I have a bachelors degree in the Arts but have decide to make a giant change-over in careers to medicine. I’ve taken science courses at a community college to prep for nursing school…but decided on Med School instead. Will Medical Schools accept these credits or do they really want a university post-baccalaureate program. It only matters for financial reasons.
They view taking community college sciences after your have a bachelor’s as trying to get easy grades. They prefer university courses. If you’ve already taken the classes, check with the med schools you’re interested in as to whether they’ll even consider them. If they will, you won’t be considered as competitive as students who took them at a university, but it’s still worth applying. Your best bet is to get a practice book or two for the MCATs and review until you make top scores on the practice exams. That should help convince them that you have the science knowledge and that the grades weren’t good just because they came from a community college.
Another option, if you don’t get into med school, is to go to nursing school and then to med school. Or consider pharmacy school.
It really depends on the school. If they are actual science courses (not a nursing science course) then they will probably accept them. Keep in mind that they will view these courses through the lens of: your grades, difficulty of school, the number of courses taken at one time, and compared to your MCAT. If these are legitimate courses, you should be fine. Contact the medical school you’re most interested in to be sure. It could save you time, and you’ll already have a connection for interview time (this helps.)
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Medical Student – took postbac courses.
In general they will take any US coursework though they will always say they prefer all the pre-requisites from 4 year universities/colleges. Other classes that aren’t pre-reqs are fine, and will count towards your application GPA.
Best of luck in the admissions process. Feel free to email me with questions – username @ yahoo.com
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current med student
They view taking community college sciences after your have a bachelor’s as trying to get easy grades. They prefer university courses. If you’ve already taken the classes, check with the med schools you’re interested in as to whether they’ll even consider them. If they will, you won’t be considered as competitive as students who took them at a university, but it’s still worth applying. Your best bet is to get a practice book or two for the MCATs and review until you make top scores on the practice exams. That should help convince them that you have the science knowledge and that the grades weren’t good just because they came from a community college.
Another option, if you don’t get into med school, is to go to nursing school and then to med school. Or consider pharmacy school.
References :
As long as the courses you take are Major level, the setting in which you take them does not matter. But you need to verify your course work with a university, not the community college. Many courses offered at a CC are not Major level. If your course was titled something like Biology for Nursing, it’s a virtual guarantee it will not satisfy the pre-med requirement.
Many people claim that course work done at a community college is unacceptable to med schools. Not true. Some may form this opinion simply because the community college course was not a Major level course and they wasted their time and money, but the setting has no relevance. You can take a non-major course at a university, too. The majority of states now have integrated education systems, where credits earned at any school are recognized by all the schools in that state. The caveat is that any credits have to satisfy the degree requirements. For example, a Biology for Nursing course will not satisfy the requirement for a Biology degree (and if it doesn’t satisfy the Major, it’s unacceptable for med school).
I always tell people to verify their curriculum with the university, not the community college. The university knows, for certain, whether the credit is acceptable or not.
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