Hey Everyone,
Recently discharged from the Marines and was going to night classes as often as I could while on Active Duty so I have about a years worth done right now of college. With less then stellar grades in highschool I am forced to go to a Community College right now full time. I have no problem with this but I am needing some advice on when I need to take my pre-med classes.
From what I’ve read where you take your science classes is important for your med school application. I should be able to transfer out of the community college in about a year, however, I want to get started on the classes soon so i can learn the material for the MCATs and not be delayed a year if I can avoid it. How much of a difference will it make if some of the pre-med courses are taken at a community college instead of a university?
My interest in a a medical carrier started about 3 years ago and before that I was dead set on going into an IT carrier. So my plan is to still get a BS in Computer Science, incase my interests change or something doesnt workout with med school… I’m in Raleigh, NC so I’d go to NCSU for the Computer Science degree.
Would it make more sense to pursue my major at NCSU since it is more engineering oriented and take my Pre-Med classes as a non-degree student at UNC Chappel Hill since it is obviously more health science affiliated?
Sorry if I was rambling a bit! Thanks for the help
Doug
It’s ok to go to a cc to save money - a lot of people do it! You could do your gen bio/chem at the cc and your organic/physics at the university. You’ll eventually end up at a 4-year institution for your degree anyway, so it would be feasible. Plus, not that it’s easier, but you cc’s have smaller classes for the gen bio/chem (typically) which helps toward an “A”.
I dunno - if I could do it over again (wishful thinking!) I would have done my 1st 2 years at a CC and gotten a 4.0, then transferred on to university. But, hindsight is 20/20 
Hi, Doug.
I’m in Raleigh, too, and am a biochem major at NCSU. I took anatomy at WakeTech in their healthsciences program and it was excellent. The Healthsciences program is located behind and affiliated with Wakemed Hospital. The program is excellent! The courses aren’t “watered down” but not impossible to make an ‘A’ in either.
Also, you won’t need to go to UNC-CH to get your sciences. But definitely go there if you want the experience of UNC-CH. I took an MCAT prep course in Chapel Hill this past summer and met a lot of UNC seniors and recent grads. A few who did not get into UNC SOM said that they had a harder time getting in at their own Alma Mater because they were ‘known quanitities’ in the UNC-CH grading scale and their good GPAs weren’t good enough compared to the people at the top of the UNC class (they were taking Kaplan to boost their MCAT to get in at other schools). Anyway, I took an economics course at UNC-CH and when the first test average was in the ‘low B’ range the prof announced that the class is too smart and he would be making the tests harder. And he did!
NCSU is a good mix of hard classes AND free tutoring for the basic maths, physics, organic chemistry. Plus, if you want to go to med school in NC, it has a great reputation. (NCSU has a large student population who are pre-med, pre-dental, and pre-vet.) Also, students at state are perceived as very ‘down to earth.’ Unfortunately, if you are not in a degree program you will have a hard time getting into classes because you will have to register on the very last days of registration when everything is full.
I know my bias for NCSU is showing! I think its a great school. Good luck in whatever you choose to do!
anita