Hi there. I am new to this forum, and I’m so glad I’ve found it! There’s a lot of great information here.
A little bit about myself…I’m 31, and I graduated with a BA in political science. I have my own consulting firm, but I’ve been bitten by the “med school bug”. I’m married with a 14-month old.
I’m just now embarking on the pre-req journey, and unfortunately for me, I don’t have any public universities near me where I can take them. There are two private universities, but to take one class is $3k-$4k a semester - OUCH!! I live by the state border, and there’s a public university that is 45 minutes away in the next state, and the out-of-state tuition would be about $1k a semester per class (a lot of $$ but still cheaper than the local alternatives).
There’s a junior college here, and financially, it’s the best deal. But I’m worried that taking my pre-req classes at the jr college will hurt my med school chances.
Does anyone know if the med schools put a lot of weight on where the pre-reqs have been taken? I’m hoping that I will do well enough on the MCAT that perhaps it won’t be an issue, but I would love to get advice from the folks here!
Thank so much!
welcome forthegreatergood! I am not the most seasoned pre-med so take this with a grain of salt but I just recently called several schools that I applied to on AMCAS to ask that very question. I should have called ahead of time but I was in a crunch to get the application in - so far the only school on MY list that would not accept community college credit was Wake Forest and if you have stellar numbers aside from that fact they might over look it but it really is an individual school type question and you almost always have to call because most schools don’t make that information easily available on their websites (I guess in case they find an exceptional candidate with CC credits). Anywho, I wish I had an easier answer - it depends on the schools that you are interested in. Even if schools except CC credit, it still is not better than credits at a university so if it comes down to nits, they may give preference to someone without CCs.
this may change over time so you will want to call for yourself on all schools, but so far CCs and older coursework (> 10 yrs):
Keck: OK
Loma Linda: OK
Penn state: OK
Tulane: No older coursework > 5 yrs
Wake Forest: No
Emory: OK
Vermont: OK
I still have a lot of calls to make but I hope some of this rambling helps.
If anyone out there knows of other schools that limit older coursework or CC credit, let us know maybe it can cut down on my phone calls - back to work I go 
good luck!!
First, Welcome to the forum!
Second, if you perform a search you will have weeks of threads to comb thru to find your answer.
Third…in short…university is better than a CC. Go to the cheapest university you can find. If not possible then go to a CC. Regardless of where you go get a high gpa.
Thanks for the welcome, Snowgirl and Crooz!
Snowgirl: I followed your lead and called the med schools I’m interested in. Two of my top choices said they don’t discriminate between CC and university pre-reqs, so that was encouraging. My #1 choice, though, wants university courses. I need to do a lot of mulling!
Crooz: I did a search and I was able to find quite a bit on the forums regarding CC v. University info. Thanks for the tip!
- ForTheGreaterGood Said:
A little bit about myself...I'm 31, and I graduated with a BA in political science. I have my own consulting firm, but I've been bitten by the "med school bug". I'm married with a 14-month old.
I'm just now embarking on the pre-req journey, and unfortunately for me, I don't have any public universities near me where I can take them. There are two private universities, but to take one class is $3k-$4k a semester - OUCH!! I live by the state border, and there's a public university that is 45 minutes away in the next state, and the out-of-state tuition would be about $1k a semester per class (a lot of $$ but still cheaper than the local alternatives).
There's a junior college here, and financially, it's the best deal. But I'm worried that taking my pre-req classes at the jr college will hurt my med school chances.
Does anyone know if the med schools put a lot of weight on where the pre-reqs have been taken? I'm hoping that I will do well enough on the MCAT that perhaps it won't be an issue, but I would love to get advice from the folks here!
Thank so much!
Hi, For the Greater Good,
I would recommend that you consider the cost of prerequisite courses within the overall context of your medical education and future earning potential. It's easy for someone to tell you--it's just money, so take the courses that are right for you--but there is some truth to that. Eventually you will have borrowed approximately $40K to $60K per annum to fund medical college, depending on your spouse's income, savings, scholarships, parental assistance, etc.
Spending $15K to $30K in advance of medical school is not unusual. For example, I spent about $18K for a mix of expensive ($5K for 8 credits) summer school courses and inexpensive ($900 for 4 units) extension school courses.
I would ask myself--which school is likely to get me the best grades and best education? Which school will get me into medical school? Which commute is easiest on my family, given the above two constraints?
You might also inquire at the private universities whether there is a discount for being in a degree program or a diploma program. Best of luck,
Thanks for the advice, Terry. You’ve given me some things to think about. I’m looking to do my upper-level science classes at the 4-year and the other classes (e.g. trig) at the CC. Hopefully that will keep my tuition costs manageable.
Along the same line… Our local CC now offers a few bachelor degrees. Thus, it’s now a College. The closest University is 1.5 hours away, but the College is in my town. Thus, I’m planning to take most of the prereqs locally, and swap to the university for OChem & Biochem.
Anyone know if the preference exists for Uni over College? I’m guessing it goes:
Uni > College > Commu College
From my own experience:
I took a number of classes at the local community college, though none of them were really prereqs
I took microBio - as well as anatomy and physiology, biochem and a psych course. They served well to get me back into the academic swing as well as to start to build a bit of medical knowledge.
I really did not have a lot of pre-requisites to do… because - with the exception of Organic Chem (a story unto itself) I had most of them already… LONG LONG ago – but they seemed to count anyway.
I think unless your background is strong in biosciences this may be a good way to get back into the academic swing.
perhapes trying to focus on the four year colleges in the context only of the absolute essential pre-reqs –
I agree with the idea of seeing this in the context of overall earnings… not that I think one should do this for the money - but the relatively decent salaries of physicians does make the investment possible. Remember too, there is a tax break for going back to school - Hope Credits and Lifetime Learning credits apply. this takes a little edge off the sticker shock
Steve - (51 y/o Family Medicine Resident - EMMC)
I’m not sure about the OP, but my situation has more to do with time than $. I’m working full-time right now and planning to take Chem & Bio this fall. I can’t do those at a university that’s 1.5 hours away and keep my job. I can’t quit my job and still provide for my family. The only other choice would be to take one class at a time at the Uni and stretch the prereqs out over 3 years instead of 2. Being 38, I really don’t want to do that.
I’ll have to finish the prereqs at the University. I just need to start them at the college…