Need help deciding which class to take this summer and where

[herbiederbie]

Hi all,

So my final prereqs needed before I take the MCAT is the physics sequence and organic Lab. Unfortunately, my school is a smaller university (@ 7000 students) and only offers Physics I in the fall and Physics II in the spring. I can't take Physics I this fall because I am expecting baby #2 at the end of September. My university does offer a summer session class, but the lecture portion is online, and one of the schools I'm very interested in attending doesn't want any prereqs taken online (I'm assuming there are others as well.)

Here are my options:

1. Take Physics at another university. The large university in my city offers physics for biology and premedicine students, but the course description says it requires one to have taken calculus, and I haven't yet--just Algebra and Trig. Shall I try to teach myself some basic calculus on Khan Academy or some similar resource and then convince the professor I can do it, even though I haven't officially taken Calc?

2. There is a community college in my area which offers Principles of Physics I, which is for students who have taken Algebra and Trig. This would be perfectly suited to my math background, but. . . the controversy surrounding CC courses is there. Could I just explain to adcoms that this was a scheduling issue and the CC was my best option?

3. Wait until Fall 2013 to take Physics. Ugh. This seems like too long of a delay in my timeline.

My current BCPM gpa is a 3.8 (40 credits) and overall is 3.5. Of the 40 credits of science and math, 16 credits are community college credits from when I thought I wanted to do nursing instead of medicine. Since I made the decision to go down the medical path, I've only taken courses at the university. This is partly why I'm afraid to go back to the CC. I don't want to look like I'm taking a step backwards.

Any suggestions or personal experiences with a similar situation would be appreciated. Thanks!

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[Deekle]

Why not take the summer session? I ended up having to do so in order to grad on time. It honestly wasn't that bad. (Got an A, and I had to take remedial math just to get into algebra and trig).

That said, there are two ways to teach physics. Typically the engineer types take calculus based physics and the med/dental/pharm types take algebra/trig based physics. If you've not had Calc, odds are you'll be behind the pack a lot in a calc based physics class.

Not sure about "principles of physics". It almost sounds like a pre-physics class. The best way to find out is to see if it will transfer to a state school as first semester physics.

 

[Deekle]

Oops, just reread and saw the online comment. That sucks!

I'd ask the university if the credits show up on a transcript as online credits. I took several online classes at CC for my undergrad and nothing denoted them as online classes in my transcript.

 

[HipChick]

As long as the principles class is borne watered down baby calc 101, take it at the cc. Most of your credits are from a 4 year and although I'm a new premed, I doubt it will look that poorly. Just ace them and be ready to explain just in case. Make sure to check the transfer!

 

[theseeker4]

As long as the principles class is borne watered down baby calc 101, take it at the cc. Most of your credits are from a 4 year and although I'm a new premed, I doubt it will look that poorly. Just ace them and be ready to explain just in case. Make sure to check the transfer!

This is probably the best thing to do, UNLESS the transcript will not indicate that the lecture of the summer session was online. If the course has the same credit hours, the same course name and number, and doesn't have an "online" designation when the official transcripts are printed out, the fact that you took it online won't be known to the schools you apply to.

 

[Jlaw]

Take it at the community college, you dont want to go against what the school says by taking it online and you most definitely do not want to take calc based physics if you don't know calc, besides you only need algebra based physics to take the mcat...in fact the math isn't even important, its more about having a firm handle on the concepts so take the class with the easiest math so that you can focus on understanding the concepts.

Schools wont care if you took a class at community, especially since you did so in order to work around having a kid.

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

My schools didn't show that any of the classes I took were online. However, do you feel confident that you would learn the material online? Also, one course, or series of courses at a CC won't be the end of your application. Several people had to take ALL of their pre-reqs at a CC and they were fine. You will just need a decent MCAT score on PS to show it didn't change anything... For reference, I had a 7, and I still got in, but it hurt me... 9 or higher would be ideal... Anyway, don't fear the CC, it will be fine...

 

[herbiederbie]

Thanks everyone. It's nice to hear that the community college option most likely won't be a problem. Should I just take the second semester at my school next spring? Of course, I will need to check with the registrar first to make sure that the CC class transfers appropriately to the Alg Based Physics class at my school. Why are people encouraged not to take half a semester at one institution and half at another? I've read this on a number of postings. I can understand that this isn't ideal, but it seems necessary for certain situations. Perhaps not all the same material will be covered in one class as opposed to another? I can't imagine that the courses would (or should) differ that much, though, from school to school.
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[Prncssbuttercup]

I would take the series at the CC. When you change schools, you don't know that you're going to start the second semester in the same place the first school left off...