will this effect my chances?

[erodrig4]

I am just starting out in college…i know i want to go to medical school…my grades in high school were below average so i am attending a community college right now to get a few gen. ed credits out of the way and to meet the requirements to transfer either after this semester or the next to a university…will these 3 or 4 gen ed classes effect my chances? and one more question…does the university you attned have alot of effect on being accepted to medical school? the university i am attending is a branch of the University of Michigan (U of M-Flint) i believe that when you graduate though your diploma says just University of Michigan but i am not positive.

[megboo]

No. CC courses do not affect admission, unless you want to go to BU or Case (maybe a few others), and that’s only for the required chem, bio, and physics courses. And no, your undergrad institution really doesn’t matter, unless you are applying for the MD/PhD program, at least this is what I’ve seen from many friends who went to various universities and applied and were accepted to various med schools.

[yokelridesagain]

Really depends on what you mean by “a few gen ed credits”…if this means history, government, and college algebra, no, it shouldn’t be a problem. On the other hand, if you take all of your pre-requisites at a community college, those marks will be viewed differently than if the courses had been taken at a four year college. This would apply generally to all admissions committees.

That isn’t to say that taking Biology 101 or General Chemistry at a community college is unacceptable…it’s just one data point, and if you’re adjusting to college coursework you might do better in the smaller environment. A community college A will certainly beat a four year college F. Nor is it impossible to get into medical school if you do your first two years at a junior college. The key, though, would be to demonstrate that you can do higher level work in science–preferably the life sciences–if you do a significant portion of your prerequisites at the CC. No one on a med school admissions committee is going to expect you to take chemistry, physics, or math courses beyond the requirements, but I would expect them to be very wary of an application with prerequisities exclusively from a CC and no other higher level courses. Good examples of courses to take at the 4 year instituion would be immunology, biochemistry, microbiology, genetics, physiology, anatomy, etc.

Lastly, no one on any admissions committee anywhere is going to confuse U-Michigan Flint with U-Michigan Ann Arbor. That’s not meant to be a derogatory statement, btw…I don’t know anything whatsoever about the quality of the Flint campus–just a heads up that you shouldn’t expect to be evaluated in the exact same way as a student at the main campus. And yes, the school you go to does have an impact. Slightly lower grades at an institution perceived as rigorous may be forgiven more than they would be with grades from a less rigorous institution. Aim to match or beat a 3.6 overall GPA and science GPA, and you should be competitive if the rest of your application is solid.

Physician-resident

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