PotentialPA1 Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 TL;DR: I never used to be a serious student until I recently figured out my passion for medicine. I’m doing a post bacc at a very professional, regionally accredited CC to get my gpa up and take pre reqs for pa school, but even if I do really well I’m worried that schools will just blame the CC due to my past and I won’t get credit for my hard work. Should I just attend a local 4 year (one of the toughest in the country) and non matriculate? Am I overthinking this? I’m a non trad student who truly was lost in my early years of college academically. I played baseball very seriously all my life and had division 1 looks since 9th grade until I tore my UCL in a playoff game senior year (high school). I still went on a baseball scholarship somehow (not where i wanted to go) but I ended up leaving because even when I healed I never felt like the same player. Honestly, this left me depressed and desperate for something else so I transferred to a party school and did that for 3 more years because it felt good and made me forget about the fact that my baseball dreams were over. I graduated with a communications degree, some great leadership experience from my fraternity and a 3.1 gpa, that’s it. I always knew I loved health and science and I was always very into fitness but I never thought about putting the work in until my last year of undergrad. It eventually hit me that I wanted and needed to go into the med field. I think it was the fact that I was about to graduate and had no idea what I was gonna do that made me realize what I should be doing. After graduation I still interviewed for some sales jobs and got an offer, but I turned it down to go back to school. Last semester I took Chem and Bio 1 along with an EMT certification course with a 4.0. This semester I am an EMT at a local company and I’m taking A&P 1, Chem 2, Calculus and Medical Terminology. I have a bunch of classes to go but I was wondering what you guys thought I should do. Now that you know my background. Do you guys think I should continue to take my pre reqs and some at this CC (it’s a very professional regionally accredited CC in suffolk county, long island) or should I take classes at a 4 year university nearby which is considered one of the hardest in the country (stony brook). my CC credits are all transferrable to stony brook as if they were the same class. so my CC is no joke. I just think it may be better for my gpa and wallet to stay with the CC as I really do need to get my grades up. However, I’m worried that even if I get all A’s, schools will think it’s because of the community college due to my past. Even though the real difference is I now study 4 hours a day vs 2 hours a week last year. What do you guys think I should do? I was thinking maybe I could attend that school for a semester just to show them I can handle it, but I’m not sure if that’s even necessary. I may just be overthinking lol. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UGoLong Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 I was a nontraditional student and went back 30 years after graduation to start PA prereqs. I took one class in a small local college and then did the rest in community college. That made the cost -- and especially night class availability -- much easier for me. I can't tell how old you are now but, with age comes other responsibilities. When I applied, I got no complaints as to where I took my prereqs. So, personally I wouldn't worry. I would suggest you keep stacking up good grades and, when you get closer to the end of the work, maybe see if you can get an appointment at at least one PA program you are interested in applying to and talk with them. Good luck. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PotentialPA1 Posted September 29, 2020 Author Share Posted September 29, 2020 I was a nontraditional student and went back 30 years after graduation to start PA prereqs. I took one class in a small local college and then did the rest in community college. That made the cost -- and especially night class availability -- much easier for me. I can't tell how old you are now but, with age comes other responsibilities. When I applied, I got no complaints as to where I took my prereqs. So, personally I wouldn't worry. I would suggest you keep stacking up good grades and, when you get closer to the end of the work, maybe see if you can get an appointment at at least one PA program you are interested in applying to and talk with them. Good luck.I’m 23, thanks so much for the response!Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alysd Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 Nearly all of my friends whom have gotten into PA school took their prereqs at community colleges. It's extremely common now, and I've heard representatives from several schools state in their webinars that they consider courses equally. Don't waste your money if you don't have to. CCs are awesome! I would also not discount the importance of balancing out the coursework with high-quality experiences. My aforementioned friends who have gotten accepted were taking classes part-time while working in healthcare jobs. Good luck! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD2012 Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 Did a few post-baccs at local CC starting with a 3.12 sci GPA, raised it to a 3.2 getting A's in a few classes mainly labs. Got accepted in the middle of the semester. No one questions your CC credits. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pa98173jd Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 On 9/28/2020 at 10:25 PM, PotentialPA1 said: TL;DR: I never used to be a serious student until I recently figured out my passion for medicine. I’m doing a post bacc at a very professional, regionally accredited CC to get my gpa up and take pre reqs for pa school, but even if I do really well I’m worried that schools will just blame the CC due to my past and I won’t get credit for my hard work. Should I just attend a local 4 year (one of the toughest in the country) and non matriculate? Am I overthinking this? I’m a non trad student who truly was lost in my early years of college academically. I played baseball very seriously all my life and had division 1 looks since 9th grade until I tore my UCL in a playoff game senior year (high school). I still went on a baseball scholarship somehow (not where i wanted to go) but I ended up leaving because even when I healed I never felt like the same player. Honestly, this left me depressed and desperate for something else so I transferred to a party school and did that for 3 more years because it felt good and made me forget about the fact that my baseball dreams were over. I graduated with a communications degree, some great leadership experience from my fraternity and a 3.1 gpa, that’s it. I always knew I loved health and science and I was always very into fitness but I never thought about putting the work in until my last year of undergrad. It eventually hit me that I wanted and needed to go into the med field. I think it was the fact that I was about to graduate and had no idea what I was gonna do that made me realize what I should be doing. After graduation I still interviewed for some sales jobs and got an offer, but I turned it down to go back to school. Last semester I took Chem and Bio 1 along with an EMT certification course with a 4.0. This semester I am an EMT at a local company and I’m taking A&P 1, Chem 2, Calculus and Medical Terminology. I have a bunch of classes to go but I was wondering what you guys thought I should do. Now that you know my background. Do you guys think I should continue to take my pre reqs and some at this CC (it’s a very professional regionally accredited CC in suffolk county, long island) or should I take classes at a 4 year university nearby which is considered one of the hardest in the country (stony brook). my CC credits are all transferrable to stony brook as if they were the same class. so my CC is no joke. I just think it may be better for my gpa and wallet to stay with the CC as I really do need to get my grades up. However, I’m worried that even if I get all A’s, schools will think it’s because of the community college due to my past. Even though the real difference is I now study 4 hours a day vs 2 hours a week last year. What do you guys think I should do? I was thinking maybe I could attend that school for a semester just to show them I can handle it, but I’m not sure if that’s even necessary. I may just be overthinking lol. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Essentially it depends on the program. I've received a few invites where most of my prereqs are at a CC. However, I have read on this forum of some programs rejecting students for this ( i believe Tufts university) but programs are transparent. On their admissions pages, they will say that they favor classes taken at 4 year university. My advice would be just to not apply to them. It sounds like you're taking the right steps on the PA path! I'm glad. You can even apply next cycle if you like. I'd suggest taking genetics and statistics to broaden program selection. Best of luck 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byf8thpber Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 I have taken over 75 credits at a local CC and have 10 interview invites. I have been on 6 of them and no one has brought it up so far. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PotentialPA1 Posted October 2, 2020 Author Share Posted October 2, 2020 Do you guys think I need to take biochem if I took orgo 1&2 because my CC doesn’t offer biochemSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alysd Posted October 2, 2020 Share Posted October 2, 2020 4 minutes ago, PotentialPA1 said: Do you guys think I need to take biochem if I took orgo 1&2 because my CC doesn’t offer biochem It depends on the program(s) you’re applying to. I took a combined OChem / Biochem course at my CC because they didn’t offer straight Biochem, but I confirmed earlier this season with a couple of my prospective schools’ Admissions contacts that they wouldn’t accept it. Thus I signed up for and am currently taking an online Biochem through another CC. Some that require Biochem will explicitly state on their Prereqs page whether they’ll take Ochem in lieu of Biochem or not. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PotentialPA1 Posted October 2, 2020 Author Share Posted October 2, 2020 It depends on the program(s) you’re applying to. I took a combined OChem / Biochem course at my CC because they didn’t offer straight Biochem, but I confirmed earlier this season with a couple of my prospective schools’ Admissions contacts that they wouldn’t accept it. Thus I signed up for and am currently taking an online Biochem through another CC. Some that require Biochem will explicitly state on their Prereqs page whether they’ll take Ochem in lieu of Biochem or not. my CC has that same class(ish)! i figured it wouldn’t transfer. It’s just that I’m already gonna be finishing up awhile from now and biochem may add a lot more stress and if it doesn’t really affect my application i would rather avoid it. esp bc it seems like a lot of schools want either o chem 2 or biochemSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alysd Posted October 2, 2020 Share Posted October 2, 2020 8 minutes ago, PotentialPA1 said: my CC has that same class(ish)! i figured it wouldn’t transfer. It’s just that I’m already gonna be finishing up awhile from now and biochem may add a lot more stress and if it doesn’t really affect my application i would rather avoid it. esp bc it seems like a lot of schools want either o chem 2 or biochem I understand! It’s a decision based solely off of if you need it for the programs you’re applying to. Some of my programs just wanted 2 semesters of *any* Chem, so what I had taken worked fine. But when I decided that there were 2 programs I wanted to apply to that would only accept Biochem, that’s when I gave in and decided to go for it. Customize what you take to where you’re applying, so you don’t waste your valuable time and effort 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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