Taking upper level pre-reqs at community college?

[rgstein05]

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Hi SDN --

I'm sort of a mix of nontrad and gap year trad - I was originally interested in medicine, but the pandemic knocked me off course, and I'm returning to the dream three years after graduating. As a result, I've completed a fair amount of my pre-reqs at a 4-year university (Chem, Bio, Physiology, Psych, Stats, English, etc).

I'm currently finishing up Organic Chem I and Physics I w/ labs at a community college, and am planning on finishing Orgo 2, Physics 2, Biochemistry, and Genetics at my community college. I would say the quality of education is high, I'm feeling very challenged, and these classes prepare me well for the MCAT. But I'm reading conflicting information about how community credit hours look on an application. I understand some schools won't accept CC at all, especially for biochemistry.

Honestly, I just can't afford another option -- I'm currently working full-time as a nursing care technician (CNA) in a hospital, and I love the work, but the salary is lean. The 4-year universities in my city range $600-$900 per credit hour, compared to the $180/ch I'm managing at my CC. I'm just not able to take on $10,000+ in debt to get my pre-reqs done.

I've read other stories here of nontrads doing CC classes, but many have Masters degrees, an accompished past career, etc, which seems to cushion the blow. My post grad years have involved soul-searching and personal growth, but don't have anything academically rigorous to show for it. Just a few full-time jobs and lots of community volunteering. My GPA is good, at least, and if I ace the rest of my pre-reqs, I'll finish with a 3.93 cGPA and 3.91 sGPA.

Would love some advice on this if anyone has walked a similar path. Thank you all!

 

[doc_J61]

Think about a way to tie all of your experiences together into a theme.

What kind of ECs/volunteering/work experience do you have? Have you taken a practice MCAT score yet to know where you stand as far as that goes?

Try to put together a list of schools that you're planning to apply to and make sure that your CC credits will be accepted at these schools. You're right; most rigorous schools do not like upper division units at CC, but of course it depends on a lot of different things.

One thing that I will say--you want to have an outstanding application in every way, because that's what you'll be competing against. Try not to have any weak areas, esp. when it comes to LoRs, shadowing, essays, etc. You can't say for sure how the adcoms will view your app, so just do your very best w/everything and hope that it all works out.

Good luck! <3

 

[nontrad:PP]

i'm a non-trad career changer so our situations might be a bit different, but i've heard that CC courses are looked at differently for non-traditional/post-grad students. i think most adcoms would understand wanting to save $$ and time when possible. especially if you are working full time and have strong areas in the rest of your application i think that taking courses at the CC should be fine for many schools. of course you should double check with each institution though and make sure to perform strongly on the MCAT. good luck!!

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

I took all my postbacc work at either a CC or UNE Online. Taking Step 1 in Feb. Non-trads get a little slack for logistical stuff like this.

 

[rgstein05]

Think about a way to tie all of your experiences together into a theme.

What kind of ECs/volunteering/work experience do you have? Have you taken a practice MCAT score yet to know where you stand as far as that goes?

Try to put together a list of schools that you're planning to apply to and make sure that your CC credits will be accepted at these schools. You're right; most rigorous schools do not like upper division units at CC, but of course it depends on a lot of different things.

One thing that I will say--you want to have an outstanding application in every way, because that's what you'll be competing against. Try not to have any weak areas, esp. when it comes to LoRs, shadowing, essays, etc. You can't say for sure how the adcoms will view your app, so just do your very best w/everything and hope that it all works out.

Good luck! <3

Thank you for your reply!! A theme feels a bit hard to articulate right now... I always knew I wanted a career in service of others, and I explored a lot of paths, but nothing felt like a good fit. I became a CNA to explore healthcare directly and felt completely transformed by the experience. And after a year of observing physicians at my job, I felt like, "Yeah, that's what I've been searching for." I love the rigor, the depth of knowledge, and the way good physician leadership can bring calmness and clarity to chaos.

As a rundown of my experiences -- I'll have about 7,000 hours of clinical work hours at my hospital by the time I apply. Prior I had a full time job at a legal aid firm, for a year. I've been volunteering regularly with a health outreach bus that travels to homeless encampments, and have been lighty active with my local LGBTQ community center for about a year. I'll have a couple hundred hours in both.

I have some undergrad experiences -- I was involved in a lot of research, including three undergraduate research grants. I believe I did one poster presentation, but no publications. I volunteered and led some student orgs during college, but the pandemic happened my sophomore year, so some of my experiences never grew into the fruits they could've. After graduating, I came out as LGBTQ, and have gotten involved in my local queer community more.

I'm looking into doing official shadowing this next year. I should be able to get some good LORs from my supervisors and my current OChem professor. I've changed a lot since college, so I feel unsure about asking for LORs from any of my old professors and advisors. I used to take the easy way out but have since developed a much more robust work ethic.

My degree is in Psychology and English. I consider myself a good writer, and I think I could cook up some great essays.

It's definitely difficult to be working full-time while doing all of the pre-med prep, but I feel energized by it now. I'm hoping I can pull my zig-zaggy path of experiences together into some sort of cohesive narrative. Thank again for your advice. <3

 

[doc_J61]

Sure! Don't forget that "nontrad" is a theme of its own, of course! But the more specific you can be, the better.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.
Have you talked to admissions officers or attended recruitment events? What have they told you about your choices for taking community college courses? Because of costs, I'm assuming you are looking at in-state options or scholarship programs like HPSP or NHSC?

 

[esob]

At the end of the day the algorithms favor GPA over where you got your grades. It becomes more of a problem if something doesn't jive well w/ the rest of your app. If you have a 4.0 from a local CC and a pitiful MCAT, it would be problematic. If you have a decent MCAT and good grades at a CC you will be in a much better place than a decent mcat and average grades at a 4 yr.

 

[AJ25]

CC science credits are fine. Some of us are not born into wealthy families who can write checks to any school we want. Reasonable people understand this well.

Just keep in mind you will encounter biased admissions committee members at every school who will still harp that CC courses are subpar in their teaching. You just can't escape that thinking even today.

Having said that, undergrad biochem performance does not dictate med school biochem performance as they are both very different courses.