pre-med and community colleges

Bigredmed
Sun, 13 May 2007 15:54:34 +0000

Our general advice is to AVOID taking science classes at a community college whenever possible. You have reasons why you are heading to a CC, so that’s not the issue, your goal now becomes to minimize any potential negative impact from going to a CC.

Obviously there are going to be some science requirements for you to graduate with your AA degree, so you’ll have to take something. But, as you’ve correctly ascertained already, there are issues with transferring credits (which will vary by which 4 year institution you end up at) as well as how med schools view CC classes.

Best case scenario for you is to have a good idea on which 4 year institution you’re going to transfer to (so you’ll know what transfers and what doesn’t), use your CC courses to fulfill non-science/non-medical school requirements you’ll have to fulfill at the 4 year institution, and take as few science courses as possible. And make sure that whatever academic issues have plagued you in the past, you have put behind you. You need to come out of the CC with as close to a 4.0 as possible. It will not bode well for you if you come out with a 3.3 from CC coursework. If you must take a science course to graduate, choose either bio or general chem, as you’ll follow those courses up with upper division coursework after transferring and can thus prove yourself capable of handling the work.