UNE online classes for DO school

1st time posting and glad this site exists, otherwise I would not be thinking of this field so late in my years. I will be 39 soon, and want to take some classes. Currently working full time and the local JC does not have many good courses. Anyone take UNE online classes to complete prereq’s. Classes are not cheap and would not like to waste time. Figure these courses would be tougher than CC’s. Thanks.


John

My local med school (Texas Tech) told me these classes would NOT be accepted. Tech is an MD program though.


What I did was email an admission counselor at Tech the course description, to which they said no. Perhaps you could do the same with your target schools.



Whether online classes are tougher or not it doesn’t matter. You should avoid online classes at all cost, especially for requirements.

I was curious about something. I’ve seen some hybrid courses where the lecture is online but lab is in person. Acceptable? I haven’t gotten as far as finding out if the transcript shows it as online. Just curious.

thanks for the advice.

  • Banker2Doc Said:
I was curious about something. I've seen some hybrid courses where the lecture is online but lab is in person. Acceptable? I haven't gotten as far as finding out if the transcript shows it as online. Just curious.



I would ask if possible to make sure that no particular mention of Web or Online is made on the transcript. Yet, if possible, I would avoid. Now, you can also contact the schools you want to go to and ask. Generally, I would advise against trying to "hide" things one way or another. It is always better to just call the med schools and just ask if this is OK or not, even if the transcript doesn't show it.

You want to be very careful with this process and leave nothing to chance. You make your own choices, and if taking an online course is the absolute only way for you to do it, then so be it. That's a position that you will have a defend tooth and nail. Be aware that it may hurt a bit. That's why the schools will be the best source of info and recommendation. All the schools I have been accepted at did not accept online courses. But they accepted CC credits warning that it would make me less competitive and that only A grades were considered as possibly appropriate.

You do what you have to do, just try to do it as well as you life permits, even if it means taking more time to apply.

Best of luck.


Re: hybrid classes w/lab at “brick & mortar” school


Online classes were my only option initially. I took my first course without any knowledge that this was generally frowned upon by med school admissions. Even after hearing the concerns re: online courses not being accepted, I looked further into the “why’s” of this. The most important detail seems to be schools wanting students to have completed “real” labs for courses like o-chem and physics.


Armed with this information, I e-mailed the schools that I was most interested in to see if the specific courses I had taken/was going to take were acceptable. They were (at those schools). I would look closely at the MSAR and the individual school web pages. If they state that they do NOT take online courses, e-mail them to ask about your specific course with ON-CAMPUS labs. You will find some don’t take them, others will once they know the details.


The accredited university I took the courses from does NOT list them as on-line courses, so my transcript looks exactly like those who took the class on campus. It’s campus is also close enough to where I live that it would not raise red flags. And the courses were well taught (based on my MCAT results) by the same professors teaching on campus. Exams were proctored (I had to find an acceptable proctor locally that the school agreed on). Basically, the school provided solid courses and had enough safe-guards to ensure the integrity of the course grades.


Physics was not offered on-line, so I took at a university an hour from home that had evening classes 2x/week with lab on one of those days. I think the labs were important for helping me really get the concepts; I am glad I could not take this particular course online.


Bottom line, I was just accepted at my top-choice school with genetics, o-chem (oncampus lab over summer), biochem, and a writing course on-line. But you need to know that the schools YOU are interested in will take the courses before you spend the time and money on them.


Good luck!

Solid advice. Thanks. Taking the hybrid class this semester is a compromise between me and my wife. With the baby due in the first week of February, she didn’t want me gone two nights a week to class on top of the volunteering that I’ve been doing before I even considered med school. I’ll check around.

  • sevenwheels Said:
Re: hybrid classes w/lab at "brick & mortar" school

Online classes were my only option initially. I took my first course without any knowledge that this was generally frowned upon by med school admissions. Even after hearing the concerns re: online courses not being accepted, I looked further into the "why's" of this. The most important detail seems to be schools wanting students to have completed "real" labs for courses like o-chem and physics.

Armed with this information, I e-mailed the schools that I was most interested in to see if the specific courses I had taken/was going to take were acceptable. They were (at those schools). I would look closely at the MSAR and the individual school web pages. If they state that they do NOT take online courses, e-mail them to ask about your specific course with ON-CAMPUS labs. You will find some don't take them, others will once they know the details.

The accredited university I took the courses from does NOT list them as on-line courses, so my transcript looks exactly like those who took the class on campus. It's campus is also close enough to where I live that it would not raise red flags. And the courses were well taught (based on my MCAT results) by the same professors teaching on campus. Exams were proctored (I had to find an acceptable proctor locally that the school agreed on). Basically, the school provided solid courses and had enough safe-guards to ensure the integrity of the course grades.

Physics was not offered on-line, so I took at a university an hour from home that had evening classes 2x/week with lab on one of those days. I think the labs were important for helping me really get the concepts; I am glad I could not take this particular course online.

Bottom line, I was just accepted at my top-choice school with genetics, o-chem (oncampus lab over summer), biochem, and a writing course on-line. But you need to know that the schools YOU are interested in will take the courses before you spend the time and money on them.

Good luck!



Solid Advice!

And congrats on getting in!

I believe n the summary of each school in the MSAR, it states whether a school accepts online for prereqs.


However, even if a school accepts online courses it will likely make you less competitive.


As doc gray states many schools are now taking the position that if they offer a course online it should be equal to the same course in a classroom. Thus there is no notation on a transcript transcript.


This begs the question are you obligated to tell a school that you some of your courses were online



One of the benefits of being a non-trad, old Pre-med member. A younger me would have jumped on the tech band wagon and had a ton of online courses.


But the younger me was pre-internet! No options there! And I was out of school (family thing) while Al gore was building it. Therefore, I can confidently say that only one pre-bachelor course was online, the final one, and it was a social science with no lab.


Being old can be inconvenient, but sometimes…

Recently completed Organic I with lab from UNE. Course was self paced and self taught. The quizzes and such were of varying difficulty, lab was quite easy. Final exam on the other hand, although open book and notes 82 questions over four hours is a mind bender for O Chem. I ended with a C in the class and am happily moving forward. Side note: Had a B going in to the final exam. Am going to sign up for O Chem II from UNE also, different professor and different symantics course wise.

As others have said, make SURE that any medical school that you are interested in will accept online work AND consider you equally competitive as an applicant as someone who has your same qualifications but has taken course work at bricks/mortar, very preferably at a four-year institution. Remember that most of your competition for a place in the class is from an undergrad who isn’t taking online courses to fulfill pre-med science requirements.


Cheers,


Judy

In addition to Judy’s sound advice re: perceived relative strength of qualifications if you go the on-line route for some classes, another point not yet discussed in this thread is the need for solid letters of recommendation from professors.


If I had not taken the on-campus lab and interacted with him there “in real life”, my o-chem professor would not have been willing to give me a LOR. If I had not taken the physics course on-campus, I would not have had the second required LOR from a professor. This is a major issue for those of us who are years out from our initial degree, and are taking just a class here or there. Taking online courses may make this requirement (LOR’s) even harder to meet.


Additionally, I had a pretty solid application on all other fronts. The online courses were only a small fraction of my total coursework. Please do not assume that the fact that I got in w/online courses means that everyone can do so.


Make an informed decision based on your own particular situation.

I appreciate everyone’s input and time. Gonnif, thanks for the advice on looking at the MSAR.


Sevenwheels, congrats on getting into school Which online program did you choose?


Hope to meet some of you at the conference in DC.

The on-line courses I took were from #8 on this list of top ranked on-line colleges:


http://www.superscholar.org/best-online-colleges/



Sevenwheels and redo-it-all Hello, I wanted to ask what you used to study for the MCAT? Did you take a course (ex Kaplan, Princeton Review) or did you just buy MCAT course review books and study on your own? If anyone would like to give input, please feel free, I was just asking specifically these two since they have been accepted into school. I know individual results vary depending…Please excuse for posting this ? here as it doesn’t belong, but I wanted to catch you both on a forum you posted to. Thanks a lot!! Isis