Community College Dilemma

  • Emergency! Said:


...If you need to do damage control on a GPA from a previous degree (even more so if you took some of the pre-reqs once already) taking pre-reqs at a CC is going to hurt you more than if you are working on your first degree ever and take many of the pre-reqs at a CC prior to transferring to a university to complete your degree...

...Most of them state the dreaded "prefer" clause, just like they "prefer" that your pre-reqs not by more than X years old....



All true, but really, how cruel is it that if I had 15 yr old pre-reqs with great grades, they would be too old to count but... my 15 yr old B- GPA will never ever expire?

-Age
  • Age Said:
All true, but really, how cruel is it that if I had 15 yr old pre-reqs with great grades, they would be too old to count but... my 15 yr old B- GPA will never ever expire?



Yeah - I agree that it doesn't quite seem fair. However, for some subjects I think it is fair that they want recent coursework. The explosion in knowledge in biology, biochemistry, genetics, microbiology and the like make requiring recent coursework in those areas seem reasonable. But, I don't think there have been a lot of radical changes in what is taught in intro gen chem, physics, and possibly even organic over the past several years.

No not a lot of new stuff in the lower levels since you start at the older stuff anyway, the advances is at the upper levels. Not even in Medschool are we taught the latest and greatest…I have had to learn discontinued Drugs because they are on the USLME HAHAHA yeah right…

The natural science division at my CC has rally been outstanding, especially in the chemistry arena. I’m planning on taking O. Chem there next fall for 4 reasons…1) their reputation, 2) their location which is a short drive versus over an hour to get to the major 4-yr university that has science classes, 3) every student that takes O.Chem is guaranteed a lab seat which is not the case at the University which has 72 students fighting for 24 lab seats), and 4) most important, is that the smaller class basis (less than 50 students) to classes of over 100 (if not more). The professor who teaches the O.Chem class has his Ph.D. in Chemistry, and yet is very accessible. Many professors in the university setting are so research oriented that teaching is done primarily by grad students working on their degree.


Just my 2 cents!


Kris

what reputation? I’ve never heard of them. Be careful with “reputation”…it may not mean the same thing to those outside of your area.

Plus even with all of those great reasons to go to that CC over the 4-year university, adcoms is still going to think very poorly of taking a CC course when you /could/ have taken a 4-year one.

Yeah, if I had the time (3 hours round trip) to go to a 4-year university, not to mention working full-time, I may have attempted it if I felt that the 4-yr had as good of an outcome as the CC. Believe me, this course, just because it is in a CC is no cake walk…it’s tough and the prof expects alot out of you, but he’s also there to help you if you have difficulty understanding a concept. Being an OPM at 42 is a lot different than being an OPM at 22. You may be a little older than some of the traditional med students, but not enough that I can see a difference.



Kriss -


If you’ve read the thread (and others) you know there is a lot of debate on taking pre-reqs at CCs. If the CC is where you have to go, then that is where you have to go. If you are getting a great education there, then that is awesome and will hopefully help you do better on the MCAT. However, don’t expect that (most) medical schools will recognize that fact that the teaching of the sciences at your CC is exceptional.


Do the best you can (preferably A’s) at the CC and rock on the MCAT and that will do a lot to quiet any doubt that the adcoms might have about where you took your pre-reqs.

Advice well taken…thanks, Amy.