To be short and sweet, Im a high school senior graduating at semester. Next semester, Spring 09, I am attending a community college to get some of the Pharmacy Prereq's out of the way. However, most of these classes i want to get into to ( Bio, Chem, Physics, Calc 130) all have their own prereq's. Is this typical? Do i need to take these classes or is there a way to bypass them and be put into the higher classes? They lady at the college told me that our high school classes does not matter when enrolling into college. For instance, I have 5 math credits in high school, including 1 credit for pre-calc. So logically, the next step is Calc130, but they won't enroll me into it. Also with physics, i took physics in high school, yet they won't enroll me into it. The only head start im getting on the Pharmacy Prereq's right now are English101 and Geography. I would love to get the harder ones out of the way. Any advice? Am i just sadly mistaken ?
It depends on where you go to school. My brother goes to University of Denver and the school offers Calc 1 with no pre reqs and tests prior taking the class. My school, University of Colorado Denver, makes us take the calculus readiness test before taking the calc 1 class. My advisor at UC Denver recommended me to take college algebra and pre calc before taking calc 1. Update: So, if you are planning on going to this community college, you are going to have to work your way up until the hard classes. But, the good news is that you are already prepared for the classes.
Thanks for the reply. I'm not worried about taking the classes leading up to what I need to be in, I'm just worried about waisting time and money. I don't want to take pointless classes that are going to do nothing for me when i transfer. So what you are saying is that I need to call the college that I attend on applying to and see if their Prereq's have Prereq's of their own?
As for the physics, if this is college/university physics, it is most likely calculus based. For this reason calculus is definitely a pre-req, to understand those concepts. As for calc, you should be able to test into it, I know that is a possibility at my college and my local community college. It might be difficult to find chem I and physics I during the spring though, since they are usually offered during the fall semester. As for Biology, at my school Bio I isn't a pre-req for Bio II, so you could probably take that if you don't find a Bio I course. You might want to look into microeconomics and public speaking as well, as those are generally pre-reqs. Hope that helped a little, good luck!
It isn't uncommon for some of the classes you mentioned to have their own pre-reqs - I would be surprised at General Biology and General Chemistry, but I guess it depends on the school. At the CC where I did a couple of pre-reqs, they required a math placement test - I imagine if you did well enough on this, you could go straight to calculus. They also had a loophole that would let you into class with permission of the instructor (even if you didn't have the pre-reqs). I'd contact the school and make an appointment with an academic advisor - as you said, you don't want to "waste" time taking classes that won't count as pharm school pre-reqs, but you also don't want to get in too deep if you really need some other class before enrolling in the courses you want.
All I am saying that it depends. Do call your college of choice and see what the college say. Also, when you say 'transfer', are you saying you are going to a different college/university to finish your other pre reqs? I wouldn't recommend transferring because some colleges won't accept the credits that are done in your Community College. CC's are as good as my university and all you need to do is get all A's and show the pharmacy school that you are qualified to be in their school.
I agree with all of the above - academic advisor appointment - and would add a talk with a professor who teaches one of the classes with pre-reqs. Another way to look at the situation is that even if some of the material is a review for you, the foundation you gain will be solid and will serve you well as you take advanced classes - your GPA will be better in other words.
Ask your advisor if there is an option to test out of some of the prerequisites you need to take Bio, Chem and Math. That way you can bypass some of the classes. HTH
I just graduated high school at semester. I don't want to attend UMKC half way through the year so i thought i would attend a community college to get my feet wet.
