University of Washington has reputable premed program OPINIONS WANTED

[sanantone]

Community Colleges generally are NOT looking to fail students. My daughter is taking CH 227, 228, and 229 (6 credits each with Lab) three straight at the University of Oregon and they BRAG about flunking 400 students this year in Sophomore CHEM alone.:ack: University does NOT mean a better education. It just reinforces my opinion that the UofO is a waste of time the first two years.banghead

It depends on why those students failed. A high pass rate also does not mean that the education was better. It could mean that the class was easier. I took statistics with an easy professor, but I felt unprepared for a more advanced statistics course and the comprehensive exam I had to take. I ended up studying the notes of a student who took stats with the more difficult professor with the higher fail rate. The reason why he had the higher fail rate was because his course was more quantitative and made heavy use of statistical analysis software whereas the other professor's course was more conceptual and only spent a day on statistical analysis software.

[jgbenjamin]

Thank you jsd: you seem to be following my posts around; should I put you on my friends list??
Secondly, my GPA is currently good (3.7). Is sociology a good fit for me as far as maintaining a college GPA of 3.7 (judging from the 60-equiv. of B I scored on the CLEP).

[Life Long Learning]

It can also be the arrogant Professors are really not good teachers. There is even a 20% grade spread between professors within the department for these same courses this year. The Professors blame the students for being dumb? A 1,000 students must be wrong?:ack: I do not buy the UO propaganda. The UO is a second rate freshman/sophomore grade institution.:puke: It is better as a junior/senior institution.:iagree:

It depends on why those students failed. A high pass rate also does not mean that the education was better. It could mean that the class was easier. I took statistics with an easy professor, but I felt unprepared for a more advanced statistics course and the comprehensive exam I had to take. I ended up studying the notes of a student who took stats with the more difficult professor with the higher fail rate. The reason why he had the higher fail rate was because his course was more quantitative and made heavy use of statistical analysis software whereas the other professor's course was more conceptual and only spent a day on statistical analysis software.

[sanantone]

It can also be the arrogant Professors are really not good teachers. There is even a 20% grade spread between professors within the department for these same courses this year. The Professors blame the students for being dumb? A 1,000 students must be wrong?:ack: I do not buy the UO propaganda. The UO is a second rate freshman/sophomore grade institution.:puke: It is better as a junior/senior institution.:iagree:

It could be bad teachers, or it could be low admissions standards. Some schools purposely have tough intro courses to weed out the students who won't do well in the UL courses. Community college courses do tend to be very easy because they accept everyone.

[Life Long Learning]

I have done both and they have poor professors. The best professor in my life was a Real Estate investing Professor at a CC. Fact, the top 4 of 5 were CC instructors NOT University Professors. I now have well over 550 SH in college credits. I have attended about 4 CC's and 4 Universities in 35-years and that was my experience in the 1980's at that same University. It is my daughter's same experience even now. I have other degrees from the old days (1980s).

I just attended last month a seminar at the University of Hawaii where they brought a UofO Professor expert in how to live in a low carbon World. He travels 5-hours every day (Portland to Eugene) round trip to teach. Says he doesn't drive a hybrid car....not an isolated case at this place!

It could be bad teachers, or it could be low admissions standards. Some schools purposely have tough intro courses to weed out the students who won't do well in the UL courses. Community college courses do tend to be very easy because they accept everyone.

[davewill]

... Fact, the top 4 of 5 were CC instructors NOT University Professors. I now have well over 550 SH in college credits. I have attended about 4 CC's and 4 Universities in 35-years and that was my experience in the 1980's at that same University. It is my daughter's same experience even now. I have other degrees from the old days (1980s). ...

No surprise there. A university professor's priorities are, in order, research and publication, their grad students, and lastly their undergrad classes. A community college professor's priorities are their students and staying employed. I have found that in CC, the instructors have teaching as a vocation rather than as a required facet of their academic career.

[Life Long Learning]

100% agree!:iagree:

No surprise there. A university professor's priorities are, in order, research and publication, their grad students, and lastly their undergrad classes. A community college professor's priorities are their students and staying employed. I have found that in CC, the instructors have teaching as a vocation rather than as a required facet of their academic career.

[sanantone]

It is true that research is not the #1 priority at research universities. Research and publication comes in at #1 while teaching comes in at #2. You can't really say if grad students are more important than undergrad students because some professors teach more courses to one than the other. If you're at a school with a lot of adjuncts, then the instructor's full-time job will be #1 while teaching is #2. Unfortunately, full-time jobs at community colleges are becoming rarer, so many of the instructors will be adjuncts. I've attended two traditional universities, three community colleges (actually more, but a few of those were in the same system), and two for-profit colleges. The for-profit colleges had the worst instructors, in my experience. The community colleges had good and bad instructors. Sometimes, the adjuncts would be unavailable because they had to travel out of town for work. The traditional universities had good and bad professors, but mostly good ones. There is only one professor in my PhD program known for being a bad teacher. A couple of them are mediocre, but most are good. In my online master's program at a traditional university, my professors got to know me because they worked full-time. My community college professors barely remembered me when I asked for letters of recommendation because they had so many students in a short period of time.

I taught at a for-profit school where they wanted us to do research and publish, but hardly anyone did because we didn't have time. We barely had time to prepare our lecture materials because we were always bogged down with meetings, making changes, and paperwork; but, this school was accredited by ACCSC which is horrible.

[Life Long Learning]

Is the research for the University (grant $$$, prestige, etc.) and publication for the Professor (make tenure, make full Professor, not get fired card)?

It is true that research is not the #1 priority at research universities. Research and publication comes in at #1 while teaching comes in at #2. You can't really say if grad students are more important than undergrad students because some professors teach more courses to one than the other. If you're at a school with a lot of adjuncts, then the instructor's full-time job will be #1 while teaching is #2. Unfortunately, full-time jobs at community colleges are becoming rarer, so many of the instructors will be adjuncts. I've attended two traditional universities, three community colleges (actually more, but a few of those were in the same system), and two for-profit colleges. The for-profit colleges had the worst instructors, in my experience. The community colleges had good and bad instructors. Sometimes, the adjuncts would be unavailable because they had to travel out of town for work. The traditional universities had good and bad professors, but mostly good ones. There is only one professor in my PhD program known for being a bad teacher. A couple of them are mediocre, but most are good. In my online master's program at a traditional university, my professors got to know me because they worked full-time. My community college professors barely remembered me when I asked for letters of recommendation because they had so many students in a short period of time.

I taught at a for-profit school where they wanted us to do research and publish, but hardly anyone did because we didn't have time. We barely had time to prepare our lecture materials because we were always bogged down with meetings, making changes, and paperwork; but, this school was accredited by ACCSC which is horrible.

[Prloko]

Will someone pls give me a recommendation for a univ that has a 50% or higher acceptance rate yet has a good academic standing for turning out students who pass the mcat??

jgbenjamin,

I'm going to level with you here. The great majority of members here including myself, are in no position to advise you on the best way to get into medical school. I don't know what HS you are attending, and I really don't need to know, but I know my nephew was in a prestigious school and they had real excellent staff that assisted their students and a great majority of them went Ivy League (including my nephew). If you do not have that sort of support, I recommend you find someone who does.

There are a few anecdotal examples of people doing great things with a degree from TESU, Excelsior, and COSC, but the vast majority have a degree that checks a box.

Seek out advise from someone in the know. You can start with your family physician. If they don't know, they can reach into their network to get you answers. And who knows, that may lead directly to someone on an adcom.