Community College Courses?

[Experienced]

I think I've heard that Saba has started not allowing deficiency courses (e.g. Orgo) taken at a community college. Has anyone who's applying now been told that?

[thomasfx10]

I think SABA has more to worry about ... Like how are they going to supply loans to their students. I doubt if they would implement tougher standards at this point.

[Drdiego]

Originally Posted by Experienced

I think I've heard that Saba has started not allowing deficiency courses (e.g. Orgo) taken at a community college. Has anyone who's applying now been told that?

When I applied the admission's officer told me that if you take science courses at a community college they require you to take the MCAT. They have a bias towards Community College course work. They even went has far as telling me that I got a 'C" in a nutrition class some 12 years ago.

They have to realize that people take these classes at community colleges b/c :
1. Class times maybe a little more convenient for the working adult.
2. Why pay $1750 to take a class when you can take the same class for $320.

Because they want your money they don't post this on their website.

[KingMo]

Originally Posted by Drdiego

When I applied the admission's officer told me that if you take science courses at a community college they require you to take the MCAT. They have a bias towards Community College course work. They even went has far as telling me that I got a 'C" in a nutrition class some 12 years ago.

They have to realize that people take these classes at community colleges b/c :
1. Class times maybe a little more convenient for the working adult.
2. Why pay $1750 to take a class when you can take the same class for $320.

Because they want your money they don't post this on their website.

I realize that Saba is often considered a school for out of the ordinary people. But even then, students seem to demand that the school be more like U.S. schools (and reasonably so, that is the standard, no?).

To expect Saba to live up to U.S. standards, the community college issue comes with it. Most U.S. medical schools discourage and do not look favorably upon community college courses. By Saba acting the same way, they are just conforming to the standard. So you can't really blame them all that much...

[jlittlej]

I'm kind of a community college evangelist. I've taken classes at a lot of schools - some prestigious and expensive, some cheap and open to everyone. My community college courses have been, on average, of higher quality than those at respected four-year schools. As a working EMT, I cannot fit the lecture + problem "workshop" + lab + lab prep lecture into my schedule, whereas at a CC it's generally a lab+lecture for four hours, two nights a week for the same credit hours and material. For an English 101 course, sure a CC course is going to have a lot of screw ups. But for a science major course, I've got working nurses and respiratory therapists combined mainly with the smart, hard-working children of first-generation immigrants (for whom CC is a financial decision) as my peers.

I do think it's fair that SABA requires an MCAT score for those who take pre-reqs at CCs, as there are schools out there that are probably too easy to reflect one's ability to handle medical school. There are surely four-year schools as well that grant easy As, but they're fewer. A good number of my classmates in CC pre-reqs have been PAs and physical therapists who were directed to the CC from a certain top 25 med school who knew of the quality and rigor of the CC's courses.