Rant!!!!

[starfishbear]

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[Snahster]

I'm getting increasingly annoyed at dental schools who cannot distinguish between a community college and a four year university. There is an obvious difference in "difficulty" in terms of acheiving high grades. A 3rd year student applying after one year at a 4-year university with mostly community college credit (cum GPA of 3.7) is way favored over a student with a 3.3 GPA through 3 years at a 4 year university. How is that fair? I have confirmed that the community college student is better through speaking to two deans... wtf!!!

What do you guys think?

I think you should stop whining and worry about your own successes.

 

[yeabuddy]

My friend and I were both students attending Stony Brook University undergrad and both bio majors and taking all the pre-dental courses (bio, chem, organic, etc.) Anyway after the second year he was struggling with some sciences, mostly chem and ended up taking his sciences at a community college and went from getting almost all C's to nothing less than an A-.

Even he admitted all his sciences were nowhere near as hard as Stony Brook. Many admissions officers do take into account where you went to undergrad and your performance but that only plays a small part of your overall application.

As Snahster put it, focus on doing as well as you can in all areas of your application especially DAT and GPA. Dont get caught up on what others are doing or what hear from others. Good Luck.

 

[li1p0ptart]

if it is true that classes at community colleges are less harder than at universities, then it can be assumed that the students at the community colleges will learn less, and thus may be less prepared for the DAT. So eventually it may even out.

 

[djeffreyt]

I suppose the failing could also be that you didn't forsee this and wasted money and study time at the 4 year institution rather than going to a 2-year school and getting higher grades and then applying after a year transfer to a 4 year school. Those people may have done it as simply a stroke of luck, or perhaps planned it that way. Either way, they ended up working smarter rather than harder and ended up succeeding in the end.

Dental school is a lot like that. There are a lot of hard workers, but the people who work smarter often do better in the long run anyway. The hard working people sometimes whine about the others, sometimes learn from the others, and often just ignore the others and go on working hard to achieve little more useful skill or knowledge.

I say suck it up. Rants are a wonderful way to release stress, but save the rants for your friends who will either agree with you or humor you, cause you'll just end up flamed one way or another on here for a rant. I don't disagree or agree with your point. I just don't care really.

 

[johntara04]

I moved out here from Utah to Philadelphia and I am amazed at the difference between Uni's and CC's. In Utah, there really isn't a difference. I went to UVSC and University of Utah and the courses were equally as difficult. I also think it shows in the high rate of success of UVSC alum in the DAT and ranking in D.School. I honestly thought there was no difference at all between the two, but the more I see and the more I read out here I am starting to believe that there is a difference.

All I can say, is the DAT will separate you two.

 

[aphistis]

I'm getting increasingly annoyed at dental schools who cannot distinguish between a community college and a four year university. There is an obvious difference in "difficulty" in terms of acheiving high grades. A 3rd year student applying after one year at a 4-year university with mostly community college credit (cum GPA of 3.7) is way favored over a student with a 3.3 GPA through 3 years at a 4 year university. How is that fair? I have confirmed that the community college student is better through speaking to two deans... wtf!!!

What do you guys think?

So how do those grapes taste? Pretty sour, you say?

 

[armorshell]

If what you assert is true, that community college students have higher grades but are actually weaker in the sciences, then they should logically score lower on the DAT and in their upper level classes and even the playing field.

 

[ucla2134]

I'm getting increasingly annoyed at dental schools who cannot distinguish between a community college and a four year university. There is an obvious difference in "difficulty" in terms of acheiving high grades. A 3rd year student applying after one year at a 4-year university with mostly community college credit (cum GPA of 3.7) is way favored over a student with a 3.3 GPA through 3 years at a 4 year university. How is that fair? I have confirmed that the community college student is better through speaking to two deans... wtf!!!

What do you guys think?

Ok, here is my perspective

A community college student if get 3.7 and still get the same grade after transferring is WAY MORE BETTER than non-transfer student with 3.3
I should have gone to community college since i don't have to compete with those nerdy freshman

 

[pmantz]

First off your title to the thread is far from a rant. You should rename the thread to "whine!!!". Your weakly founded observations are more annoying then response provoking. thumbdown

 

[jza70]

The level of academics varies between ALL SCHOOLS not just 4 years and CC. The community college I went to was harder than my 4 year college. As I've mentioned before in another thread my CC gen bio class was ridiculously hard. We were required to memorize a long list of animals/plants from their order down to their species, know specific names of random anatomy random-ass things like DETAILED parts of a starfish or insects. My 4 year college genbio was a breeze only general specifics were required and general physiology, likewise for the DNA portion and the evolution and ecology. Lifeisgood from this forum went through a similar situation too. On the flipside I know someone at my school who took a calc class at a different CC. If they failed a test they were allowed to correct their test and show the proper work and get 50% of their missed points.

When comparing 4 year schools the same situation comes up. I've seen my friends O-chem midterm from MIT some of the questions are laughable. One of the questions was to identify which were the reactants and which were the products of a reaction. Some ivy league schools are known to be VERY lenient when it comes to grading (how does it make sense if 80%+ of the graduating class graduate magna cum laude?).

As I mentioned at the beginning academics varies between ALL SCHOOLS. That's why the DAT is the equalizer.

 

[Meatwad]

My friend and I were both students attending Stony Brook University undergrad and both bio majors and taking all the pre-dental courses (bio, chem, organic, etc.) Anyway after the second year he was struggling with some sciences, mostly chem and ended up taking his sciences at a community college and went from getting almost all C's to nothing less than an A-.

Even he admitted all his sciences were nowhere near as hard as Stony Brook. Many admissions officers do take into account where you went to undergrad and your performance but that only plays a small part of your overall application.

As Snahster put it, focus on doing as well as you can in all areas of your application especially DAT and GPA. Dont get caught up on what others are doing or what hear from others. Good Luck.

Gotta love those 750+ people packed into the Javits Center for intro biology and chem classes...

 

[pmantz]

Okay, Okay, you forgot to mention us the non traditional.

 

[pmantz]

Gotta love those 750+ people packed into the Javits Center for intro biology and chem classes...

You bring up an interesting point, class size.

 

[Montserrat]

I spoke to one dean of admissions this past summer, and she didn't seem to care where I went to undergrad or where I took post-bacc courses - she just wanted raw numbers. For whatever reason, she was more interested in the correlation between DAT scores and existing GPA, which for most qualified students, would mean that the school they went to mattered squat.

I doubt they would drop the hammer any less if i told them "Oh my god! My orgo grades sucked because my nazi orgo prof was a former student of the Evan's group at Harvard and he has a stick up his butt !!!one11!!"
A B, is a B, is a B, it seems.

 

[997GT3]

Hmm. Which schools are these? Perhaps the more prestigious schools prefer 4-year over CC? But I do know that med schools hardly accept any CC credit and pharmacy schools look at raw numbers. My pharmacy friends took most of their prereqs at CC's.

 

[THDental]

I'm getting increasingly annoyed at dental schools who cannot distinguish between a community college and a four year university. There is an obvious difference in "difficulty" in terms of acheiving high grades. A 3rd year student applying after one year at a 4-year university with mostly community college credit (cum GPA of 3.7) is way favored over a student with a 3.3 GPA through 3 years at a 4 year university. How is that fair? I have confirmed that the community college student is better through speaking to two deans... wtf!!!

What do you guys think?

Why are you getting annoyed? because you are jealous of people who have higher GPA than yours? or what???
" A 3rd year student applying after one year at a 4-year university with mostly community college credit (cum GPA of 3.7) is way favored over a student with a 3.3 GPA through 3 years at a 4 year university" That's reasonable. Maintaining 3.7 after 3 yirs is not easy , and it doesn't matter where you are studying. Also, I think the student needs to get at least >3.3 in order to have cum GPA of 3.7. That's so obvious why dental schools favor the student with 3.7.
You also forget that some people cannot attend 4-year unvi after high school right away because of some reasons. For me, I came to the U.S just several years , and CC was the only choice for me before I transferred, and I'm doing really well at 4-yir uni right now.
So, I think it's the fair game, and you should just focus on your part.
Good luck

 

[Mcglock]

I took my Chem and OChem at a CC while my roommate took his at our University. I scored better on the DAT than he did in these areas. At our University the averages on tests in these classes is usually around a 60%. With averages like that it doesn't seem to me that people are actually learning the material, hence my decision to go to a CC where I learned more and did better on the DAT.

 

[DENTFRIO]

I graduated from a private school in which the chem class was so "hard" that people were not learning anything.. I took the class at a Community College and simply learned the basics. I am not trying to be a Organic Chemist, I am trying to get into Dental School. Simply put, learn it well for the DAT.

 

[starfishbear]

Whining is what I do best, I am girl and an annoying one to say the least. The average out on DAT is not a valid argument because in most cases, community college students score about the same, if not better on DAT overall. The education is the same, the ability to earn higher grades at a CC is easier. This has been discussed MANY MANY times over on SDN so I will not waste my time or anyone elses time.

Just a quick edit: To the poster above, maintaining a 3.7 is very easy after just 1 year at a 4-year university. If a person comes in with a 4.0 from a CC only needs to have a 3.1-3.2 overall in his or her 3rd year to average a 3.7 overall FYI.

Finally, please do not flame me, I am not pointing any fingers at anyone of you and I do not look down upon those who are transfers. My best friend is a transfer student and she is very smart. What i'm mad about is that dental school only care about raw numbers.

 

[sarah_bellum]

The average out on DAT is not a valid argument because in most cases, community college students score about the same, if not better on DAT overall.

Actually, it's entirely valid. If the scores from community college students are higher, then they're probably learning the sciences better. No reason not to accept them.

 

[cabbagebrain]

I took Biology I at a community college and took Biology II after transferring to a university. My Bio I class was far superior in so many ways. I had 30 people in my class instead of 200. My teacher taught our labs instead of a TA. I learned so much more, because my teacher would sit there and discuss the lecture with us rather than just going through a PowerPoint presentation in a giant lecture hall. That class was a hard A--much harder than at the university--and I came away with so much more.

I have coasted through some classes at my university, just as I was able to coast through some at the community college. I also took some killer classes at the CC. No one can say I was not challenged just as much, if not more, there.

Just my two cents.

 

[predental7200]

it's not necessarily true that it's easier to get higher grades at a CC

I took intro chemistry at college, tried very hard and got a C. I then took Chem 1 and 2 at university the next year and got a B and B+, trying just as hard. I actually found university easier, and no, I didn't all of a sudden turn a lot smarter or study more.

They even told us when I was in college to not expect an easy break b/c they know lots of students come from university to do a few of their harder pre-reqs at CC and they make it just as hard (harder in my opinion!)

 

[tinman831]

I wouldn't go and say that community colleges are easier in general. It's more dependent upon the teachers that teach the courses. I took a few courses at a CC and I breezed through them while some of my friends who took the same courses with different teachers at the same school struggled to get similar grades.

The argument over which is harder, CC or a university, is an endless debate with no concrete answer. Whether your schools name has the words "community college" or "University" at the end of it does not matter. Only numbers impress. Focus on getting a good GPA and DAT score, whether you attend a CC or a 4 year institution.

 

[ucla2134]

Whining is what I do best, I am girl and an annoying one to say the least. The average out on DAT is not a valid argument because in most cases, community college students score about the same, if not better on DAT overall. The education is the same, the ability to earn higher grades at a CC is easier. This has been discussed MANY MANY times over on SDN so I will not waste my time or anyone elses time.

Just a quick edit: To the poster above, maintaining a 3.7 is very easy after just 1 year at a 4-year university. If a person comes in with a 4.0 from a CC only needs to have a 3.1-3.2 overall in his or her 3rd year to average a 3.7 overall FYI.

Finally, please do not flame me, I am not pointing any fingers at anyone of you and I do not look down upon those who are transfers. My best friend is a transfer student and she is very smart. What i'm mad about is that dental school only care about raw numbers.

Dental schools DOES NOT care about number they look if transfer students do as well at the university. If not then the CC that they went to is
I think some cc classes are supper hard since the exam only based on your memory not conceptual. For ex, human anatomy, microbiology. I took them at summer school and had to drop it. I took it again at UCLA and got both A-

 

[DocHeart]

All of my professors actually know my name, and they have very easy office hours.

 

[pmantz]

All of my professors actually know my name, and they have very easy office hours.

I know, I didn't take any classes at a CC, but I went to a regional campus for a big ten school. The biology/chemistry departments were small but really good. Most my classes especially upper level chem and bio were so small there could be more class discussion, and questions were totally welcome during lecture. All my classes were tought by proffessors, and they were always available out of class. Another plus was that it was pretty easy to find good research projects, granted they might not be as well funded as they would at a a larger school, but there were more opportunities/less competition.