Will these count?

[mconnell]

I am currently taking Human Biology and Chem I at a community college. Will these count as med school pre-reqs or are they going to want to see courses taken at a four year university for pre-reqs? I am taking these at the community college because I just moved to this state and it will be outrageously expensive to attend a 4 year univ.
Any help/advice you can provide will be greatly appreciated, thank you!

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[notdeadyet]

They will count. There's some debate about how much med schools look down at their nose on j.c. prereqs, and it probably varies from school to school. Boston U doesn't accept them at all, but that's the only one I've heard of.

That said, take as many at a four year as you can, regardless of tuition. You don't want to hurt your chances any more than you need to. I'm sitting on $30K in student loans for one year at a private postbac and it bugs the heck out of me now, but won't if it helps me get into med school.

 

[jstuds_66]

Is Human Bio a prereq? I didn't think so, but now I'm not sure. If it is a prereq, where?

 

[ParvatiP]

Some med schools don't accept community college credits, so you might want to take the pre-reqs in a 4-yr university. Where are you planning to take the rest of your pre-reqs anyway? Seems like you'd have to attend a 4-yr university to begin with...

 

[notdeadyet]

Some med schools don't accept community college credits,

I've always been curious about that one. Boston U's the only one I heard, and that was annecdotally. Anyone know if there are others?

 

[MasterMD]

that's kinda sad for people who had to go to JC due to finances or family... kinda discrimination in a sense.. but i guess you can always go elsewhere... i have classes from a JC due to family issues and having to stay home for a semester or two.. sucks... i really liked BU.

 

[Haemulon]

It counts. I wish it didn't because I took some extra classes at a community college during the summer and got B's (was taking the courses pretty much for fun and didn't really work as hard I could/should have). Never thought that they would end up being counted as anything but transfer credits. Go figure. Oh well, lost something like 0.1 of a point off my undergrad GPA.

 

[notdeadyet]

It counts. I wish it didn't because I took some extra classes at a community college during the summer and got B's (was taking the courses pretty much for fun and didn't really work as hard I could/should have). Never thought that they would end up being counted as anything but transfer credits.

No doubt. I have a hunch that the fear of community colleges is like so much premed fear: largely in the mind of premeds (like needing to go to a top 10 school to succeed, needing a 34 on the MCAT, stigma of the DO, etc.).

I think the biggest problem with JCs are when you take classes over summer, part-time in high school, or for fun. We have a tendency to take the classes less seriously and they come back to haunt you. I ordered a transcript from my JC where I grew up and had to groan.

 

[sistahnik]

Boston does accept those JC credits for the prereqs. Check out the thread by notdeadyet its about prereqs not being accepted being a myth.

 

[mconnell]

Is Human Bio a prereq? I didn't think so, but now I'm not sure. If it is a prereq, where?

Would Human Bio count as part of my 1 year Bio requirement? I'm not sure on that one either, would really like to know though!

 

[clc8503]

that's kinda sad for people who had to go to JC due to finances or family... kinda discrimination in a sense.. but i guess you can always go elsewhere... i have classes from a JC due to family issues and having to stay home for a semester or two.. sucks... i really liked BU.

It's not that Medical Schools are just trying to discriminate against the students that could not afford to go to state/private universities. It has more to do with the ease of going to a Community College. Don't get me wrong, some professors are just rough, even if they do happen to teach at a junior level college. There is always the exception of course. For the most part however, community colleges do make it academically easier to make the grades, and ADCOMS know this. For instance, people are always transferring to my school from Community Colleges with 3.8-4.0 GPAs. It's actually very common. A good buddy of mine actually did that. And after two years at Community College and having a 4.0, he's setting on a 3.5, just after one year at a University. That's a pretty significant drop, and at the rate his GPA is dropping, I'll be very surprised if he even graduates with a 3.3 cum, since he still has some very difficult classes ahead of him. That being said, it's not a bad idea to take GERs at a Community College, but I would not recommend taking any science courses at one. If you do happen to make good grades at a community college and then transfer to a University, and make less desirable grades, it will show Admissions Committees that your GPA is a bit inflated. But hey, if you can pull off goods grades at the Community College and then pull off good grades at a University, you should be fine. I rarely see this happen though. Of course there are always exceptions; I'm not denying that in the least. It's just that Community Colleges have really easy Admissions standards. Some of them do not even require the ACT/SAT, or they accept really low scores. I know a guy that actually got a 13 on the ACT and was accepted to a CC with know problem at all. The friend that I mentioned earlier did not even take the ACT. Since CCs are so easy to get into, they have to make it easy on the people that really couldn’t even make the grades/scores at a high school level. I realize that incidents can occur in one’s life that can hinder them from going to his or her desired school, but if you are pre-med I highly recommend going to a University. I have heard that Osteopathic Medical Schools do not care if classes were taken at a CC. I don’t think they even care if you take the prerequisites there.