Will it hurt going community college then transferring to UCSF?

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biggumt

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I got into san jose state for this fall but most science classes are full and was wondering if my chances will be lowered getting into UCSF coming from a community college instead. because i notice a lot of people here are getting a bachelors first then going to pharmacy school. Will it severely impact my admission chances coming from a CC without a bachelors to applying to UCSF?

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I got into san jose state for this fall but most science classes are full and was wondering if my chances will be lowered getting into UCSF coming from a community college instead. because i notice a lot of people here are getting a bachelors first then going to pharmacy school. Will it severely impact my admission chances coming from a CC without a bachelors to applying to UCSF?


yes and yes
 
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yeah... probably, but then again, if you do your upperdivs at SJ state, then maybe it won't be so bad... but these science classes, take the ones you can get into perhaps? or are they ALL full? =T then make sure you plan ahead and you get to sign up for them next qtr or semester... but yeah, i guess it'd be better to take at SJ state, although a few comm college classes wouldn't hurt. there are a lot of other aspects to your app!
 
There's no doubt about it... Even with a 4.0 from a CC you ARE at a disadvantage going into any California CoP without a bachelor's degree.

What I would do is take 2 years of classes at the CC (Mostly lower div. stuff, you can even do some pre-pharmacy requirements) and get an IGETC (I think CSU is called something else) transfer, then finish those 2 years and graduate with your Bachelor's degree.

It is not impossible to get into a CA school w/o a bachelor's, according to the statistics. However, the deck is definitely stacked against you.
 
It's definitely not impossible, but if you look at the stats for the typical entering class here, they usually accept only one person with an associate's degree, and no one with any degree at all. I have a friend who graduated about 10 years ago from UCSF Pharm just from taking classes at CCSF before getting her PharmD without a degree, but she had a stellar GPA, amazing LORs from her supervisors where she worked as a pharm tech and her professors, etc.

There has to be other stuff in your application that will make you stand out that has to explain why you should be considered for UCSF. If this is your game plan, you'd better start looking at developing your leadership skills in something very substantial now to make yourself competitive.
 
I got into san jose state for this fall but most science classes are full and was wondering if my chances will be lowered getting into UCSF coming from a community college instead. because i notice a lot of people here are getting a bachelors first then going to pharmacy school. Will it severely impact my admission chances coming from a CC without a bachelors to applying to UCSF?

Dont let people's statements deceive you. You can get admitted to UCSF without stepping your foot into a university. Take all the required credits at a community college. Then take the PCAT and make sure you score high. If you score high, then your cc classes would be backed up by your score. I got accepted without stepping my foot into a university. All I had was an excellent PCAT and a high GPA from community college. Make sure you acquire a lot of volunteer experience. That should be enough to show your dedication. Good Luck.
 
its technically possible, but practically not plausible :-/
look at the incoming students breakdown; the last i checked it was like >99% of all entering students had a B.S.

so if cc is the only option, then you have to be prepared to bring something real special to the table
 
Dont let people's statements deceive you. You can get admitted to UCSF without stepping your foot into a university. Take all the required credits at a community college. Then take the PCAT and make sure you score high. If you score high, then your cc classes would be backed up by your score. I got accepted without stepping my foot into a university. All I had was an excellent PCAT and a high GPA from community college. Make sure you acquire a lot of volunteer experience. That should be enough to show your dedication. Good Luck.

Uhh, that's great, but UCSF doesn't even look at PCAT. You must've had other stuff to get accepted.
 
Dont let people's statements deceive you. You can get admitted to UCSF without stepping your foot into a university. Take all the required credits at a community college. Then take the PCAT and make sure you score high. If you score high, then your cc classes would be backed up by your score. I got accepted without stepping my foot into a university. All I had was an excellent PCAT and a high GPA from community college. Make sure you acquire a lot of volunteer experience. That should be enough to show your dedication. Good Luck.

Kindly, I disagree with several of your points.

1. UCSF does not even require PCAT, so his GPA can't be backed up by a stellar PCAT score.

2. No one is disputing that you can probably get admitted to UCSF w/out stepping a foot in the university. In fact people supported this statement by listing examples above. However, statistically his chances become rather slim.

My advice: I know CSU system is fallling apart and I know about the drastic class cuts (I'm still signed up for a CSU bulletin at my school).

Take as many classes at CC as you could, to apply them towards your degree at SJ state and still try to graduate. Having a degree will strengthen your application significantly.

Also contact your major department and if class cuts is what concerns you, ask them what they plan on doing. SF state for example will not be accepting new applicants for spring to let the current students get into classes as someone mentioned to me.
 
its technically possible, but practically not plausible :-/
look at the incoming students breakdown; the last i checked it was like >99% of all entering students had a B.S.

so if cc is the only option, then you have to be prepared to bring something real special to the table

No. dont get me wrong. I am talking about a general situation. In cases where a BS is required, you need to go to university. UCSF does not require a B.S. and there are few people who have been accepted without a B.S. However, UCSF doesnt specify University classes. I know UCSF does not require PCAT. I put it out there because i am sure the OP is also considering other Universities. You cant put all your eggs in one basket. I also mention in my post that the OP needs to do a lot of volunteer service to get accepted.
 
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Kindly, I disagree with several of your points.

1. UCSF does not even require PCAT, so his GPA can't be backed up by a stellar PCAT score.

2. No one is disputing that you can probably get admitted to UCSF w/out stepping a foot in the university. In fact people supported this statement by listing examples above. However, statistically his chances become rather slim.

My advice: I know CSU system is fallling apart and I know about the drastic class cuts (I'm still signed up for a CSU bulletin at my school).

Take as many classes at CC as you could, to apply them towards your degree at SJ state and still try to graduate. Having a degree will strengthen your application significantly.

Also contact your major department and if class cuts is what concerns you, ask them what they plan on doing. SF state for example will not be accepting new applicants for spring to let the current students get into classes as someone mentioned to me.

No. dont get me wrong. I am talking about a general situation. In cases where a BS is required, you need to go to university. UCSF does not require a B.S. and there are few people who have been accepted without a B.S. However, UCSF doesnt specify University classes. I know UCSF does not require PCAT. I put it out there because i am sure the OP is also considering other Universities. You cant put all your eggs in one basket. I also mention in my post that the OP needs to do a lot of volunteer service to get accepted.
 
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Kindly, I disagree with several of your points.

1. UCSF does not even require PCAT, so his GPA can't be backed up by a stellar PCAT score.

2. No one is disputing that you can probably get admitted to UCSF w/out stepping a foot in the university. In fact people supported this statement by listing examples above. However, statistically his chances become rather slim.

My advice: I know CSU system is fallling apart and I know about the drastic class cuts (I'm still signed up for a CSU bulletin at my school).

Take as many classes at CC as you could, to apply them towards your degree at SJ state and still try to graduate. Having a degree will strengthen your application significantly.

Also contact your major department and if class cuts is what concerns you, ask them what they plan on doing. SF state for example will not be accepting new applicants for spring to let the current students get into classes as someone mentioned to me.

I mention PCAT because i am strongly believe the OP might consider other schools. I was discouraged from applying from certain schools because I didnt have a bachelors and i took all my classes at community college. I still got accepted to schools where the majority of accepted applicants had bachelors degrees. I never set foot at a university.
 
From UCSF website




"
  1. Is a bachelor's degree required for admission?
    No, only the pre-pharmacy requirements are required. However a degree may make an applicant more competitive for admission, and in recent years a large majority of our successful applicants have held bachelor's degrees. "
I agree that a large majority of accepted applicants have obtained Bachelors degrees, however, it is still possible to be accepted without a bachelors.

Another thing from the website

"
In order to be eligible for admission, you must satisfactorily complete a minimum total of 92 quarter units (equivalent to 62 semester units) of academic course work at another college. Our prerequisites are a part of this required minimum number of units. "

You must not take classes at a University if you are getting just your prerequisites. It says college and not necessarily university. This means you could take your classes at either site and you would still be considered for admission.
 
You must not take classes at a University if you are getting just your prerequisites. It says college and not necessarily university. This means you could take your classes at either site and you would still be considered for admission.

Your first clause says, "You MUST NOT take classes at a university..." then the second clause says, "You can take classes at either site (you mean university or college?)"... So which is it?"

I really don't think UCSF meant you couldn't take Pre-Reqs at another university when they said "college." Those two terms, dependent upon context of course, are the same thing.

Case-in-point: Boston College. I dare you to tell anyone that goes there that it isn't a university.
 
Your first clause says, "You MUST NOT take classes at a university..." then the second clause says, "You can take classes at either site (you mean university or college?)"... So which is it?"

I really don't think UCSF meant you couldn't take Pre-Reqs at another university when they said "college." Those two terms, dependent upon context of course, are the same thing.

Case-in-point: Boston College. I dare you to tell anyone that goes there that it isn't a university.

Let me try to clarify. I probably didnt phrase my statement well. I meant to say you can take classes either at a community college or a university. However, the school doesnt specifically say your credit must be from a university. Neither does it specify that you must take classes from a community college. The OP seems to want to take classes at a community college. That is why I am saying there is no problem with taking all classes at a community college.

When you mention Boston college, I agree with you that it is a university. UCSF just said college. What i am saying is that college refers to both Universities and community colleges.
 
Ah, OK, that clarifies it.

Because the way it was written before, you were saying that UCSF would not accept you if any of your pre-requisites were completed at a university, but rather they had to be done at a college (the nested assumption being community college, of course).

Well, that's cleared up!
 
Lets put it this way. Each year 122 students are accepted into UCSF, school of pharmacy. For last year, out of 122, 122 have a degree piror to matriculation. (121 Bachelor degree holders and 1 aa degree holder).

So, if you don't have a degree, you must have excellent GPA, impecable essays, extraordinary extracurricular activities and leadership experience, exceptional interview, then you will be able to compete against others.
 
Lets put it this way. Each year 122 students are accepted into UCSF, school of pharmacy. For last year, out of 122, 122 have a degree piror to matriculation. (121 Bachelor degree holders and 1 aa degree holder).

So, if you don't have a degree, you must have excellent GPA, impecable essays, extraordinary extracurricular activities and leadership experience, exceptional interview, then you will be able to compete against others.


That's esentially all I was saying too, classmate. ;) Yes, it's possible, but statistically speaking it's difficult.
 
That's esentially all I was saying too, classmate. ;) Yes, it's possible, but statistically speaking it's difficult.


No one here at all has said it'd be easy. My response was;

It is not impossible to get into a CA school w/o a bachelor's... However, the deck is definitely stacked against you.

I don't know why you guys are mincing words on school websites. It's an accepted fact that it's extremely difficult to get into a CA school w/o a degree.
 
I think for 2010, USC will REQUIRE a bachelor's degree. Before , it was only HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (similar stats as UCSF of accepting 1 or 2 without a bachelors)
 
During my interview, Jim said that starting this cycle, it would be a requirement
 
During my interview, Jim said that starting this cycle, it would be a requirement

Interesting! Well, I'm glad I've got that covered. To be honest, without the PCAT as a culler, I'm not entirely surprised they're moving to that requirement. I would expect other schools to follow suit.
 
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