Retakes at a Community College

[BlackOPPS]

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You said you were looking to improve your GPA, that you did poorly in Ochem I, and implied that you were retaking it or have retaking it recently. You have a biochem degree - are you seriously going to say you're retaking Ochem I because you need to relearn the material and can't do so by reviewing on your own? I doubt it. You are taking it to improve your GPA. (does it make it easier for you to understand my meaning when I improve instead of inflate?)

I repeat: I never once said that people would get their applications thrown out because they retook a course.

I simply said that if I were sitting on an adcom, and saw this type of scenario this is what I would think and therefore...

I also said that "I realize there are exceptions."

You are correct, if someone wants to retake a course, it isn't my concern why they want to retake it. But, if someone asks for advice on whether or not they should retake a course... I was giving advice on why I would (usually) not suggest retaking a course.

I really was going to leave it alone, but you have too many fallacies in your argument.. Sorry bro.. Its the ASSUMPTIONS you keep making...

1. You have a biochem degree - are you seriously going to say you're retaking Ochem I because you need to relearn the material and can't do so by reviewing on your own? I doubt it. You are taking it to improve your GPA.

I never said "relearn" anything. I said the most important thing is getting the grade and learning.. Not relearning...

2. I simply said that if I were sitting on an adcom, and saw this type of scenario this is what I would think and therefore...

Thats not what you said bro... Let me refresh your memory...
Instant flashback--------> If I can see right through that, wouldn't you think that most people on adcoms can too? They see things like this all the time. <------ Thats what YOU said... Like I said its the ASSUMPTIONS bro..

I was going to stop, but you forced my hand...

As the late Gary Coleman would say... What choo talkin' 'bout Willis???

 

[b1234]

I really was going to leave it alone, but you have too many fallacies in your argument.. Sorry bro.. Its the ASSUMPTIONS you keep making...

1. You have a biochem degree - are you seriously going to say you're retaking Ochem I because you need to relearn the material and can't do so by reviewing on your own? I doubt it. You are taking it to improve your GPA.

I never said "relearn" anything. I said the most important thing is getting the grade and learning.. Not relearning...

2. I simply said that if I were sitting on an adcom, and saw this type of scenario this is what I would think and therefore...

Thats not what you said bro... Let me refresh your memory...
Instant flashback--------> If I can see right through that, wouldn't you think that most people on adcoms can too? They see things like this all the time. <------ Thats what YOU said... Like I said its the ASSUMPTIONS bro..

I was going to stop, but you forced my hand...

As the late Gary Coleman would say... What choo talkin' 'bout Willis???

You're taking things out of context by partial quotes, but anyways...

ok, I'll bite, if you're not retaking ochem I to improve your GPA then why are you retaking it?

I see the scenario you initially gave, and think "why would this person have any need to retake that course other than to improve GPA?" This is they type of "thing" that I am saying adcoms see all the time.

 

[euqinugoogoo]

California school wise, if you retake a class most of them just balance out your GPA. BUT I do know for a fact that WesternU actually disregards your old grade and replace it with the new grade. ie you get a C in chemI and then retake it and get an A. That C will not hurt you.

I'm not sure if it hurts your chances of getting in to pharmacy by retaking classes at a cc, all I can say is that, it doesn't hurt right? You already have your previous grades.

Overall, I don't think it'll hurt.

 

[chemguy79]

One important fact to consider is whether or not the student has already received a Bachelor's Degree. If you're still in undergrad and you take a class at a CC, it MAY seem like you're gunning to get a higher grade. If you've already received a degree (or two, *shifts eyes) and you haven't taken the course in a few years, it would probably ring differently with an adcom.

 

[steveysmith54]

This topic has been debated for ages and as a p2 student who has taken majority of his classes at a cc i want to point something out

People strongly overhype GPA, school, and major. Majority of schools possibly excluding maybe UCSF and UCSD care much more about one's motivation and desire to do pharmacy. Pharmacy experience, interview skills, and EC is what will you get you accepted.

 

[dtran01]

I shared my experience about retaking courses at CC and my successful acceptance to multiple pharmacy schools, and was blasted because of the assumption that since the tests at CC were said to be fair, they must have been easy. You ignore that I present only my experience and that it was positive for retaking courses at CC -- what does that have to do with whether or not it was easy? Unfortunately for me, my class wasn't easy -- but had it been easy what would that change?! I would have still gotten the "A" I got anyway and the half dozen adcoms that accepted me wouldn't know. In my 7 interviews, none of the interviewers questioned the difficulty of any portion of my curriculum. Had they asked, I would have told them the truth - that I took them to make my application to pharmacy more competitive because I knew beyond any doubt it was the career for me. My gpa boost from course retakes at CC and my various additional extracurriculars convinced the adcom that my application was different enough from the year prior and that I was serious about pharmacy, and I wanted to share that experience. Surely there is a stigma that CC classes are easier, but I'd take an A from CC any day over a C+ from UCLA, and my own experience is that merely the risk of a stigma is not worth taking the lower grade.

And while we are on the topic of "easy" classes, perhaps you have not taken courses like I have where the physics professor seriously says "I give you 4 problems so MAYBE you can do ONE" (to this day I wish I had taped that lecture). When the curve for a test at a prestigious institution such as UCLA is 33%, and a 50% (essentially, a fail) is a curved "A", the students that do well aren't really particularly knowledgeable of the material -- they're just good at writing down equations and plugging in random numbers to guess at half of the answer. I should know -- I did just that and got the 2nd highest score on that particular midterm.

Let me reiterate.. as much as I loved my time at UCLA, the quality of education I received at CC for Ochem and microbiology was far superior to the one I had at UCLA -- I learned and retained more information. In case you could somehow mistake me again, I claim the tests were better because they were fair, not easy. Fair means give something you can reasonably expect a student to be able to analyze and use learned concepts to derive an answer within 50 minutes. Fair does not mean homework problems with different numbers or "plug and chug" questions. The tests were curved, results showed a clear bell curve that easily separated the (few) A students. Perhaps you are right and Ochem at some CC near you is a cakewalk, but I can assure you that my course was not an easy class. also, for phathead, I took all my courses in socal.

I guess the take home message for the random student looking through this thread is that experiences will vary and there is no definitive answer to this question. I only hope that my experience motivates someone else to find their own successful path.

 

[rxlea]

Cali, AZ, and Texas have awesome CCs. We didn't get amazing curves at the CC like we did at Arizona State (an 80 percent ended up being an A there in many classes). At CC, it was the standard grading scale with MAYBE a slight curve in certain classes, but even then, it was by only 1 or 2 percent overall.