Are distant education courses taken at a 4-yr college considered less rigorous than in class courses? I am concerned that they will weigh less in the eyes of the adcom.
Distance Education
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relentless11
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Potentially yes. Distance learning can come in a variety of packages these days, and most common are the classes that are mediated through internet. Such online classes are not accepted at some schools, such as University of California-Davis. Even if they do accept them, you can probably infer that there is only so much you can teach outside of a class/lab, and thus may be weighted less by the adcoms. Ultimately it is up to the adcom, and the school. But in this game, you want to have every advantage you can.
From my experience, I took a distance learning english writing class. It was many times easier than the real thing. This doesn't bother me much since (1) it doesn't show up on my transcripts as distance learning, and (2) I already had a year of english anyway, so it does not effect my pre-reqs.
I'm sure there are people out there that feel there is nothing wrong with them. But the question is, are they adcoms. How sure are we that adcoms feel about online coursework. When it comes down to it, a person who slugged it out in class at UC Berkeley, vs. someone who took it as distance learning learning. Both people got an A, which A would look better?
Hi,
I took Calculus-I via distance educ and completed it in the same 4 months as it would have taken a regular semester. It was actually a repeat because the first onee was done 18 yrs. ago. If any one questions why I did it via distance educ., my answer will be - it is because it is a repeat and i was comfortable doing it independently. I am repeating/taking all science classes in the class but I plan to take English via distance educ. also. I don't mind taking a chance because I feel that of all the risks one can take, this one would be of least risk.
I checked with the medical school at my U and they are ok with online/IDL classes.
I speculate that a stellar MCAT course willl really make all these worries unnecessary 🙂
I took Calculus-I via distance educ and completed it in the same 4 months as it would have taken a regular semester. It was actually a repeat because the first onee was done 18 yrs. ago. If any one questions why I did it via distance educ., my answer will be - it is because it is a repeat and i was comfortable doing it independently. I am repeating/taking all science classes in the class but I plan to take English via distance educ. also. I don't mind taking a chance because I feel that of all the risks one can take, this one would be of least risk.
I checked with the medical school at my U and they are ok with online/IDL classes.
I speculate that a stellar MCAT course willl really make all these worries unnecessary 🙂
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As one example, I just completed a distance medical biochemistry course through the University of New England. Apparently, it resembles the biochem course that used to be taught at UNECOM before biochem was a requirement for their med school. It was very rigorous and I had to work very hard to do well. Obviously, there was no lab component, but the course involved watching the lectures on DVDs and doing practice questions. Your final grade was determined one final exam taken either with a proctor at your local university or at UNE in Maine. Overall, the course was excellent. I learned the same, if not more, than I think I would have through a traditional "in-person" course. UNE provided all the tools needed to understand the material.
I give the course a big 👍 !!
If you are interested in DO school, UNE offers biochem and organic chem (but I don't know how the lab portion works with that one) as distance courses and UNECOM would, of course, have no problem with you fulfilling the requirements with the courses offered at UNE. I would think they also would think more highly of distance courses than some other schools who do not offer them. I know my post doesn't really answer your question, but I thought I would give you my experience with taking a course. Good luck!!
I give the course a big 👍 !!
If you are interested in DO school, UNE offers biochem and organic chem (but I don't know how the lab portion works with that one) as distance courses and UNECOM would, of course, have no problem with you fulfilling the requirements with the courses offered at UNE. I would think they also would think more highly of distance courses than some other schools who do not offer them. I know my post doesn't really answer your question, but I thought I would give you my experience with taking a course. Good luck!!
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From what I've gathered if it says distance education or online on the transcript you will probably run into trouble. Online classes do have a stigma against them since a lot of them aren't through a brick-and-mortar university and are therefore easier than the traditional classes. Having said that though if you find a place that is either respected (ie. HES, Berkeley Online (maybe - their courses are at-your-own-pace sometimes), UNE) you should be fine. Also, if your "online" transcript doesn't actually say online (and it's not obvious that it was distance - ie. 3 states over) you should also be fine.
I took all of my prereqs in a traditional setting, but I have done many of my core classes online and am currently doing a computer programming certificate (plus the math/tech writing prereqs for a physics minor and microbio) online due to financial reasons. My transcript doesn't reflect the fact that it's online anywhere. I'm going through ccconline.org. They are CC credits, but the CC's in my state are well-respected, and there will be no way to distinguish the traditional class from the online class.
My experience with online classes is that they aren't any harder or easier, just different. For example, if your exams are online as well (the case for my classes - but some of the other schools do proctored exams) you will often get to use your course materials to take the exam. That means less study time spent memorizing stuff, but you need to still have a good idea of everything so that you can look something up easily and quickly. Conversely in a traditional class you will have to put in the time to memorize stuff in order to perform well on the exams, but you won't have as much busy work as the online class (weekly required discussions, homeworks, etc). In the end the time works out about the same but the focus is different.
I wouldn't recommend taking all of your prereqs online though. My school has all of them except organic (and they all have at-home lab components) but you still need the experience of taking traditional classes at a 4-year university to "prove" that you can do it (preferably a full-load).
Good luck!
I took all of my prereqs in a traditional setting, but I have done many of my core classes online and am currently doing a computer programming certificate (plus the math/tech writing prereqs for a physics minor and microbio) online due to financial reasons. My transcript doesn't reflect the fact that it's online anywhere. I'm going through ccconline.org. They are CC credits, but the CC's in my state are well-respected, and there will be no way to distinguish the traditional class from the online class.
My experience with online classes is that they aren't any harder or easier, just different. For example, if your exams are online as well (the case for my classes - but some of the other schools do proctored exams) you will often get to use your course materials to take the exam. That means less study time spent memorizing stuff, but you need to still have a good idea of everything so that you can look something up easily and quickly. Conversely in a traditional class you will have to put in the time to memorize stuff in order to perform well on the exams, but you won't have as much busy work as the online class (weekly required discussions, homeworks, etc). In the end the time works out about the same but the focus is different.
I wouldn't recommend taking all of your prereqs online though. My school has all of them except organic (and they all have at-home lab components) but you still need the experience of taking traditional classes at a 4-year university to "prove" that you can do it (preferably a full-load).
Good luck!
Well, the classes that I want to take are taught by real professors at NCSU, a state 4-yr university. The same professor will teach both an on-site and distance class for the same course. I am guessing that we'll have to take exams with students taking the course on site. I also have to go for lab, which will be the same lab that everyone else takes. It will be for one repeat pre-req course and a non-prereq that I am just taking to boost my sci-gpa. I think this will be fine, since the course names do not distinguish between distance ed classes and on site classes. What do you guys think now? I have until tomorrow to register.
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I say go for it. I know my university offers some of the calc sequence classes online instead of on-campus (taught by the same profs - the lectures are just videoed and archived instead), and has offered an online ochem section in the past. As long as your transcript doesn't say that it's distance ed you should be fine especially since the prereq is a repeat. There's only a few schools that don't accept online at all (but of course they have to be able to distinguish between the online and traditional first) so maybe quickly double check some of the schools you're interested in before registering, but you should be totally fine taking them that way.
Good luck!
Good luck!
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