Hi All! My son is in 8th grade and is currently enrolled in his first year at an early college high school where he will earn a high school diploma and Associate’s degree by end of 12th grade. He can choose between AA or AS. At first I assumed he should go the AS route. But I keep reading that if a student does their science prereq’s at community college they will need to retake anyway and that premed students should only take non science courses at community college. So if he decides to go pre-med/med school would it be a waste of time to get the AS and would he be better getting an AA and maybe a higher GPA with easier classes?
The AA pathway math and science courses are: college algebra, Anatomy and Physiology, and statistics. The AS involves Bio for science majors, general chemistry, and Calc 1 and 2.
If he got the AS would he be told to repeat Calc, chem and bio at the university? Would he be better off getting the AA and waiting to do calc, chem and bio at university?
If he decides to go with nursing instead of medicine choosing the Associate’s of Nursing, RN program that his school offers is a no brainer he would have his RN at 18 then could go on to a ASN to BSN bridge program and on to a master’s program. But the premed path doesn’t seem quite as simple to me. They also have a surgical technician and LVN program.
All students at his school earn PCT (patient care technician) and CNA (Certified Nurse Assistant) their senior year no matter which of the 5 healthcare pathways they choose.
I’m sure he will get a lot of advising from his school on this over the next few years. But it is a new program. They just opened this year and I value opinions from you all.
It is generally preferable to continue to the higher level course rather than repeating the same material. However, there are some tricky issues, such as if the four year school does not accept those courses from that community college for placement into higher level courses, forcing a repeat. Repeating tends to look like undesirable grade grubbing.
Yes, this incremental path (ADN/RN, RN->BSN, MSN or DNP) often makes sense, since it allows entering the workforce after each step (either “permanently” into the workforce, or temporarily to earn money to pay for the next step of school).
The pre-med path is basically this:
Earn a bachelor’s degree in any major, but including the following:
Complete the pre-med courses.
Do pre-med extracurriculars (clinical experience, volunteering to help the disadvantaged / underserved).
Prepare for and take the MCAT.
Apply to medical schools.
If successful (most get no admissions), take hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans for medical school (four years).
Apply for residency in desired medical specialties.
After MD or DO graduation, do a three to seven year residency.
After residency, enter practice and start being able to pay off debt.
Yes this is my concern. So then maybe it would be fine as long as he went on to higher classes which he would have to anyway right? So he does Gen Chem as part of his dual credit program but then he does Organic Chem at the 4 year university for example?
I have heard (and I don’t know how true this actually is or not) that it looks the worst if students do the math and science at community college once they have already started at the university and are in a Bachelor’s degree program. That it looks better and is more understandable when it is done by a high school student who did it for dual credit as part of a challenging high school curriculum.
A few things to be aware of when doing an early college program for pre-med:
any college level coursework taken during high school will be included when calculating his GPA for a med school application.
Any college level BCPM (biology, chemistry physics and math) classes taken as part of his AA or AS will also become part of his sGPA calculations for med school admissions. (FWIW, College algebra is not considered “college level” math by AMCAS, but the rest of courses you listed --stats, A&P, bio, gen chem , calc 1, calc 2 are.)
Thus your son needs to be aware that any less than A grades he earns in the program will hurt his chances for gaining a med school admission.
younger-than-typical med school applicants face some additional challenges in med school admissions as adcomms are rightfully skeptical of young applicants’ maturity levels and whether they posses the social-emotional core competencies expected of every medical student. The onus of demonstrating they possess these qualities lies entirely on the applicant.
Because of the early divergence in educational pathway between nursing and pre-med, I would strongly recommend your son do some job shadowing with both nurses and physicians to see which career path is more interesting/meaningful for him… (Physician shadowing is an expected pre-med EC for all applicants anyway.)
He would supplement intro bio with 2 additional UL bio electives (genetics, molecular bio, A&P are often recommended or required by medical schools)
I have heard (and I don’t know how true this actually is or not) that it looks the worst if students do the math and science at community college once they have already started at the university and are in a Bachelor’s degree program. That it looks better and is more understandable when it is done by a high school student who did it for dual credit as part of a challenging high school curriculum.
That is true. College students who take pre-reqs at a CC while currently enrolled in a 4 year college are viewed as avoiding a hard class or hard instructor or taking an "easier’ class to protect their GPA. None of which will endear them to adcomm members.
How would it look to medical school admissions if the student in question does the following:
Does the ADN/RN path in this dual enrollment program.
Works as a nurse after high school graduation.
Based on what he sees while working as a nurse, decides that he really wants to be a physician and then attends college as a pre-med and applies to medical schools.
scored in the appropriate range for the program applied for on the MCAT
sufficient work experience (typically several years) that would allow them to provide an in-depth & specific answer to the question: “Why medicine instead of nursing?”
Career-changer nurses are accepted into med school without prejudice. Nurses often have a more realistic understanding of how medicine is practiced in he US than starry eyed straight-from-college applicants.
@WayOutWestMom@ucbalumnus Thanks for the advice. My son is going to talk to his counselor this week about moving forward on the Associate of Applied Science, Nursing/RN pathway. Then after he graduates, he can work as an RN and do the bridge to BSN in one year at many colleges around here and then he can decide if he wants to apply to medical school or DNP. He is interested in the Nurse Anesthetist career. I have an acquaintance in the field. Going to see if he can shadow him at some point.