Taking Gen Eds at Community College

[Devin2019]

Hello,

 

I understand it is generally frowned upon when you take your science prerequisites for PA school at a community college, but is it okay to take your gen ed courses at community college and take your science prerequisites at a four year institution? 

[AliB]

Not that I'm offended, but I think you're a bit off the mark.  I took ALL of my prereqs at community colleges.  #1, it was WAY more cost effective.  #2, I already have a university degree, including a masters that shows me capable of graduate level work.  

[CorptoPA]

Not that I'm offended, but I think you're a bit off the mark.  I took ALL of my prereqs at community colleges.  #1, it was WAY more cost effective.  #2, I already have a university degree, including a masters that shows me capable of graduate level work.  

 

 

I agree with you. I already have a bachelors degree and decided to take as many prerequisites courses I could at a community college. Extremely cost effective. Additionally, I felt I learned more at a community college. Smaller classes and more face time with professors. These professors teaching at community colleges are also teaching at the universities.

[Devin2019]

Well your guys' situation is a little different from mine. I am still in undergrad. I just signed up for a program at my university where I am able to take some courses at a community college in my county, and then have the credits transfer to my university. I am doing this to save money. I thought about taking the rest of my science prerequisites for PA school at the community college, but after doing some research I read that many admission committees do not recommend that you take the prerequisites at a community college. You guys already had your degrees when you took the courses which would make you a more desirable applicant. However, I am trying to complete them while I am still in undergrad. I was just wondering would it still be frowned upon if I just take my gen ed courses at the community college and the prerequisites at my university?

[Devin2019]

Well your guys' situation is a little different from mine. I am still in undergrad. I just signed up for a program at my university where I am able to take some courses at a community college in my county, and then have the credits transfer to my university. I am doing this to save money. I thought about taking the rest of my science prerequisites for PA school at the community college, but after doing some research I read that many admission committees do not recommend that you take the prerequisites at a community college. You guys already had your degrees when you took the courses which would make you a more desirable applicant. However, I am trying to complete them while I am still in undergrad. I was just wondering would it still be frowned upon if I just take my gen ed courses at the community college and the prerequisites at my university?

I agree with you. I already have a bachelors degree and decided to take as many prerequisites courses I could at a community college. Extremely cost effective. Additionally, I felt I learned more at a community college. Smaller classes and more face time with professors. These professors teaching at community colleges are also teaching at the universities.

 

 

Not that I'm offended, but I think you're a bit off the mark.  I took ALL of my prereqs at community colleges.  #1, it was WAY more cost effective.  #2, I already have a university degree, including a masters that shows me capable of graduate level work.  

[ryebread203]

Well your guys' situation is a little different from mine. I am still in undergrad. I just signed up for a program at my university where I am able to take some courses at a community college in my county, and then have the credits transfer to my university. I am doing this to save money. I thought about taking the rest of my science prerequisites for PA school at the community college, but after doing some research I read that many admission committees do not recommend that you take the prerequisites at a community college. You guys already had your degrees when you took the courses which would make you a more desirable applicant. However, I am trying to complete them while I am still in undergrad. I was just wondering would it still be frowned upon if I just take my gen ed courses at the community college and the prerequisites at my university?

If a school officially prefers four-year institution pre-reqs then they have to clearly note this on their website, just like they are required to do so if they give preference to alumni or veterans. If it is not stated, then community college coursework is equally accepted with that from a four-year institution.

 

Dont get caught up on the pre-reqs. Those are a minimum requirement. You should continue to take upper division coursework if you. This further demonstrates that you are ready to take on graduate level education and succeed.

 

Saving money while taking community college classes is smart, and you get way more face time with the instructor. Win-win.

[Ollivander]

I'd recommend taking the majority of your prerequisites at a four-year university if you can. It's a little different situation when you already hold a bachelor's degree and are trying to pick up the prereqs ASAP as a non-traditional. I don't think certain prereqs that don't require labs will matter as much such as calculus, genetics, statistics, psych, etc. Although I'd take courses such as general bio, general chem, organic chem, biochem, A&P, etc at your current university.

 

If I were you I'd utilize the semester at that CC to knock out courses you think you might not do so well in at university. If you're bad at math, go ahead and take it at the CC. If you don't want to deal with writing a lot of papers, then pick up English literature, psych, or history at the CC. It just depends on how you want to utilize your time during the semester(s) you'll be doing transient courses at your local CC.

[LadyNichiavelli]

PA school isn't like med school in the sense that community college courses are frowned upon. Very, very few programs refuse to take community college credits, but the overwhelming majority don't care as long as your courses are at an accredited U.S. educational institution. My advice is to gauge where you think you will be most successful, learn the most, and have the grades to show for it. I took pre-med courses at one of the top pre-med undergrad institutions in Texas, and STILL learned more/did better when I took the classes at a community college after I graduated. Maybe part of it had to do with the fact that I was more focused and there were less distractions? But in my case, community college was the way to go. I don't think it matters if you don't have your bachelors yet, as long as you eventually get it.

[south]

Well, I did a detailed written analysis of all the PA programs that were operating at the time (2012-3) , spent probably 100 hours, several dozen emails / phone calls to programs and $10,000 on the acceptance process.  

 

Not one SINGLE time did I ever run into anyone who even claimed to prefer classes at the larger institutions vs CC, much less not accept them.  

 

This applied to me, because I originally returned to my alma mater, Big Ass State University, to take a class and was charged $8700.  That only happened once.

 

All things being equal of course.  Classes that you can find at CC that are the same as the big ones.  No bigger fan of CC than yours truly.

[EMEDPA]

yup, agree. I was looking at going back to medschool a few years ago(ok, 2002) and took all my prereqs at a cc and was told by the medschool that this would not be a problem.

Have worked on several admissions committees before and never was told to rate CC courses differently.

[pabound2016]

Just to shed some similar personal experience, I took my A&P I and II prereqs and physics 1 & 2 (yes, there are a few programs out there that require physics) at a community college during my senior year of undergrad and had 0 trouble getting interviews and acceptances. I applied right out of undergrad and got into 12/15 schools I applied to.

When I applied, I did see a few programs that preferred their prereqs be taken at a 4-year institute, but generally I did not see a stronger preference for taking your classes at a 4-yr college over a community college.

[Ollivander]

Well, I did a detailed written analysis of all the PA programs that were operating at the time (2012-3) , spent probably 100 hours, several dozen emails / phone calls to programs and $10,000 on the acceptance process.  

 

Not one SINGLE time did I ever run into anyone who even claimed to prefer classes at the larger institutions vs CC, much less not accept them.  

 

This applied to me, because I originally returned to my alma mater, Big Ass State University, to take a class and was charged $8700.  That only happened once.

 

All things being equal of course.  Classes that you can find at CC that are the same as the big ones.  No bigger fan of CC than yours truly.

A couple of schools are the exception to that trend though. I know LSU said they wanted most if not all the prereqs at a university as opposed to a CC, and they wanted multiple upper level science courses on top of that. I want to say Oklahoma too but don't quote me on that one. But you're right, those schools that demand it are definitely in the minority.

[south]

Yeah, not talking about upper level (300) courses, which aren't available at your CC.  A few places require this; Northern Arizona wanted some 300+ Science, and I remember a school in Colorado that wanted a couple 300 level math.  Taking me neatly out of the running. 

 

Both LSU Shreveport and NO require a few upper level Bio.  And they go out of their way to say that courses must have a science prefix for science majors.  No mention of CC on either website, just that it must be from accredited college or university. 

[MusicalPA]

My husband got lucky that the local community college started offering Organic Chemisty 1&2 with labs. They are labeled 200 level class but it is transferable to the university system as a 300 level class. The same teachers that teach at the university are teaching it at the community college. It sure saved money doing it at the community college.

[Ollivander]

Yeah, not talking about upper level (300) courses, which aren't available at your CC.  A few places require this; Northern Arizona wanted some 300+ Science, and I remember a school in Colorado that wanted a couple 300 level math.  Taking me neatly out of the running. 

 

Both LSU Shreveport and NO require a few upper level Bio.  And they go out of their way to say that courses must have a science prefix for science majors.  No mention of CC on either website, just that it must be from accredited college or university. 

I called them up and when I asked them about CC credits they told me "CC credits are fine, but we'd strongly prefer if you take the majority of your science prereqs at a four-year university." I decided to take them off my list following that conversation. Bummer too because outside of my state schools New Orleans would have been my top choice.

 

On a side note I feel like a few select programs (mainly name state schools) are trying to stiffen their entrance requirements as a way to weed through the applicants. These days schools are getting so many with PA being such a hot career option that they're needing new ways to weed applicants out. Just look at the entrance requirements for several healthcare professions 10-15 years ago versus today. There are tons of new prereqs that there weren't prereqs then versus now. I get tons of new schools are popping up, but I think as we move forward PA entrance requirements are definitely going to get progressively more difficult with PA salaries beginning to exceed that of veterinary, optometry, and even pharmacy in certain instances (and these are all doctorate programs). In short, it's not getting any "easier" than it is now to get into PA school (and I'm not saying it's easy now by any means, hence the quotations).

[south]

 

On a side note I feel like a few select programs (mainly name state schools) are trying to stiffen their entrance requirements as a way to weed through the applicants. 

 

I buy that.  It makes sense with what I have seen, just a casual glance

[Jdabrowski]

It all depends on the schools you are looking at I guess. I reapplied to EVMS and asked how to increase my pre-reqs since I went to a private institution for undergrad and graduated it would be over 1K per credit. They specifically told me to take them at a CC to save money since I initially took everything at a 4 year. I think in asking the admissions dept you will get the best info. Good luck!