might be different. For instance, at my friend's school, Physics I includes the chapter on electric fields. At my school, that's the first chapter of Physics II. If I had taken Physics I at my school and Physics II at her school, I would have missed that chapter entirely. Wherever you start a course is where you should finish it, IMO.

OP, like others have said, taking classes at a CC isn't the kiss of death. You're a non-traditional student, right? The CC "rule" is meant for traditional students who may want to take Basketweaving 101 at Yale, and then take Organic Chem at Podunk Community College to keep their GPA up. Your case is different. Schools understand that not all non-trads can take all their pre-reqs at a university. It isn't always conducive to work/family.

You're right. I should have prefaced by saying my undergrad had a pre-existing course work agreement with certain CC to make sure that there is no missed information when transferring courses over

 

[Ashers]

Just as a word of advice. Arizona is a hard state to get residency in for educational purposes. I don't remember the details anymore, but in undergrad there, I couldn't establish residency.