<p>I was thinking about taking online courses for sociology 101 and statistics at a local community college.</p>
<ol>
<li>is this a good idea? since i’m the class of 2016, won’t i have to take sociology and statistics for the MCAT?</li>
<li>is it cheaper than taking it at the university? </li>
<li>any personal experiences with taking online courses? workload? </li>
</ol>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>3) I’ve taken online courses at the graduate level. Workload depends very much on the instructor. I’ve had some courses that were real snoozers and some that probably expected me to do more than a conventional in-person class. The one thing you need to be with an online class is self-disciplined. It’s so very easy to let readings/assignments slide since you’re not getting the daily/weekly reinforcements of classroom reminders. Also if there is the expectation of class participation via threaded message boards (and usually there is), it’s a PITA since everyone’s presence (including the instructor’s) is asynchronous. Very tough to have a meaningful discussion going on when it take hours or sometimes days to get a response to a comment or question. I really found reading the message boards to be a drag.</p>
<p>1) I would guess that taking a soc class online is not going to be a negative. Have no idea about how the stats would be viewed. And yes, if you’ll be taking the 2015 MCAT, you will need soc and stats.</p>
<p>(BTW, make sure to get permission from your college and/or department in advance if you plan to take coursework at other than your home school. Most colleges have policies w/r/t to transfer credits for currently enrolled students.)</p>
<p>2) No. Online classes cost the same as in-person classes. So whatever the per credit cost is at the CC–that’s what you’ll be paying for the online class.</p>
<p>thanks! i meant CC vs. university - i just checked it out as well … it’s much cheaper at the CC :)</p>
<p>1) I wouldn’t take any premed science prereqs at a CC if possible. However, just because the “New MCAT” requires soc, doesn’t mean schools will start requiring it. I bet you’d probably be OK taking these classes at the cc.</p>
<p>2) I took an online English class through a CC and saved >$500 compared to taking it in person at my university.</p>
<p>3) The online English class required a lot less work than the in person one at my university. I could easily accomplish a week’s worth of work in 4-5h, which is the amount of time I would have spent just in lecture at my university. I also didn’t have to buy a book for the online one, which would have cost $100 at school. No idea if this is a common experience. </p>
<p>Taking the class online freed up my schedule and let me get a class I didn’t really want to take out of the way for considerably less money. I doubt it affected my experience applying to med school. </p>
<p>Why do you want to do it online through the CC? Why not just online through your U? Keep in mind that even if your university does not calculate CC grades into your GPA, AMCAS certainly does (I didn’t know this at the time!).</p>
<p>actually, our university does calculate CC grades into the GPA … I wanted to do it online through CC because it’s cheaper …?</p>