No Pre-Req Classes Available?

[sigmadeltag]

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So I'm in Southern California and finished my degree a couple years ago. I'm trying to pre-reqs for PA school now but am completely flustered. I can't get into ANY classes.

I've applied to 4 different community colleges right as registration began, but the registration window they all give me is always too late to get into a class (science classes have all filled up 2 weeks before I can even register). State universities will let me add as a non-degree seeking student, but not until EVERYONE else has had a chance to get into the classes, including everyone on the waitlists (dead end). I've applied to post bac programs as well, but it just seems a waste because the curriculum is more geared towards pre-med with all the courses. Not to mention it's 40k and no financial aid is available for the second half.

What are the alternatives? How are non-trads taking their pre-reqs if there's no space available?

 

[FrkyBgStok]

What about applying as a degree seeking student and "dropping out" when your pre-reqs are done. This is exactly why med school is hard for nontrads. The adcoms don't cut us any slack.

If there really iis NO other alternative, check out a CC.

 

[FutureDrB]

So I'm in Southern California and finished my degree a couple years ago. I'm trying to pre-reqs for PA school now but am completely flustered. I can't get into ANY classes.

I've applied to 4 different community colleges right as registration began, but the registration window they all give me is always too late to get into a class (science classes have all filled up 2 weeks before I can even register). State universities will let me add as a non-degree seeking student, but not until EVERYONE else has had a chance to get into the classes, including everyone on the waitlists (dead end). I've applied to post bac programs as well, but it just seems a waste because the curriculum is more geared towards pre-med with all the courses. Not to mention it's 40k and no financial aid is available for the second half.

What are the alternatives? How are non-trads taking their pre-reqs if there's no space available?

After receiving mixed feedback on taking prerequisites at a community college, I decided to take them at a university. Complete waste of money if you ask me, but I don't want to give the ADCOMS any reason to look down on my application.

So, I just enrolled in Master's degree program at the local university so that I could get student loans. I'm using those loans to cover the costs of my prerequisite classes too. May be cheesy, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Plus, my graduate degree brought up my overall GPA .3 points. 👍

 

[Bellette]

I see that this post was started in January, so it's probably no longer for the benefit of the original poster--but for anyone else. . .

Join the post-bacc program, which most big universities host. Advisors can course-action you into filled pre-req's.

 

[LifeTake2]

I see that this post was started in January, so it's probably no longer for the benefit of the original poster--but for anyone else. . .

Join the post-bacc program, which most big universities host. Advisors can course-action you into filled pre-req's.

??? The thread was started last week.

As for post-bacc, two issues 1) to say most big univ host is a stretch so the OP may have trouble getting into one and 2) an advisor can't get a student into a filled class, only the professor has that ability...and in a lab class the sizes are limited by the lab normally so if the lab seats are full you are out of luck.

To the OP, I would strongly look at enrolling as a second degree student. It gives you 'senior' status for registration normally and you can just take what you want and then move on with life. I just did this last year and it worked out pretty well.

 

[NightGod]

After receiving mixed feedback on taking prerequisites at a community college, I decided to take them at a university. Complete waste of money if you ask me, but I don't want to give the ADCOMS any reason to look down on my application.

So, I just enrolled in Master's degree program at the local university so that I could get student loans. I'm using those loans to cover the costs of my prerequisite classes too. May be cheesy, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Plus, my graduate degree brought up my overall GPA .3 points. 👍

Fair warning, grad degree classes won't affect your GPA for admission. They're kept seperate.

 

[FutureDrB]

Fair warning, grad degree classes won't affect your GPA for admission. They're kept seperate.

Incorrect. Your graduate/post-bac courses figure into your cumulative GPA. They also figure into your science GPA if you took any graduate science courses.

Per AACOMAS..

"AACOMAS will calculate your GPA and credit hours according to the following rules: GPAs and credit hours will be calculated for Science, Non-Science and All
Coursework."

There are 3 GPAs the board will look at.
Cumulative GPA (which includes ALL coursework including graduate and post-bac)
Science GPA (which includes ALL science coursework)
Non-Science GPA (self-explainatory)

Schools will also be able to see your undergraduate GPA (which is the overall GPA for most people since most apply without a graduate degree). They can also see your GPA for each of your years, Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Graduate

 

[Beandog]

To the OP, I would strongly look at enrolling as a second degree student. It gives you 'senior' status for registration normally and you can just take what you want and then move on with life. I just did this last year and it worked out pretty well.

👍
Yes, enroll seeking a degree. You don't have to finish it, if all you want is to get the required premed courses. I am a Chem major at UB, but have been told by the admin there "do what you want" as far as taking classes, because I have all rights re: registering for classes as any chem major.
Is there any advantage of being a student who is not majoring in something? i can't think of any. Seems like you just get the pick of the leftovers.

 

[NightGod]

Incorrect. Your graduate/post-bac courses figure into your cumulative GPA. They also figure into your science GPA if you took any graduate science courses.

Per AACOMAS..

"AACOMAS will calculate your GPA and credit hours according to the following rules: GPAs and credit hours will be calculated for Science, Non-Science and All
Coursework."

There are 3 GPAs the board will look at.
Cumulative GPA (which includes ALL coursework including graduate and post-bac)
Science GPA (which includes ALL science coursework)
Non-Science GPA (self-explainatory)

Schools will also be able to see your undergraduate GPA (which is the overall GPA for most people since most apply without a graduate degree). They can also see your GPA for each of your years, Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Graduate

They will average them in and will be one of the columns an AdCom can view, but most AdComs only look at the undergraduate GPA (which includes post-bacc, since those are ugrad level courses) because they are very aware of the usual grade inflation that occurs in master's level courses. The only master's grades they really care about are SMPs, since those are specifically designed to determine if the participants can handle the rigors of medical school.

 

[ghostman]

Same thing happened to me when I started trying to take pre-med courses. I'm from NYC, so I applied to CUNY. The classes closed out before registration for non-degrees rolled by. So the following semester, I decided to commit to Harvard Extension. Largely because their tuition was as affordable as the CUNYs and that there was no enrollment limit to the pre-med courses (not sure if that's still true).

It still costed a lot because I had to move there, but even with rent, it costed less than taking those courses at my original undergrad university. I'm glad because I finished those pre-reqs now and can return to NYC to take CUNYs. The upper-level courses don't fill as fast.

 

[nicknickp3]

Not sure if this helps or if you want to risk it, but every semester when I cant get into a class I want I wait for the "purge date" that is the date where if you dont pay your tuition they boot you. At my uni 20% of the class opens up every time.