Should I retake a Chem 1 Lab that I got a B in?

<p>I'm taking a dual enrollment Chem 1 class at a community college and i f'd up my lab reports and now I'm probably max getting a B. I want to go to UF then a top medical school. What should I do regarding this? Can I retake it or just elect not to get credit for it, although I'll have ChemII+Lab and Org. 1 & 2 completed before starting at UF? Does it even matter as I'm most likely going to get an A on my lecture?</p>

<p>What is the point of putting so much work in that class if you are not going to get credit? I suggest you to get the credit.</p>

<p>You’re not going to get accepted to a top medical school if you plan on using community college credit, regardless of your grade.</p>

<p>Why? Yes you can, a Chemistry 1 credit is the same at a Community College and at UF! it’s just Chemistry 1! @gangsta Study hard! and you will get into any Medical School that you want. nothing is impossible</p>

<p>grades don’t carry over from dual enrollment to your UF gpa. doesn’t matter as long as you pass and get accepted.</p>

<p>Yes, but at least you have the knowledge.</p>

<p>You wont get into a top notch MD school if you are using community college credits for your prereqs ESPECIALLY for Orgo. </p>

<p>Orgo is not the same at your local community college as it is at UF. End of Story. Not every Orgo professor is the same. Do not give me “Orgo is Orgo no matter where you take it”. Even among the professors who teach Orgo at UF; a year ago one of them was prohibited from teaching Orgo again because that prof was way too easy and a bunch of that prof’s students ended up failing Orgo 2. For your prereqs, especially Orgo and Physics, med schools like to see that you took them at the University level.</p>

<p>Even Chem 2 is not the same, it is significantly harder at UF. If it wasn’t then no one would take Chem 2 over the summer back at home at their community college.</p>

<p>Back to the question: It is a B… deal with it, you would be a fool to drop and the W would look worse than the B. And it’s Lab, only one credit worth of impact!</p>

<p>I don’t understand why this question even comes up. Do you not realize that while you are applying to med schools, especially top notch med schools, you will have to write an addendum to explain any W’s you have? I mean, what would yours say? “I messed up a couple lab reports and was going to get a B so I withdrew”. Ridiculous.</p>

<p>mystfire is just jealous that you are getting the same credits he has to suffer for at UF, but with half the effort.</p>

<p>Truth of the matter is that when you apply to med schools, one of the most important aspects of your application is your GPA. An inflated GPA will certainly not harm you; and if you can get good grades at the more advanced science classes at UF, top notch MD schools won’t mind that you took a few introductory classes at a CC.</p>

<p>Not to mention that as long as you read everything that is in your book (and understand it), you are learning as much as any other student at a tier 1 school.</p>

<p>^
You seem pretty biased, but since you are a CC transfer, I guess that is to be expected.</p>

<p>Applying to medical school is one of the most competitive processes out of any graduate school. </p>

<p>For the University of Florida Medical School</p>

<p>“Out of over 2,600 completed secondary applications, only 135 are accepted into the final class.”</p>

<p>If you think you are going to get accepted to a “top tier med school” let alone the UF med school by taking classes at a junior college, you must be smoking something with the rest of the CC students. </p>

<p>UF will see all the credits and prerequisites you took at a CC and you will likely be perceived as a slacker, especially since you could be starting as a freshmen.</p>

<p>Another feisty little girl^^^ hahahha</p>

<p>I’m a little confused by eddy’s position simply because community college credit doesn’t count toward your UF GPA that you’ll use to apply to med schools. If you knock out all the easy classes with community college credit, then only have the hard ones count toward your gpa, how on earth will that result in an inflated gpa? As I understand it, hard classes mean it’s harder to get high grades.</p>

<p>I agree with everyone else who has stated fact-based opinions, the more CC credit you use, the harder it will be for you to go to a top of the line med school (with an addendum, if you fill the holes left in your schedule by CC credit with challenging electives, that may be even more impressive to med schools) . With all that, it’s a B, dropping makes no sense.</p>

<p>Not jealous in the slightest Eddy. In fact I prefer it this way by a long shot. People like me who have taken their sciences at a Univ level will be slaying the MCAT while people who took their sciences at CC will be trying to figure out what stoichiometry means come test day. It all comes full circle.</p>

<p>zaersz,
The classes you take your first 2 years are what people here call “weed out” classes. Afterwards, you will be taking upper division, and even though the classes are much harder, the professors tend to be more lenient.
And I know this because I have taken plenty of upper division math classes at a University.</p>

<p>I’m the kind of person that doesn’t go to class, but just reads the textbooks chapter by chapter. When I have to take a test, instead of learning what I want, I have to focus on the few topics the test is going to cover. Thus, easier tests translates to more time I can spend on learning what I REALLY WANT TO LEARN. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy this kind of freedom.
As far as being better prepared by taking university courses. Personally, I don’t find that to be true since I have done very well in all the courses I have taken at a university.
Maybe it’s because all one needs in understanding theoretical mathematics is good reasoning, or maybe because I don’t have to be memorizing information like all the rookies doing pre-med.</p>

<p>“I’m the kind of person that doesn’t go to class, but just reads the textbooks chapter by chapter.”</p>

<p>"Personally, I don’t find that to be true since I have done very well in all the courses I have taken at a university. "</p>

<p>“like all the rookies doing pre-med.”</p>

<p>Eddy you come across as incredibly arrogant for a community college transfer. </p>

<p>FIU is barely one step above at community college, where you got a clear majority of your credits. Moreover, if you were so smart why didn’t you just start at UF instead of opting to get most of your credits at Miami Dade College to begin with. </p>

<p>Community college is a great deal and is probably better for some people. However, it is going to be a clear detriment to those applying to medical, let alone TOP medical schools,as those schools consider your grade in these “weed out classes” and prerequisites very carefully. </p>

<p>I would take most of what people say in this thread with a grain of salt, especially Eddy who has somewhat of an inferiority complex.</p>

<p>I took chem 1 and 2 at UF without attending either class past the first day (always gotta go to make sure there’s no attendance requirement) I got A’s in both. Your argument holds no water. I’d say Orgo is the real weedout class, and if you try to use CC credit for that, well, you have other problems. The upper division classes are what kill people, not the lower division. If you can’t pass UF chem 1, there’s no way you’ll pass UF Orgo or UF Biochem, it’s that simple.</p>

<p>My arguement against CC credit is simple, you’re knocking out the classes that are easy A’s with credit that will not effect your GPA either way. It doesn’t matter the quality of the insturction to me, CCs could theoretically have better teachers the UF, whatever, all I care about is what Med Schools see. First year classes will always inflate your GPA, weedout classes are a myth, inasofar as they do weed people out, but they’re not intentionally super hard, they just prevent people who shouldn’t be there from being there.</p>

<p>take it easy, take it easy</p>

<p>Rookie #1 (Ryan82),
I didn’t apply to UF during high school because I had charges on my record.</p>

<p>Rookie #2 (Zaersz),
All I’m trying to say is that you CAN end up going to a great med school even after going to a CC. Taking the community college route will in no way hinder you from gaining acceptance to a top school (as long as you continue to do good at the university).</p>

<p>^
That is wrong, like everybody has already stated.</p>

<p>Here is an article saying why taking your science prerequisites will likely keep you out of any med school. </p>

<p>[Going</a> to a Community College Before Medical School - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com](<a href=“http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2355316/going_to_a_community_college_before.html]Going”>http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2355316/going_to_a_community_college_before.html)</p>

<p>You will not find any article stating community college will help you get admitted to medical school; I checked.</p>

<p>^ the fact that an article is saying that, doesn’t mean is true. If the curriculum of a determined CCollege (a good college) is strong, i am sure the applicant won’t have any problem. also, the rule that says “if you get CCollege credit, then you won’t get into any medical school” is NOT written in stone. find that in a Medical School Admissions website and I will believe you.</p>

<p>CC credits are not the same or equivalent to Univ credits to almost all med schools. As a matter of fact there are plenty of medical schools that say on their admissions page that they straight up do not accept credits for science pre-reqs (gen chem, biology, organic chem, biochem, and physics) from institutions that are not 4 year universities, although it doesn’t matter if you are a community college transfer. Basically that means you could have credits from a CC but they should have only been used to fill gen-ed requisites (english, precalc, low level humanities, etc) and basic requirements for your major. </p>

<p>Taking all the pre-reqs for med school in two years, which is normally how long most CC transfer will spend, is tough but do-able for the main year long sequences, biochem, and calc 1. But as a transfer who wants to graduate on time you probably won’t be able to take any upper division classes beyond the pre-reqs unless you are a chem/bio type major. </p>

<p>But the thing is that most transfers still take bio or gen chem while in community college. Many of those people go on to transfer to univ and get into med school. But that is because those people end up taking upper division classes. If you have taken a year of general chem at community college you can continue on and take a year of, say, Analytical and Inorganic at Univ, and then you would have your year of chem outside of Organic. Or a year of microbiology and pathology and there is your year of bio past general. So if you are a transfer, taking upper level courses makes up for it. The thing is that you should really really be taking Organic and Physics at university level.</p>

<p>Overall talk to your advisor though, that is really important. But these trends to be pretty similar across most med schools.</p>

<p>The same overall situation with CC credits occurs with AP credits. For instance, I came in with Calc 1 credit. To go to almost any med school you need to take a semester of calculus. Well, I ended up using my Calc 1 credit to jump ahead to Calc 2 and took that. I did not say “I have a semester of calculus because of my AP credit”.</p>

<p>Both eddy and lr2010 I’m sure you mean well, but your opinions arn’t backed up by fact. Yes it is POSSIBLE that you can get into a top rate med school with a bad resume, but that doesn’t make it a good idea to go that route. I assume someone who cares about their future would take EVERY step to make their application AS STRONG as possible.</p>

<p>It’d be nice if everybody got what they wanted, regardless of qualification, but this is the real world. Like has already been said, something like 60% of qualified applicants don’t get into ANY med school, just being qualified isn’t enough in today’s day and age.</p>