<p>I have no high school, I am 21 , I am passing a GED in a couple of months and the only work credit/recamendation I can get would be from my father since I chose to help him in his business. </p>
<p>With this said, I now have the time to get back to school and would like to become a doctor. People have told me to go to community college then transfer to a 4 year university in order to get the necessary pre med requirments. Others have said that this is a bad idea and it is better to skip this year do an SAT and apply for next year in a 4 year university. The problem I have with this is I don't want to waste another year with no academic advancement.</p>
<p>What is the best way for me to achieve my goal? And what colleges would you suggest? Paying tuition isn't a problem.
Thanks</p>
<p>With a GED I think starting at community college is a good option. It sounds like it's been a while since you did schoolwork and community college would probably be an easier way to ease back into it. It would also probably be easier to eventually get admitted to a 4 year school if you had a year or two of community college with GOOD grades. Honestly, you'd have to have a really strong SAT score to go with that GED to get into most 4 year schools. I think the community college idea is a good way to get started.</p>
<p>Are you planning on working at the same time as going to school? If yes, a community college would be a better choice to get started.</p>
<p>When you say tuition is not an issue -- do you mean that you have unlimited funds available to pay? Yours or parents? Some colleges are very expensive, so you may find that cost is an obstacle.</p>
<p>Do you really want the typical "four year college experience"? if you are ambivilent about that, but just want to get the degree then community college would be an excellent choice. However, if you want the true 4-year experience you might want to go to a traditional school. Check out the book Colleges that Change Lives (google it).</p>
<p>remember that for med school, grades and test scores are very important -- so you want a college that will give you the support to get excellent grades.</p>
<p>yep go down to your community college and talk to them. They probably have reciprocal agreements with some excellent 4 year colleges. Ours does - one is even and Ivy.
You will get excellent guidance and be able to forumulate a good career path. Go there for 2 years, then transfer.
Our local CC had had many folks get their AAS then end up in med school. Happens all the time.</p>
<p>This is a perfect situation for community college. Regardless of how well you do on the SAT, nothing will help you more with admission to a good university than a solid track record of achievement in a community college setting. Try to find a good one, if the quality varies where you are. But you will find excellent teachers, and plenty of really smart students, some with nonlinear stories to tell.</p>
<p>My opinion (just my opinion, mind you) is that you have to figure out first how important the 'going to medical school' part of your plan really is. If it's the first priority in your plan, then you should probably do whatever it takes (as long as it's legal) to get into the best 4-year college possible. If that means taking off an additional year, then so be it. Some useful things you might do during that year: try to find work as a lab tech or lab asst in a bio research lab (might be difficult without a BA/BS in bio, but not impossible). Study for the SAT and do incredibly well on it. Take science classes as an auditor (not for credit, at any rate).</p>
<p>All the above is assuming that your FIRST priority is a U.S. medical school. If you are willing to compromise on that, then a plan to transfer to a 4-yr from a CC might make sense. </p>
<p>My understanding from physician friends is that it's VERY hard to make up for an excellent 4-yr college record.</p>
<p>You might post this question on the premed board- I have seen questions about CC, you would need to have stellar grades at the CC and would want to choose one that has an articulation agreement with a university for transfers.</p>
<p>Will give you way more options for four-year colleges, depending on how you do there, than trying for admission without real recs and without a track record showing how you perform academically.</p>
<p>Will give you time and experience to figure out what type/selectivity of college you want.</p>
<p>Will possibly give you great mentors. Many cc faculty really love teaching and mentoring their students; some will have experience as students or faculty at 4-year colleges and can help you think through what four-year college would be good for you.</p>
<p>Congrats on what you are doing.</p>
<p>When you are ready, or even now, you might head over to the Transfer Forum here on cc - lots of great information there on the transfer process, from a cc or other.</p>
<p>I have no clue why someone would suggest you wait another year, take the SAT and go directly to a 4-year. This will do nothing to address what is missing in your college application - lack of recs, lack of any recent track record of academic performance.</p>
<p>That said, there are probably quite a number of 4-years that you could go to right now, those with effectively open admissions. Then, you could stay there all 4 years, or transfer just as you would have from a cc.</p>
<p>Either of those options makes sense to me. Waiting another year just to take the SAT and do nothing else academically makes zero sense to me.</p>