I decided to take physics 1 this summer through UNE Online rather than my post-bacc institution for a number of reasons. The most significant one is that I can complete UNE courses in 16 weeks regardless of the time of year, whereas summer sessions at my home institution are 8 weeks. When I asked my program director if I needed to schedule an advising appointment if I am planning on taking classes elsewhere, she claims I can’t take UNE Online classes because they are not synchronous. I’m not convinced she is correct given that UNE is affiliated with a DO school. When I looked at various medical school websites, most of not all only require that coursework is completed at a regionally accredited university. While UNE does not indicate on their transcripts that the classes are taken online, I emailed the student advisor I’ve been in touch with there to see if the transcripts indicate classes are asynchronous and if students had problems with med/professional schools accepting their coursework. Finally, I contacted a few DO schools where I requested information to confirm they will accept UNE Online courses.
I have never taken physics ever and math is my weakness. I told her that I believed a self paced course with a 16 week timeline will increase my chances for success, given that I can spend more time on concepts that may be difficult (provided the course is completed within the required time frame).
Has anyone had issues with med schools not accepting UNE Online courses, or is this just a scare tactic from the program director? This is not the first time she criticized my (reasonable) choices that very likely are not going to reduce my chances of acceptance.
Some medical schools flat out don’t take online courses. Many take a few with exceptions. Others just don’t care.
I looked into this heavily before I started courses while living in Tokyo and working a full-time job there (clearly I couldn’t just walk into a local university and I was trying to talk myself out of a career switch). I e-mailed admissions in California (UCSD, UCI) as well as Emory in Georgia and PCOM (Georgia), and they all didn’t care. I also scoured over the MSAR content. Harvard, nor Stanford (checked for fun) care either, especially for non-trads.
However, when I reached out to Mercer and Augusta in Georgia, they specifically said that any required courses taken online would have to be retaken in-person, without exception. Mercer added something along the lines of, online courses lack academic integrity, which checked them off my list quickly (not that they would care). I gathered this all before COVID, so things may be different now, or maybe just for classes affected.
Emory specifically stated that they weigh the MCAT more to assess students stats wise, this was the same for UCSD. I imagine the other schools will use the MCAT as the great equalizer as well.
If you reached out to the DO schools you are interested in, they accept it, and your program accepts the credit, I don’t see how anyone could stop you. However, make no mistake that there are quite a few schools out there that will not accept that credit (if they require the course).
It should go without saying, but in the unlikely event that a school or anyone asks if the class was online, answer honestly, regardless of what is on your transcript.
Thanks for sharing your experience with online courses! I emailed 6 DO schools admissions’ offices, and all of them accept online courses from a regionally accredited college and university. I think 1 or 2 said the online course needs to have a lab component, which UNE does. Your mentioning that schools (even Harvard and Stanford) are especially lenient towards non-trads proves correct a point my outside premed advisor made about non-trads having more leeway for things like online and community college courses.
I think most if not all schools are accepting online coursework during COVID, but impossible to know if they still will when I apply next year. Didn’t know Emory and UCSD (& others?) weigh the MCAT more, but makes sense given the P/NP situation.
Both UCBx and UNE do not indicate the class was taken online. I started at UCBx in January 2020 and we switched online in March 2020, so every class there has been partly or entirely online. Since the semesters the courses were taken will be on the transcript, that speaks for itself as to what the format was. The only pre-reqs I have taken entirely in person where Bio 1&2 in 2015. Given that most of my pre-reqs were during Covid, I find it hard to believe that med schools are going to make me retake the majority of my classes - all of which I have passed - in person because of Covid.
I don’t think anyone will make you re-take the classes either. Again, for clarity I’m using information I gathered 2 years ago before COVID hit.
My main takeaways (before COVID) were basically. You can become a doctor with online classes, albeit with more limited options, which is fine with me. Take the courses and understand the concepts really well for the MCAT, because prep courses will review information but they won’t teach you the concepts, and spend a lot of time (at least for me) doing MCAT prep.
Good point, as COVID has lead to schools accepting online coursework and P/NP. I’m planning to take the MCAT next year, but very likely won’t do a prep course. Almost everyone I talked to said it was expensive and unhelpful. I’m pretty organized and good with time management so I don’t think studying on my own will be an issue.
