Four year to community college to four year

[sharpsabresword]

After a while of revising my priorities and passions, I have lead myself to know that I want to become a PA. However, at this very moment I am in a pickle. I go to UCLA but do not want to continue here. I have my first year done (11 classes)  with a good gpa at 3.75. However, this year almost killed me to get that not perfect gpa. Likewise, I have few hours working in the medical field and need to rack up some more hours. My next year if I continue at UCLA will load on more classes with no buffer, I am certain that my gpa will suffer and continue to fall do to the sheer amount of grade deflation. I fear it will drop below a 3.5 easily. Likewise, I will have no time to pick up hours or get any experience due  to constantly studying on the quarter system.

My other option is to transfer to my local community college and finish up prerequisites there and then transfer after two years to UC Davis on a tag agreement (basically if your gpa is high enough in certain classes you get guaranteed admission). If I did this route I would take the phlebotomy certification class this summer and try to get a job while I complete my two years at a cc.

I am trying to exit undergrad in the best position to apply to PA school even if I need to work an extra year to get more experience. I am not quite sure what to do. Any advice? Will PA programs look negatively upon Community college prerequisites even if some were done at a four year with good marks?

[moorecarson121]

Pa programs don't look down on community colleges, at least not in my experience. When I got accepted to school, I had 13 transcripts from multiple 4 year and 2 year schools, and multiple online classes. The goal is to build the best application you can. It seems to me you already know how to do that. Go take the phlebotomy course and go to CC. Kick butt in your prerequisites and build a nice application. What's more important to you? Being able to claim that UCLA degree, or get in to pa school?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sharpsabresword]

Thank you. Being able to get into PA school is more important to me.

[hustleforthePAC]

 I went to UCLA and had like a 2.69 GPA and it was a North campus major and I still landed 50% interviews  I did work full time job as well in leadership position. I would recommend taking genetics at West la  with Dr. Zuk because I think it covers some of the Biology requirements for you for your undergraduate at ucla n can boost your gpa  but usually is pretty strict with taking community college classes it has to be a turn that you were not enrolled you can't take it concurrently  and  Cover some of your core classes . id personally duke it out at ucla bc itll help you land interviews. maybe you can try out applying to UC Davis to see if you get in first for undergrad and then See where it goes from there, but from personal experience at my interview sessions the people who were granted a spot for interview n acceptance all went to ucla from the group I had pretty decent GPAs and other outside extracurriculars  but it's up to you you know yourself best in terms of what to do to protect your GPA 

[sharpsabresword]

9 minutes ago, ChristineQLe said:

 I went to UCLA and had like a 2.69 GPA and it was a North campus major and I still landed 50% interviews  I did work full time job as well in leadership position I would recommend taking genetics at West la  with Dr. Zuk because I think it covers some of the Biology requirements for your for your undergraduate at ucla n can boost your gpa id personally duke it out at ucla bc itll help you land interviews. maybe you can try out applying to UC Davis to see if you get in first for undergrad and then See where it goes from there, but from personal experience at my interview sessions the people who were granted a spot for interview n acceptance all went to ucla from the group I had pretty decent GPAs and other outside extracurriculars  but it's up to you you know yourself best in terms of what to do to protect your GPA 

The thing is, if I stay at UCLA my GPA will drop and I will not be able to get any patient experience because I will be too busy trying to keep my gpa in the acceptable range. I think most programs stop you if you are below a 3.0 or 3.3 in some cases. I'm curious how you got interviews? I am currently a south campus major trying to push my luck XD. I just took two finals in fact for summer session.

[hustleforthePAC]

The thing with PA school is that they look at other things to like your life experience letters of recommendation and volunteer it's actually easy for you to rack up a bunch of volunteer hours at the Ucla careextender program I did like over 1000 after I graduated though if you live anywhere near campus you can just walk there but I'm actually a nontraditional studentand I ended up taking all my prerequisite classes after I graduated and have like a 3.8 pre req , you can always work weekends being an EMT or cna and do A 12 or 24 hour shift, I wouldn't give up I know how tough the quarter system is and I feel like it might work in your favor if you decrease your courseload I feel like all the University of California as will challenge you and the only way to overcome that obstacle is to just manage your time the best way you can


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sharpsabresword]

6 minutes ago, ChristineQLe said:

The thing with PA school is that they look at other things to like your life experience letters of recommendation and volunteer it's actually easy for you to rack up a bunch of volunteer hours at the Ucla careextender program I did like over 1000 after I graduated though if you live anywhere near campus you can just walk there but I'm actually a nontraditional studentand I ended up taking all my prerequisite classes after I graduated and have like a 3.8 pre req , you can always work weekends being an EMT or cna and do A 12 or 24 hour shift, I wouldn't give up I know how tough the quarter system is and I feel like it might work in your favor if you decrease your courseload I feel like all the University of California as will challenge you and the only way to overcome that obstacle is to just manage your time the best way you can


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

The thing is I would have to do all my prereqs here with the course load of my major on top of that. And, I would graduate still with little life experience, because I don't think I would have time to get experience and keep my gpa above a 3.5. I would still be going to receive a UC degree if I went to CC. I would have two year of upper division classes at Davis but two years at a CC where I could take prereqs(my cc offers most if not all needed prereqs. Its pretty good as far as CC's go). Likewise, I can only take around 12 units a semester(it would be 3 semesters cause I'm not getting in for this semester and can't cap my transferable units out) and probably do work at the same time and be fine.

[bjwbell]

I did the community college to UC Davis route, years ago. It is very nice having that 4.0 from the community college classes. You could get a 3.5 at Davis and still average out to 3.75.

After being in the workforce for many years. Nobody cares at all if you do CC to UC. What matters is not graduating with debt.  

[UGoLong]

I recommend going the CC route. It will also add flexibility to your work schedule and most schools won't care.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[majetito]

Go to CC and save $$$, because you won't have any during PA school.