Ok, here’s the situation. I’m transferring to a different community college next school year because I’m completely disgusted with my CC and I’m moving to Sac…anyway, to stay above 12 units so I’m still full-time, for next semester I’m trying to figure out what classes to take. The classes I still need to take before I transfer to Davis are the general chemistry classes, the general biology classes, the calculus classes, and a few GE classes.
I’m also taking the EMT class next semester so I only need to take 8.5 units of other classes to stay full-time. I was thinking of taking one 3-unit GE class and then two 4-unit biology classes, but the problem with that is that one of the biology teachers for the classes is a complete nazi and has such a horrible reputation that nursing students go to a different CC to take their anatomy class instead of taking his anatomy (he teaches both anatomy and the one I need, zoology) class.
The alternative is to take general chem 1 and the other biology class without the nazi teacher but is it going to hurt me to take the two general chem classes at two different colleges? At this point, I’m not considering taking calculus next semester because all they have here is engineering calculus and the CC I’m transferring to has calculus for life science majors.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys.
Tim,
my strategy was to take classes when they fit my schedule. I heard a whole bunch of negative feedback about various teachers, and I still took the class I intended to. And it worked out just fine for me. But I guess, having survived Polish college, that is so very different from American, and where some professors don’t even treat students as…human beings, preped me for this just fine. Another thing, in Poland they don’t let you choose your own professor. In most institutions you have to take classes with whoever they assign you to, + the schedule is predetermined by the registrar office…but back to the topic. Even here I had one teacher that was a complete jerk…and what? he was still a good teacher and I learned in his class a lot. My thinking always was that the class is only going to last for 4 months and I’ll be done! Why should I adjust my plans to some ‘Nazi’ teacher?
Anyway! I don’t think it’s going to be an issue if you take one Chemistry Class in a CC and the other in Davis. But it’s only my opinion and it might not be 100% right. Wait for some other feedback.
If but 1 student gets an “A” then you can too. I’d be hesitant to listen to other students and especially nursing students. Other students have their own experiences and judge them by their own experiences. Pre-nursing students, at least the ones I’ve gone to school with and am currently taking classes with, are notorious for expecting things to be easier. I guess it has something to do with the belief that since there is an apparent nursing shortage that schools should make things easier for them.
ratemyprofessor.com is a good website if students use it. I’ve taken classes with professors other students have hated and it was fine. I’ve also taken classes with professors that were loved and I hated it. Those classes were a joke and the professor was out to make friends not teach.
To answer your original question, “No” it’s not going to hurt taking chem classes at different colleges. As long as you ace your classes & do well on the MCAT, where you take 1 or 2 classes isn’t going to matter much.
The biggest potential problem that I see is that the material may not be covered in the same order at both schools. You run the risk of getting to the second school and not having the background that you need because the second school teaches that concept in the first semester and the first school teaches is in the second. You might want to see if you can pick up syllibi for the first semester for both schools and see if there is any significant difference in content taught.
Thanks for the input guys…yeah that’s a good idea Em. I actually look at the reviews off of Myspace.com because ratemyprofessor.com isn’t as widely used…everyone uses myspace, so there’s a legion of reviews even for my crappy CC. 
One review the student said he/she did get an A so yeah guess that’s all I need. I do recall one ex-coworker I used to talk to a lot took that teacher’s anatomy class…didn’t get an A but she said anyone who dogs on him is a dumb ****. Ironically she was a nursing student, lol.
I’ll just have to see about taking both the botany and zoology classes…it’s either that or the chem at 2 diff colleges because the way the pre-reqs are setup at the other school, I can’t take botany & zoology without first taking chem 1 there and that’ll add on another school year just to get those two classes done.