Do Medical Schools Accept Community College Credits

Aside from the ways already mentioned (GPA, MCAT, etc.), here’s what else you can do:

Do Medical Schools Accept Community College Credits? (Explained!)

Do medical schools accept community college credits?

Medical schools accept community college (CC) credits but you’ll also need a bachelor’s degree to be considered. As long as you transfer the credit over (or have an existing 4-year degree), it won’t matter. Your MCAT score is more important.

Of course, the real answer is a little more detailed. So we’ll dive into that in this article.

We’ll also cover:

• Which med schools accept community college credits
• How community college credit “looks” on an application
• What it’s like starting pre-med at a community college

As a med student and career changer myself, I know just how much of an important question this can be!

Ready to learn more? Let’s get started.

List of medical schools that accept community college credits

Almost all med schools will be open to receiving your application if you gained pre-med credit at community college. But there is one important caveat; you’ll need to have a bachelor’s degree.

So, unless you transfer the credits (those you got at community college) to the school you eventually end up earning your undergraduate degree from, you won’t be able to apply for med school.

Granted you do that, you’ll be fine to apply to any school.

Here’s who this most commonly applies to:

• People who’ve already attained bachelors (career changers etc.) but gone back to community college to take prerequisite classes
• People who started out at community college and later transferred to a 4-year college degree

To be 100% sure the school you plan on applying to will accept your community college credit, make sure you carefully check their requirements on the Medical School Admissions Requirements website (MSAR).

Although most will (at least on a case-by-case status), it’s always best to check with them first.

What about the top schools?

Yes, even the top schools will accept community college credits. They have the same admissions policy as all others. Your MCAT, your GPA, and your extracurriculars are what they’re going to pay the most attention to.

Does Harvard medical school accept community college credits?

Here’s what Harvard Med says itself about its admissions policy…

A limited number of required courses taken at an institution other than students’ degree-granting institution may be used to fulfill requirements, determined on a case-by-case basis. Students should make every effort to take the majority of required courses at the institution that will be conferring their degree. Required courses taken as part of a post-baccalaureate program of study do not need to be taken at students’ undergraduate institutions.

(Source)

Just as I’ve suggested above, they are willing to consider applications from anyone with community college credit on a case-by-case basis.

Note how they urge you to make the effort to do most of your prerequisites at the institution you do your bachelor’s.

Does UCLA medical school accept community college credits?

UCLA follows a similar line to Harvard.

There’s no explicit refusal to accept community college credit as long as you have studied 3 years minimum on your bachelor’s…

Successful applicants will have obtained a Bachelor’s degree from a US or Canadian institution by completing a minimum 3 years of undergraduate coursework…The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA does not evaluate specific prerequisite coursework. Instead, applicants are given the flexibility to demonstrate mastery of competency areas throughout their unique academic history.

(Source)

UCLA seems a little more flexible. You can expect this from most schools.

Does Community College look bad for medical school?

As for whether community college credits look bad for medical school, there are a few schools of thought…

1. Doing prerequisites at community college can look like you’ve taken the “easy road”
2. Lab work isn’t as reputable
3. They typically lack “pre-med support” (dedicated advisory teams)
4. The old stigma that CC students are “inferior” or “incapable”

Luckily that last one is dying out. Very few people, especially anyone on Adcoms (med school admissions councils), still believe that. Especially after a global pandemic and lots of students successfully studying online!

The real truth is there are a ton of students in med school who have community college credits to their name.

It hasn’t stopped them. Why should it stop you?

Note: med schools also want diverse applicants. Sometimes an untraditional route can work in your favor. Especially when it comes to your application essays and interview stories.

How to be competitive with community college credits

Obviously, that begs the question; how do you increase your chances of getting into med school with community college credits on your transcript?

Aside from the ways already mentioned (GPA, MCAT, etc.), here’s what else you can do:

• Try and take your “harder” prerequisite classes after transferring to 4-year undergrad (organic chemistry etc.)
• Get a ton of volunteer experience (or anything else that shows community and leadership-based skills)
• Shadow as much as possible
• Pick up any other clinical experience you can (EMT, scribing, etc.)
• Organize important programs/run events
• Network and acquire amazing letters of recommendation (LOR’s)

As a common criticism of community colleges is the fact they sometimes lack pre-med advisory services, doing all this is doubly important.

Starting pre-med at community college

Many community college courses will deliver the typical prerequisite med school courses just as well as any other school. Whether you decide to get credits there or not, you’ll still need to be at the top of your game to ensure you come out with the best grades.

But what you’ll also want to do, especially as you’ll be short on time later, is to start your pre-med preparations from day one.

The tips recommended above? Going to take some serious time to put together.

It’s best that you get started calling/emailing around clinics, hospitals, programs, etc. to see what you can get involved with while you’re still studying at community college.

Here are some extra tips that could help (especially if your community college has no advisory board to support you):

• Network with other pre med’s in your area (helps you keep on top of events and opportunities that could benefit your application)
• Learn how to study effectively (to maximize your chances of top grades)
• Don’t think for a second that community college credit will hold you back

If you’re a Harvard Med level applicant, you’ll get into Harvard Med!

Are there any doctors who started at community college?

Do a simple search and you’ll find tons of stories from doctors who started off at community college and later went on to med school.

Here’s a great video of a doctor who did just that, Dr. Francisco A. Solorio…

Can I go to medical school with an associate’s degree?

The quick answer here is no if this is the only degree you have. If you have a bachelor’s however, you can.

As mentioned before, no med school will let you matriculate (at least in the US) without that.

But it’s worth mentioning that you definitely can get into a med school outside of the US if you only hold an associate’s degree (or even no degree at all).

English-speaking European medical schools let students in these positions matriculate all the time on 6-year courses.

So it could be something worth looking at!

Final Thoughts

Community college doesn’t deserve the bad rep it gets in some circles. If it’s all you can manage, and there’s definitely no shame in that being the case, you can absolutely still get into med as long as you do all the right things.

Your credits transfer so focus on your MCAT, extracurriculars, and everything else.

Hopefully, this article has helped explain how.

If you enjoyed this article, you might find the following useful:

How Do Medical Schools View Transfer Students (Especially from Community Colleges)?

Learn how to approach your medical school application as a former transfer student or a community college alumnus

Introduction

Many students transfer during undergrad, and millions attend community college each year. If you’re a former transfer student or a community college alumnus, you probably know by now that you’re far from unusual. But if you’re applying to notoriously competitive medical schools, you may be nervous about how admissions committees will view your background.

You might be eager to get some numbers showing how applicants like you have fared before. That’s a little tough, since medical schools don’t generally release data about how many former transfer or community college students they accept. Some past research tells us that med school applicants who attended community college were 30 percent less likely than students who’d only attended four-year institutions to make it to medical school. The same data also showed that the more undergraduate institutions an applicant attended, the less likely they were to be accepted to medical school.

Don’t let those numbers scare you too much, though. While they do directly address the question of how medical schools view former transfer or community college students, the data are also from 2014, and many med schools have since increased commitment to admitting students from diverse backgrounds.

In this guide, we’ll cover how to make the most of your time as a premed undergraduate, regardless of how many or what kind of institutions you’ve attended, and how to address your background as a transfer student within your medical school applications. We’ll discuss turning your educational history into a strength, rather than a weakness.

Transferring from community college to a four-year college as a premed student

Will medical schools accept premedical requirements taken at community college?

Yes. Most medical schools will accept or recognize any premedical requirements you take at your community college, as long as these courses are accepted by the undergraduate institution you transfer to.

But keep in mind that most medical schools prefer that you complete the bulk of your premed courses at a four-year college or university (for example, see the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s policy and BUSM’s policy). Medical schools want to be sure that you’re academically prepared for those rigorous pre-clinical years. This means you should try to take as many of your premed courses as possible at a four-year institution, especially your upper-level courses. You can also demonstrate your preparedness through a strong MCAT score.

Some medical schools have differing policies about accepting community college courses. UC Irvine only accepts upper-division biology taken at an accredited four-year-institution, while Yale accepts community college courses so long as they include labs and are comparable to what’s offered at a four-year institution.

Check out the specific policies of your wish-list medical schools now, well ahead of the application process and even before your final years of college, so that you can make a plan to complete all the coursework you need.

Is it okay if my grades drop after I transfer?

While the coursework at your community college is likely rigorous, transferring to a new undergraduate institution can still be challenging. You’re navigating an unfamiliar campus, developing relationships with classmates and faculty, trying extracurriculars, and taking on upper-level coursework all at once (not to mention managing potential work and family commitments). While balancing everything can be overwhelming, we advise you to devote as much energy as possible to maintaining or improving a stellar GPA.

It’s also not a good idea to intentionally enroll only in “easy” courses in hopes of gaining higher grades after transferring. But you also don’t want to take on so much high-level coursework in your first semester as a transfer that your grades drop.

Admissions officers will want to see both a high GPA and evidence that you were able to adjust to upper-level coursework at your four-year college or university. Choose rigorous courses—just not so many that your grades decline. If you’re concerned about making good choices with your schedule, seek help from your university’s advising offices—there may even be an administrator or mentor assigned to help transfer students settle in.

After transferring, how do I improve my resumé or CV to be competitive for medical school admissions?

Students who attend only one undergraduate institution can spend four years building a role within an extracurricular or community organization, research group, or local hospital.

But you can also immerse yourself in extracurricular and service opportunities in just two years. If you’re planning on transferring, get a good look at the premed offerings at the four-year colleges you’re considering. Research them carefully and arrive on campus with a sense of a few volunteer or clinical opportunities that appeal to you. In your first semester, as you settle into a new academic routine, try to choose one additional extracurricular activity to balance your schedule out. Once you’re fully at home at your new institution—including having a strong set of first semester grades—you can bulk that up.

Are there any advantages to having started my premed journey at community college?

Definitely! You might have attended community college to save money, to balance supporting a family, or to give yourself more time to choose your academic pursuit. Consider your time at a two-year college as part of your story—which you’ll have a chance to convey in your AMCAS personal statement—rather than as a weakness.

In addition to considering how your community college background shapes you personally, ask yourself how it might shape your professional outlook. Might your time at community college set you up to be a more community-minded doctor later in life?

One study found that doctors who’d attended community college were more likely to practice medicine in underserved communities than doctors who’d never attended community college. Another study found that students who attended community college before medical school were more likely to eventually practice family medicine than their peers. These two studies show how many community college students go on to be doctors who support populations in need.

If those studies sound like you, know that your background is far from a disadvantage. In fact, it’s a strength you can draw on as you write your essays and attend interviews.

Your time at community college or multiple colleges will likely give you more access to diverse communities compared with students who only attend one four-year institution. This can positively inform your future work as a doctor, no matter your eventual specialty.

So, how do medical schools view community college transfers overall?

There’s no simple answer to this question, because the admissions policies and views of medical schools can vary. (That’s, in fact, exactly what Sunny Gibson, the director of the office of diversity and community partnership at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University said in response to a community college student asking just this question.)

But if you prove yourself to be an academic standout and involved community member at both your community college and the institution you transfer to, admissions officers will recognize your achievement and readiness for medical school.

You can reflect on your educational path in either your personal statement or your secondary essays. You’ll also want to be prepared to speak to your transfer experience in your medical school interviews. Ideally, you can show admissions officers how transferring from one college to another gave you the same tools you will need to handle the transition to medical school, and from medical school to residency.

Final thoughts

If you are, will be, or were a transfer student, feel confident about applying to medical school. Not only do you have a great chance of finding a medical school that is right for you, your background may actually provide an edge in the admissions process. Rest assured that your specific educational experiences will serve you throughout medical school and into your eventual career as a physician.