New College of California?

[saclaw417]

Does anyone have any information on New College of California in San Francisco? I'm going to be working as a Summer Associate this summer in a large law firm in Northern California, and I am hoping to fulfill chemistry I and II in weekend or late evening courses. New College offers full-day saturday and sunday courses and is accredited by WASC, but I had never heard of the school before, and I don't want to get my med school application flagged due to poor school reputation.

I really don't have any other options that I'm aware of that would fit my summer schedule, and atleast this way I can avoid taking community college courses. I'm planning on fulfilling the remainder of my prereqs at the state or UC schools (berkeley extension).

If anyone has any feedback regarding New College's program or any advice regarding whether or not I should enroll, I'd really appreciate your response.

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[prionsRbad]

New College does not offer science classes or degrees. Here is a link to their website:

http://www.newcollege.edu/academics/

 

[DrMidlife]

Somebody else asked about this school within the last year, but for the life of me I can't find the post(s).

You have to dig, but yes this school offers a full complement of premed courses: http://www.newcollege.edu/science/course_descriptions.cfm. Don't forget you need to take labs too (which they also offer). On this page they say that their courses have been accepted by a variety of schools including med schools: http://www.newcollege.edu/science.

But from an MCAT and transcript perspective, how do you know this school isn't equivalent to a community college? If I were you, I'd put a bunch of time into interviewing New College about where they get their faculty, what MCAT scores their students get, the average student age and day job, tuition, how long the science program has been around, etc. If they're happy to put you in touch with some alumni who are in med school, fabulous.

Have you looked into whether UCSF offers summer enrollment?

Is your law firm in SF proper? If not, you could be signing up for a commuting nightmare.

Lastly, it would be a huge mistake to screw up your premed courses because work gets crazy and you don't have time to study. Better find out how many hours you'll be working. Doing a full year of gen chem during summer is a full time job...

Best of luck to you.

 

[146233]

I really don't have any other options that I'm aware of that would fit my summer schedule, and atleast this way I can avoid taking community college courses. I'm planning on fulfilling the remainder of my prereqs at the state or UC schools (berkeley extension).

Don't stress about CC courses. While they may be accused of some grade inflation from time to time, they are college-level introductory science courses. That's all the MCAT tests, and all medical schools require. If you need to take them, then do so.

-z

 

[notdeadyet]

Be very careful about the New College program for med school prep!

I have nothing against New College as a school as a whole, but I'd be very leery of this program you're describing. I looked into it and it seemed too good to be true (all your prereqs for a subject in two short months, on weekends only! Score).

I pressed them for details and found out that they can not guarantee that their courses will be recognized by med schools. You need to contact each individual medical school to see if they'll take them. From talking to a premed advisor, she indicated that the program is not well respected.

You'd be much better off taking a year of Chem at a JC. It's no big deal if you have a couple classes taken at one. I did my Chem at a JC (before doing the Mills postbac for the rest) and it was never mentioned once.

 

[saclaw417]

I really appreciate all of your advice. It definitely seems like the ideal choice is to avoid this school like the plague, but taking this course would make my path to med school much more feasible. My plan was to fulfill my gen. chem. requirement this summer so that I can take o chem during my last year of law school. Based on the course schedules at the CC, state, and UC schools in my area, there doesn't appear to be any way for me to take O Chem while employed full-time at my firm. Fulfilling the Biology and Physics requirements shouldn't be a problem, however (I've finished half a year of physics, calculus, and statistics already). I'd love to enroll in a full-time postbacc, but i don't think it's financially feasible given the law school debt that I'll be burdened with. Ideally my goal was to finish up all of my prereqs while working full time at the firm for the next 3 years so that I'll be debt free prior to entering med school (and have some cash saved up as well).

So, my options appear to be:
1) Take Gen. Chem. at New College of California - which allows me to take O-Chem next year and then keep a steady income for the 3 years post law school before I matriculate; or
2) Don't take the course and do a 1 year postbacc a couple years down the road - i would lose a year's salary while doing the postbacc, i'd have to pay tuition for the postbacc, and I'd probably be forced to take a much lower paying job during my application year since no law firm in their right mind would hire me after going back to school to fulfill med school prereqs.

I talked to an alumni who fulfilled all of his med school prereqs at New College and who is currently in a residency program at Northwestern, and he said that the courses prepared him extremely well for the MCAT. I've also obtained a copy of the school's gen. chem. syllabus for this summer, and the course uses the Ebbing and Gammon 8th Ed. textbook (which I believe is the most popular textbook for General Chem. classes) and covers all of the MCAT topics. Finally, I contacted UCLA's Admissions Office and they said that as long as the school is a 4-year, accredited university, it shouldn't matter. (they didn't know anything about this specific school off-hand though)

I really would prefer to not take the course at New College, but I don't know if it's worth a couple hundred grand (or a few extra years) to go the other route.

My other stats:
Undergrad GPA: 3.85 - finance - excellent private school in CA
Law GPA: Should be decent but not spectacular (top 20 law school)
I've been scoring 13s and 14s on the MCAT verbal practice tests that i've taken.

Do you really thinking that fulfilling this one requirement at New College could hinder my application enough to justify not taking it?

p.s. I should be working about 35-40 hours per week this summer with no weekends, so i think i can handle the additional chemistry workload.

thanks

 

[saclaw417]

I suppose I could try to take O-Chem before taking Gen. Chem. This would solve my need to take Gen. Chem. at New College. I've had a year of chemistry in high school and got A's (i know college chemistry is much more difficult, but it may help me get the Gen Chem prereq waived). Does anyone know if this is even possible?

 

[Nasrudin]

New college is so san francisco maybe even Berkeley--in terms of its all veggie, hippy-dippy-trippy and whatnot. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. good if you want to get an MBA tailored to improving the environmental impact of companies. horrible if you want to make sure your pre-req grades are golden.

I would never go to such a flaky place to study bench science. take ochem first. with your academic record you'll do fine no matter what order you take things in. ochem is not all that reliant on the other subjects.

 

[relentless11]

Is it possible to take night classes. Say from 7-10pm? You're in CA, so the JC system is actually well respected...at least among the UC's. Since your GPA is already high, and you are doing fantastically on the VR section, 1-2 classes at a JC probably wouldn't be frowned upon given your situation. Of course you should score well on the other MCAT sections too.

Foothill and De Anza Community Colleges in the South Bay back in the day offered night GChem, and OChem classes at those times. I actually learned more in these classes than at a UC (go figure..haha). Something to look into, however as others have stated, I'd avoid that New College school.

Ideally, you should take classes at a university, but as stated, since you're in CA, the JC system is pretty good so that may be OK too given you are working and only need a few classes. Good luck!

 

[prionsRbad]

Oh wow, I apologize. I was not aware that New College offered science classes (btw, I still would NOT take them there). I would suggest SFSU summer classes or extended learning . . . . It’s practically the same price as New College AND you'll be taking classes from a CSU.

Good luck!

 

[saclaw417]

haha . . . don't worry about it, prions - I actually researched their website quite extensively before taking up the valuable time of the sdn forumers with this post.

In regards to night classes, i think that's definitely an option down the road after I figure out my workload at the law firm. The minimum billable hours requirements aren't too bad, so I think it should be feasible. The problem is that my firm is based in Sacramento, not SF, so the educational resources are a bit more limited. The commute to New College would have worked because the classes were only on weekends, but a weeknight commute to the Bay Area would be out of the question. I haven't been able to find a school near Sac. that offers O-Chem at night, which is why I would have to take O-Chem before G-Chem next year during my last year of law school if I decide not to enroll at New College.

Anyways, thanks again for all of your replies. If anyone has any positive things to say about New College, I'd be interested in hearing them - otherwise, I think you guys have effectively dissuaded me from enrolling there this summer. While this may push back my med school application an entire year, I guess that's an acceptable concession to ensure myself the best opportunity for med school acceptance. It's going to be a long, arduous road, but right now I can't see myself doing anything else. Law just isn't for me.

Thanks again!

p.s. I guess I don't have to make a post in the "beginning the journey this summer" thread now. (and I should have some extra time to volunteer at the local hospital!)

 

[relentless11]

haha . . . don't worry about it, prions - I actually researched their website quite extensively before taking up the valuable time of the sdn forumers with this post.

In regards to night classes, i think that's definitely an option down the road after I figure out my workload at the law firm. The minimum billable hours requirements aren't too bad, so I think it should be feasible. The problem is that my firm is based in Sacramento, not SF, so the educational resources are a bit more limited. The commute to New College would have worked because the classes were only on weekends, but a weeknight commute to the Bay Area would be out of the question. I haven't been able to find a school near Sac. that offers O-Chem at night, which is why I would have to take O-Chem before G-Chem next year during my last year of law school if I decide not to enroll at New College.

Have you looked at Sac City College? UCD probably won't work because there is probably no room for you during the normal academic year in any of the chem classes. Not to mention that their lectures are in the mornings. I have no idea about Sac State though. You can also try American River College (ARC), and Consumes River College. ARC actually has a pretty good pre-med advising since they do run their own pre-American Medical Student Association (pre-AMSA) thing there. There has to be at least one section of chem that is offered in the evenings at one of those JC's.

Too bad you are busy over the summer. You could just take 2 quarters of chem at UCD. Might cost you an arm and a leg, and prolly burst into flames because of the heat up here, but you'd kill off 2 chem classes in one summer.

 

[helpfuldoc2b]

Have you looked at Sac City College? UCD probably won't work because there is probably no room for you during the normal academic year in any of the chem classes. Not to mention that their lectures are in the mornings. I have no idea about Sac State though. You can also try American River College (ARC), and Consumes River College. ARC actually has a pretty good pre-med advising since they do run their own pre-American Medical Student Association (pre-AMSA) thing there. There has to be at least one section of chem that is offered in the evenings at one of those JC's.

Too bad you are busy over the summer. You could just take 2 quarters of chem at UCD. Might cost you an arm and a leg, and prolly burst into flames because of the heat up here, but you'd kill off 2 chem classes in one summer.

Curious, what made you decide on med school even b4 deciding on working in the field you studied for and went to college for so long for?

 

[relentless11]

Curious, what made you decide on med school even b4 deciding on working in the field you studied for and went to college for so long for?

Actually, I was a pre-med since starting college. However while at UC Davis for undergrad, I realized research was also great, so I pushed towards the MD/PhD pathway. However life's challenges greatly reduced my competitiveness to get into just an MD program. Therefore to keep my goal, and improve my stats, I did a PhD. Nothing went to waste since I got into a PhD program through UC Davis School of Medicine, and my thesis is clinically-based. My undergrad work helped me stay at the top of my program, while my research required me to learn clinical skills which are helpful as a med student. So this PhD actually keeps reminding me WHY I want to be a physician too...which is to practice medicine and do research on the side.=)

 

[dia009]

y not sfsu?
they r flexible with many offerings and are very reputable