Hey,
I’m currently a senior in high school and my GPA is at a 3.8 weighted and a 3.5 unweighted. It’s always been my dream to become a doctor. Due to how low my GPA is the chances of getting into NYU are quite slim so I’ve decided to do two or one year at community college then transfer. After that I’ve planned to obviously go to med school. Will the chances of me getting in NYU Grossman decrease because I started at community?
I think if you are a top student they would increase. - 3.8+ with a full load of the most demanding community college classes. Of course the standardized test situation may or may not be the same at that time. I would lob in a call to NYU and ask the question about past history of community college transfers.
Your post is confusing. Seems like you are talking about NYU undergrad AND NYU medical school (Grossman). The ONLY thing you need to be concerned about now is going to a solid undergrad school where you can successfully take the med school prerequisites and graduate with little or no debt.
Second, it is very, very, very, very difficult to get into NYU School of Medicine. Always has been, and now that it’s free it’s even harder than hard to be admitted there. You’ll need a 4.0 GPA and top 1% MCAT scores. You need to assume you will not get in there. If you do, it will be a bonus. Right now, just concentrate on undergrad.
Why do you feel so strongly? Did you sense this is a financially driven decision from something written? Kind of an aggressive response to a 17 yo posting for the first time.
I got the sense that this poster was a little lost and hasn’t thought this through or done any research. He/she mentioned NYU and NYU School of Medicine as if those were the only two possibilities. If the goal is med school, you have to kind of blow it wide open, be open to lots of possibilities. And for 99% of people who go to medical school, finances are a big part of the decision-making. It’s wildly expensive to go to medical school, so for almost all students the best plan is to go to the most affordable undergrad they can and then work to get into ANY medical school.
I really do appreciate the time you took to respond but all due respect I am NOT lost. The only reason why I exclusively mentioned NYU is because It’s my first choice but it’s definitely not my only option. My post was written for the purpose of finding out whether or not my chances of getting into med school would decrease because I’m starting at a community college.
It was clear to me that was what you were asking.
3.5 would be a low GPA to get in as a freshman. Community college could definitely increase your chances with a high GPA. The biggest concern is, of course cost. Can you go to NYU without co-signing large amounts of debt? If so, then great! If not, then I would advise going somewhere affordable, because medical school is very very expensive.
The short answer is yes, because med schools look down on CC courses and will want you to “conpensate” for each course taken at a cc.
You’re better off looking for a school where youll5be well supported and can attend on a merit scholarship. Suggestions: apply quickly to Susquehanna, Juniata, Muhlenberg, Goucher, Allegheny, Wooster, Lycoming. If you’re instate for ny, SUNY New Paltz, SUNY Albany if you get into the honors college.
Btw, do not choose biology for a major. There are way too many of them and an oversupply on the job market even when it was thriving for college graduates in general.
From your experience, do med schools look down on kids who went to community college for a year, did exceptionally well and transferred to somewhere very competitive, did well again - and then applied to med school?
No, they don’t. In fact, it’s a reflection of maturity. Not everyone can afford to go to a 4 year university for all 4 years, even if it’s in-state. I’d probably say, most of us are in that situation. What’s important is what you do in college, not where you go.
We agree on that.
Yes, they do, unless students “compensate” for their CC pre-req courses by taking classes in these subjects at the 4-year college. 
This is specific to med schools and one of many reasons why they have few lower income students (who are more likely to follow this path.)
Or, more precisely, they don’t “look down” on them. The algorithm that makes the first cut will consider these courses not taken unless the “compensating” courses were taken at the 4-year and human eyes will never see their application.
The exception for this is California residents attending a CA CC then a California university and applying to CA med schools.
If this student is a NYS resident and went the TC3->Cornell route, they’d still need to take their 10 premed pre-reqs or more advanced-than-pre-req classes from Cornell.
Paging @Knowsstuff, as I believe he’s a doctor who started out in community college. I know times have changed, but I expect he might have a good perspective.
Hello,
So I graduated like 1986 and times were different but I had NO choice. So I did my first year at CC then went to a local college for 2 years. But back in the day got accepted early also…
Things are different now and as suggested it all comes down to grades and mcat scores for the most part. My cc was a strong feeder school. I was taking the exact classes by the same professors just paying 1/3 for the most part. So maybe not all CC are equal…
I would would personally pick the best least expensive school you can find and do excellent work there.