Too many schools for prerequisites?

[CalBears05]

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Hello everyone,

So far, I have attended only community colleges. I have most of my premed prerequisites at one community college. I have other prerequisites (about 8 semester units) split between two other community colleges.

I am transferring to a University this Fall and need to take a year of physics only. Unfortunately, I won't be able to take physics at the university because they require one semester of calculus (which I did not complete in college since I am a non-science major). In order to complete the physics courses, I located another community college a few miles from the university and decided to take it there in addition to my major courses at the university.

The reason I have attended this many community colleges is because I have worked throughout college and sometimes the times of some of the sciences courses conflicted with work.

So, my prerequisites will be coming from a few schools. Is this going to make a difference in my application? Am I going to be at a disadvantage because of this?

 

[han14tra]

I think you'll be fine. You might want to explain your situation subtly in your personal statement though. For example, "Coming from a disadvantaged background, I had to work during my undergraduate years. This was quite a challenge because I had to socially up root myself from several colleges in order to maintain my employment. Blah Blah blah...this is really bad, but you get the idea. Turn the negative into a positive.

 

[CalBears05]

I think you'll be fine. You might want to explain your situation subtly in your personal statement though. For example, "Coming from a disadvantaged background, I had to work during my undergraduate years. This was quite a challenge because I had to socially up root myself from several colleges in order to maintain my employment. Blah Blah blah...this is really bad, but you get the idea. Turn the negative into a positive.

I'm going to quote that word for word...haha no I won't. But that makes sense. It was a struggle, so hopefully they'd understand.

Thank you for your response, and good luck in everything you do.

 

[ygree001]

I had a similar situation. I moved twice and also took classes at CCs so I have a total of 7 transcripts, 2 from CCs. I managed to get most of the science prereqs at 4 year schools. I had good reasons for transferring each time, but it did hurt me. I didn't get in during my first cycle. I also applied late because of a summer MCAT and a delay with one of my transcripts, so it wasn't only my background. An adcom who I met with for counseling did say that it was somewhat of an issue. The difficulty will be getting interviews with a number of schools and prereqs and CCS. you can probably get some with a strong gpa, MCAT, good LORs, ECs, etc. Once you have an interview, it won't make much of difference anymore if you make a good impression.
This wound up longer than I was planning. Basically, it is a weakness but if you balance it with other strengths and apply broadly, you may get some interviews, and at that point you have a good chance.
Good luck.