*pre-pre-med II

[jwtaylor]

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in my previous pre-pre-med post i was advised to thin out my course load for my first two years at a community college. my first semester of year one is loaded with chem, bio, and cal..which happen to be some med school pre-reqs as you are all aware (ya know...the classes that need my straight A's). when i looked at the schedule to see where to put those and find classes to replace some of them as to lighten the load i found that there is nowhere to re-arrange anything. those classes are followed by their secondary courses (chem II and bio II) i cant very well take these courses out of order. if i do id push my schedule back probably and i might need 3 years at the comm. college. because either way i look at it, i need those bios, chems, physics and their sequels for my intended major at the university im transferring to. i hope some of this made sense...and most of all i hope i can sort this out...because as i stated in my last post...the counselors at this particular community college seem to view transferring as a foriegn language for some unknown reason.

 

[jlee9531]

why you feel as though you need to complete all of these at a CC?
Do you have to finish all these to transfer to the University you are planning to attend?
Can't you just take some and then work on the rest the first semester at the university you are going to attend. and then go into your major courses in the 2nd semester of your jr year?

im sad to see that your CC doesnt know what transferring is. most of the CCs here have specific programs that work with universities to help students transfer to those schools.

 

[PreMedPoohBear]

Hey jwtaylor, I know a little about your situation. I too went to a community college my first two years. I just graduated the other day with my associate's degree. My advisor wasn't much of a help. Out of the two years at my cc, I saw my advisors only to get my pin number to register and once for some useless advice, so I basically did everything myself. I would have to advise not to take all your prereqs at a community college. I only too Bio I, Bio II, Chem I, Chem II, and Organic I with the labs. I took Zoo I too, but I just took it to get more science classes under my belt, but anyways I would save Organic, Physics, and Calculus for your senior university. This way you can show medical schools that you are qualified to handle science classes at the senior university. Just take other classes that you need in order to graduate to fill the spots of the science classes, such as English, literature, philosophy, history, etc. because you need these classes too so why not get those out of the way also. This is based on all the good advice I've received from SDN.

 

[SoCalOrBust]

I totally know what your saying- I had a counselor that recommended I take PE classes instead of Ochem because my second year would be too hard!!! Don't listen to them.

As far as taking the entire sequence in two years, I had the same problem. I couldnt fit a bio course i needed (there were three semesters of it and couldnt get it done in my second year). WHat I had to do was take it the summer before I transferred. My school had a transfer agreement with the four year university i went to. Chem and physics classes could not be taken out of sequence and conveniently take up a year each. THe bio courses could be taken out of sequence without too much trouble- is that possible in your case?

Are you taking summer school classes? Were you able to take all the classes for transfer right when you went to the JC or did you need to take pre-req classes? Also, are you trying to finish the GE graduation requirements at the JC?

For my 2 years at a JC, I just took the basic premed courses and a few graduation requirements. I managed to finish do that in 2 years because I tested into the transferrable course in the beginning, petitioned a requirement for a non-transferrable bio pre-req class, had my bio and physics class overlap one semester (needed a petition for that), took statistics and a general bio course (bio I) before I began my junior year at the 4-year university, and didn't try to get the GE requirements done at the JC.

I went to Santa Rosa Junior College and transferred to UC Davis. I imagine you may have a different scenario with a different school combination. My GPA was higher at Davis (about a 3.8) than at the JC. If you keep your grades up all the way through and do well in upper division classes a the 4-year, you should be fine.

Hope this helps and PM if you have any other ?'s about transferring from a JC.

 

[jwtaylor]

my only problem is that im a science major at my comm. college. and bio I-II, chem I-II, physics I-II, org. chem I-II, and calc I-II are all the required classes i need for my associates degree. if i take any of those other classes in my 3rd year at the senior school, they count towards my associates and i wont get a degree...which may not be an issue...im rather confused however. with the above stated premises, would it be advantageous to not recieve the a.s. degree at all? then just take whatever courses i completed at the comm. college and transfer them to the senior school, then just complete the course work for my b.s.?

 

[bigbassinbob]

my only problem is that im a science major at my comm. college. and bio I-II, chem I-II, physics I-II, org. chem I-II, and calc I-II are all the required classes i need for my associates degree. if i take any of those other classes in my 3rd year at the senior school, they count towards my associates and i wont get a degree...which may not be an issue...im rather confused however. with the above stated premises, would it be advantageous to not recieve the a.s. degree at all? then just take whatever courses i completed at the comm. college and transfer them to the senior school, then just complete the course work for my b.s.?

Don't get an A.S. degree just because it's science related. Med schools won't even consider your CC degree. If anything, this will hurt your situation because you will be taking all your science courses at the easier CC and taking basic requirements at the university. You should only take whatever it takes to transfer to the university, and do the majority of your science work there. Most importantly, you should focus on getting A's especially at the CC, since anything but an A there would most likely be regarded as uncompetitive - meaning you don't want to load yourself up with hard courses while you're there.