getting into med school with a degree from university of phoenix?

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hipsnontrad

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I have seen lots of hate for university of phoenix, here SDN and everywhere else. I am a non traditional pre-med student. I had 0 science credits until last semester. With the credits I just got finished I have enough for an IT degree at university of phoenix. I have been a software engineer for the past 5 years, but now I want to become a surgeon of some sort. I am taking all of my science/pre-med courses from the university of Utah. Will my IT degree from UoP hurt my application, or will it not matter if I have my science courses from the U.

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If I tell you it will hurt your app, are you going to undo the past four years and go relive your college days somewhere else? :eyebrow:

All kidding aside, no, adcoms don't love online programs like U Phoenix, but an online UG degree is not an impossible hurdle for an otherwise good nontrad applicant to overcome, either. Of course, it's not the ideal. The ideal is to go FT to a regular, four year school and get a regular, four year degree within four years. But short of you having a time machine, it's too late for you to do that. So I suggest you focus on making the rest of your app as strong as humanly possible: take your prereqs at a four year school, get strong postbac grades (aim for 3.8+ GPA), strong MCAT score, good ECs, strong LORs. When the time comes, apply broadly to a good range of schools that take applicants from your state of residence. That's about the most that anyone can reasonably ask or expect of you.
 
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Just take your premed reqs at a traditional brick and mortal university and do well on them AND the MCAT and most med schools won't significantly care. However, there are some MD programs that you will either be DOA or moved to the bottom of their list. Not much you can do about it now, unless you want to get a second bachelors.

Good luck
 
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If you get a perfect score on the MCAT I am sure somebody will take you.

There is a lot of prestige BS in med school admissions. Some schools are so insecure that they won't want to tarnish their reputation by endowing their name on anybody's degree without the proper pedigree. They'd rather take a multiple DUI silver-spoon physician-parented never-had-a-job B+ student from Harvard over somebody who grew up dirt poor with crackhead family, got a GED, taught himself programming, got an online degree while working full time, then went and made straight As in a rigorous pre-med program and a 40 on the MCAT. But whatever, there are schools out there who will consider the whole package.

Not all smart people have the fortune to be born into a rich family.
 
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...
There is a lot of prestige BS in med school admissions. Some schools are so insecure that they won't want to tarnish their reputation by endowing their name on anybody's degree without the proper pedigree. They'd rather take a multiple DUI silver-spoon physician-parented never-had-a-job B+ student from Harvard over somebody who grew up dirt poor with crackhead family, got a GED, taught himself programming, got an online degree while working full time...
Nah, they'd rather just not deal with either extreme. It's a competitive process and any red flag -- online degree, DUI history, etc, will make them look harder at the next guy on their list. There aren't good red flags and bad red flags per se. It's not as much about silver spoons and family pedigree as people like to imagine. If your point is that sometimes people have inspirational stories about how they reinvented themselves, and that allow Adcoms to look past these backgrounds, then sure. But that's more about overcoming a red flag, not preferring one red flag over another.
 
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Nah, they'd rather just not deal with either extreme. It's a competitive process and any red flag -- online degree, DUI history, etc, will make them look harder at the next guy on their list. There aren't good red flags and bad red flags per se. It's not as much about silver spoons and family pedigree as people like to imagine. If your point is that sometimes people have inspirational stories about how they reinvented themselves, and that allow Adcoms to look past these backgrounds, then sure. But that's more about overcoming a red flag, not preferring one red flag over another.

Actually you would be surprised, I have met some DO graduates who had online undergraduate degrees.
 
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Actually you would be surprised, I have met some DO graduates who had online undergraduate degrees.
I wouldn't be at all surprised. I didn't say you couldn't get in with a red flag, and in fact explicitly said there were people with inspirational stories that let them get past red flags. I merely responded to a prior poster who seemed to suggest red flags like DUI don't matter if you were born with a silver spoon, which is BS as well as being irrelevant to OP.

Second, I won't weigh in on what some of the osteo schools require as I am not of that world, but would point out that the push for new schools and rapid expansion in osteopathy in some years has sometimes led to consideration of people who maybe wouldn't have gotten as much consideration before or subsequently. So the "I know a guy" argument thus doesn't necessarily mean it's a path OP is going to be able to follow. As I often point out, "I know a guy" who won the state lottery but I sure wouldn't tell you buying lottery tickets is a sound investment even though it worked out nicely for him.
 
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Agree 100% with my learned colleague. And whenever Seth knew, s/he didn't go to my school. We've never seen a candidate with an online degree.

Second, I won't weigh in on what some of the osteo schools require as I am not of that world, but would point out that the push for new schools and rapid expansion in osteopathy in some years has sometimes led to consideration of people who maybe wouldn't have gotten as much consideration before or subsequently. So the "I know a guy" argument thus doesn't necessarily mean it's a path OP is going to be able to follow. As I often point out, "I know a guy" who won the state lottery but I sure wouldn't tell you buying lottery tickets is a sound investment even though it worked out nicely for him.
 
Nah, they'd rather just not deal with either extreme. It's a competitive process and any red flag -- online degree, DUI history, etc, will make them look harder at the next guy on their list. There aren't good red flags and bad red flags per se. It's not as much about silver spoons and family pedigree as people like to imagine. If your point is that sometimes people have inspirational stories about how they reinvented themselves, and that allow Adcoms to look past these backgrounds, then sure. But that's more about overcoming a red flag, not preferring one red flag over another.

I've got a red flag then, but it's hard to go to a brick and mortar school when you're on deployment. :shrug: Hope having a good MCAT and the prereqs done in person is good enough.
 
I wouldn't be at all surprised. I didn't say you couldn't get in with a red flag, and in fact explicitly said there were people with inspirational stories that let them get past red flags. I merely responded to a prior poster who seemed to suggest red flags like DUI don't matter if you were born with a silver spoon, which is BS as well as being irrelevant to OP.

Second, I won't weigh in on what some of the osteo schools require as I am not of that world, but would point out that the push for new schools and rapid expansion in osteopathy in some years has sometimes led to consideration of people who maybe wouldn't have gotten as much consideration before or subsequently. So the "I know a guy" argument thus doesn't necessarily mean it's a path OP is going to be able to follow. As I often point out, "I know a guy" who won the state lottery but I sure wouldn't tell you buying lottery tickets is a sound investment even though it worked out nicely for him.
I am not saying it's the norm but DO schools have considered backgrounds of students that are otherwise good academically but not strong enough for Allopathic schools.
There are also people who were in trades and vocational backgrounds. We can't judge these people as "red flags".
Even Ivy League universities now have night and online programs. Harvard has online graduate programs of all the places in academia.

It really depends on the individual's situation, sometimes its difficult for a person to attend a brick and mortar college, such as a person deployed in the military, or a government official living overseas. There are older people who cannot attend traditional colleges because of work and family obligations.
 
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A perusal of MSAR will let one know which MD schools will or will not take online coursework.

A random sampling:
Albany: no mention
Einstein: accepts all
Drexel, Duke: case by case basis
FAU: does NOT accept Bio, Inorganic Chem, Orgo or Physics. English and Math = case by case basis
Harvard, like FAU, but Calculus and Biostats are case by case.
NYU: no online coursework accepted of the recommended courses.
Rochester: none accepted.


I am not saying it's the norm but DO schools have considered backgrounds of students that are otherwise good academically but not strong enough for Allopathic schools.
There are also people who were in trades and vocational backgrounds. We can't judge these people as "red flags".
Even Ivy League universities now have night and online programs. Harvard has online graduate programs.
 
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As with MOST unusual situations (e.g. anyone who doesn't have a traditional 4yr BS at a B&M Uni, required coursework w/B or above, strong gpa and MCAT, std solid LORs, a spotless background, etc), check with the specific programs you are interested in attending and directly see what they require and what they say they won't accept!!!

That can be done via MSAR, MCIB, website, attending pre-med events at universities/med schools, open house events, and sometimes email if you feel you are outstanding enough for them to ignore their requirements. Do the research BEFORE you do the time getting your premed coursework and MCAT!!! It will save you disappointment and wasted $$$ applying. It only makes good sense and takes a little bit of time.

I personally know at least one program from Goro's list that has turned down excellent candidates because they didn't meet their specific requirements. The reason? Because the school had 500 plus excellent candidates that did.

Never know, you might be lucky and some programs tell you they don't care about whatever.
 
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I've got a red flag then, but it's hard to go to a brick and mortar school when you're on deployment. :shrug: Hope having a good MCAT and the prereqs done in person is good enough.
Military deployment has always been an exception to the "no online coursework" rule. That's a very different picture than the civilian who chose online over brick and mortar out of convenience.
 
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...The reason? Because the school had 500 plus excellent candidates that did...

This is the real issue. Med schools are not hurting for applicants. So the threshold for them to set aside your application in favor of the next one is often pretty low. You'll have a chance to make your case and overcome red flags but if they'd really prefer not to take chances on something in your CV there's always someone nearly as good waiting in the wings. Which is why if you have red flags you need to apply to more places and have other positive attributes on display.
 
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