<p>Hello,
I am planning on transferring in Fall of 2011 and doing a premed program at a university. Since I will be transferring as a Jr. I don't want to save all my premed requirements for my last 2 years since that will probably be very intense. I was planning on doing the Bio requirement at my community college this Winter and next Spring. I am also doing this because the BIO classes I want to take are prerequisites for my major on assist.org for a couple of the universities I am looking at. </p>
<p>Any input is greatly appreciated.
Thanks</p>
<p>I understand that taking many premed courses at your c.c is not very wise, but what do you guys think about just a year of BIO. It will help me 'kill 2 birds with one stone as well' because of the prereqs for my major.</p>
<p>I will be doing the same thing. I’ve corresponded with the med schools I’m interested in and most of them are fine with a couple of pre-reqs done in a community college, as long as I back those up with upper-division courses at a four-year once I transfer, and get a high MCAT score. Some, however, said their admissions committees prefer all pre-reqs to be done at a four-year. I would suggest sending an e-mail to med schools you are interested in to see how they view CC courses.</p>
<p>Thanks aahhhron, since your in the same situation as me I was wondering if you could answer something else. Since we won’t be taking most of our Pre-Med courses until our Jr. Year at a university, when do you plan on taking the MCAT. The Latest we can take it is the end of Jr. Year right? So wouldn’t that mean that we would need to do ALL of our pre-med requirements our Jr. Year. That will be a crazy Junior Year! Do you have any input on this?</p>
<p>When are you planning to apply to med school?</p>
<p>If you want to apply during your 2nd/senior year at the university, then yes you’ll need to take the MCAT at the end of junior year (which means you’ll need nearly a semester to prepare for it, so be ready for that!) to be competitive in terms of timing for your application. </p>
<p>Before you set yourself up for the potential nightmare of taking almost all your premed classes simultaneously, you should probably make sure absolutely everything else is squared away with the university in terms of transfer credits–ie, will you REALLY be able to graduate in only 2 years? I know many people who ended up needing a year or 2 on top of the 2 they expected just because of transfer credits and scheduling issues (eg, if gen chem’s offered the same time as orgo, and you need both, you may have to wait a semester or a year to take one of them). It may take some very careful scheduling/planning on your part to ensure you graduate “on time” and can still be a competitive applicant for med school (after all, why waste the time doing this if you’re not competitive and thus probably won’t get in?).</p>
<p>What kind of clinical, leadership, research, AND volunteer experience have you had? All of these are important, in varying degrees, to medical school admissions–which are way more than just based on grades and MCATs. Have you begun thinking about who will write your recommendation letters? It may be hard to get strong rec letters from your university since you request them at the end of junior year and by that time you will have only been there for a year. On the other hand, only requesting them from your CC could raise red flags to adcoms–and you wouldn’t have seen your CC instructors for a long time. </p>
<p>Seems like a tough road, but I bet it can be accomplished with some hard work and dedication, and I’m sure many people have done what you’re setting out to do and have done it successfully. Good luck!!</p>
<p>Thanks Kristin, its awesome that people like you take the time to be as helpful as you can to people like myself.</p>
<p>I know that it is going to be a tough road and I am fully prepared to commit myself 110% in the next years to transfer out of a university after 2 years. If it becomes impossible because of scheduling issues with classes, then what can I say? I guess I will have to wait another year, it won’t be the end of the world. It would give me more time to do volunteering, rec. letters ect. I guess I will just have to transfer join a pre-med program see my coursework and go from there. As far as volunteer work goes, It’s still relatively early in the 2nd year, and I am going to start doing some volunteer work as soon as possible.</p>
<p>Thanks again, any other advice is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>GA, here are the med schools I’ve e-mailed and replied:</p>
<p>-FIU Wertheim College of Medicine
-Wake Forest University School of Medicine (but according to
SDN, they don’t like CC credits)
-University of Utah School of Medicine
-The University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix
-University of Michigan Medical School
-Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine
-University of Minnesota Medical School</p>
<p>No problemo, happy to help/offer advice, and it’s great that you’ll at least entertain the idea of taking another year. For whatever reason it seems like people get into such a one track mind to finish school this year, do med school next year, be a resident four years later, get married then, have kids then…to me, all that planning just seems like it could wayyyy too easily be derailed and that some flexibility might be a good idea. Kudos to you! Good luck!</p>
<p>I really do not get why some people find the above reply from some medical schools reassuring.</p>
<p>The reality is that if you are competing with students that took all their courses at a four year accredited university and who also get a high MCAT score, then you are at a disadvantage. It would be unethical (illegal?) for med schools to acknowledge that they discriminate on the basis of CC credits (which are usually perceived as being non challenging academically). For that reason, I am not surprised schools give that response when they are contacted. On the other hand, when you request your secondary application from them, the fact that some applications make a point about their “dislike” for CC, AP or international credits, should tell you enough about where you really stand academically with them. Unfortunately, by that time it is already too late.</p>
<p>If you already went to a CC, then you just need to try your best with the rest of your application.</p>