mfeneley

After college I hopefully plan to attend a great med schools live University of Michigan, Harvard, or Johns Hopkins. Would going to community college before going to UVA hurt my chances even if I did well?

3rings

As an Alum of the Uva School of Medicine I can assure you I had seceral classmates who attended Community College and they all did well and went on to be fine MDs

MechWahoo

At least two of the med schools I applied to discouraged taking requisite classes at CCs. Harvard & Hopkins didn't address the issue, however. Dunno about Michigan. Keep in mind that CCs vary tremendously in quality and the MCAT is the great equalizer. If you take the science classes at a CC, consider taking 3000 series or better classes at UVa as well. Many schools (such as Hopkins) want to see that you are involved in research, so you will need to take science classes at UVa. And make sure your professors know you.

mfeneley

So no prerequisites, but earning an associates doesn't have any negative impact? And my local community college is NOVA. Not sure how well it fares in quality compared to other CCs.

MechWahoo

Earning an associates doesn't matter and I think taking prereqs at a CC doesn't matter at most schools as long as your MCAT score is decent (and grades). That will probably be enough to get you past from the schools' initial screenings.

However, you need at least three letters of recommendation, two coming from science/math instructors and I imagine all the med schools prefer those letters coming from some, if not all, UVa profs. That is because those letters will opine on your more recent work.