Taking pre-reqs post grad?

[deleted244469]

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So I used to be active on here, and decided against Med School when I was younger. Well, after talking to a counselor for a while (I had NO idea what I wanted to do with my life), I have ultimately decided that what I want to do in life is to help people. Anyways, I am about to graduate from a University, but haven't taken ANY of my pre-reqs. Luckily, there is a great community college right by my mom's house. I would like to take my pre-reqs there. Taking them at a CC will allow a SIGNIFICANT savings in money compared to a University (I'm talking almost 4x cheaper). My question is, is this alright to do, since I have already graduated and will have a degree? Or is it frowned upon? I can't receive any more financial aid. Thanks!

-Chris

 

[achieve1]

i'm not in any position to give good advice on the matter (because I am planning on starting pre reqs myself this coming Fall), but I believe the general consensus around SDN appears to be that you should avoid taking pre-reqs at community colleges. It doesn't look as competitive to med schools in comparison to university level courses.

 

[doublehoo]

In some respects, it depends largely on the specific medical school, as well as your past academic background. Having considered the same issues myself, I spoke with the adcom director at the medical school for my alma mater and she told me directly they do not look well upon CC credits. That said, many schools will accept compelling financial reasons if you've shown otherwise that you can handle a tough course load. Schools want to see you can hold your own against other extremely competitive candidates, which can be difficult to ascertain at CCs. However, if you performed strongly at a good undergrad, that could compensate. Make sure you're engaging in valuable clinical/research experiences alongside your post-bac coursework, too.

My best advice is to contact a few medical schools you're interested in and ask them how they view CCs. Hopefully, they'll be straight with you. That worked best for me. Good luck!

 

[68PGunner]

Just knock out those prerequisites and kill the MCAT. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter.

If you do well in your classes and score at least a 30 on your MCAT, nobody cares. If you do well in your classes and score below 26 on your MCAT, it does raise certain red flags.

At the end of the day, you will probably don't want to go to schools that discriminate against you based on the origin of your classes.

 

[FiremedicMike]

So I used to be active on here, and decided against Med School when I was younger. Well, after talking to a counselor for a while (I had NO idea what I wanted to do with my life), I have ultimately decided that what I want to do in life is to help people. Anyways, I am about to graduate from a University, but haven't taken ANY of my pre-reqs. Luckily, there is a great community college right by my mom's house. I would like to take my pre-reqs there. Taking them at a CC will allow a SIGNIFICANT savings in money compared to a University (I'm talking almost 4x cheaper). My question is, is this alright to do, since I have already graduated and will have a degree? Or is it frowned upon? I can't receive any more financial aid. Thanks!

-Chris

As taboo as this subject is on these forums, it's really not that big of a deal for adcoms. As a lowly nobody premed, I called up the adcoms of the 3 programs I am interested in and asked them directly. 1 told me to forget about applying there, one told me they preferred them from a 4 year but didn't care too much, and the last was very interested in my non-trad story, said they absolutely didn't care if I got my pre-reqs from CC, and looked forward to seeing my application.

My advice? Call them.

 

[NuttyEngDude]

My advice? Call them.

👍

DO programs seem to not care while some MD do. Best is to find out for yourself for your specific circumstance and targeted schools.

 

[DocWinter]

OP,

It varies. It varies A LOT.

Some schools will consider it negatively. Some schools (Most, and especially DO schools) will not care.

If you have a BS/BA from a university and your post-bac is best served by the convenience and cost of a CC, you will likely not have an issue gaining acceptance into a DO program.

I took my post-back about 70/30 at University & CC. It did not seem to hurt my application. I would have, in retrospect, taken about 50/50 Univ./CC, for the cost alone. Yes, the savings is huge.

To consider; your local CC will likely NOT have a prehealth committee for a committee letter, while your univ. likely will.

It's a pros and cons list, top to bottom. I am a big CC fan, because the idea of higher quality at the univ. vs CC is a farce, at least in my experience with 250+ students crammed into a hall listening to a prof. who is only hired for research and doesn't even really want to teach Bio101 drone on. I loved the small 20-30 student class sizes at the CC where the prof. actually knew my name and I had the same prof for 3 semesters and a glowing LOR at the end.


In the end, your amount of personal studying will get you the education and grades and MCAT to succeed. Adcoms will look at your grades and MCAT first and foremost, and if you can score highly on those, you are going places.