Medical Education US

[kvmw17]

Hi!
I'm a high school senior and planning on going to medical school in the future. I basically have two choices for next year. I can either go to San Fransisco state university which i have already been accepted to OR I can go to community college. I'm kinda stuck between these two choices and have no idea what to do...
Honestly speaking, I didn't try very hard in high school and applied to the less prestigious california state universities such as sf state.
I was thinking about going to cc for 2 yrs and transferring to a more prestigious UC like Berkley or Davis.
basically what I'm trying to ask is, which choice will give me a better chance at getting accepted into a good medical school? I know GPA and MCATs play the most important role in acceptance but does where you go to school matter? I've heard that going to cc looks bad- like your taking the easy way out...
But, lets say in the near future, if i do get accepted into Berkley or Davis after cc, will it look better than going to sf state for a full 4 yrs??

Thanks in advance!

[DrDave]

If you do well at community college, it probably won't hurt that much, assuming you can actually get into a good university. Although, you shouldn't / can't take adequate pre-med level science classes at a community college, so you'll wind up needing to take those courses after you transfer and that'll push back when you can apply to medical school. I think community college may make sense if cost is a major factor - as you can always explain that as a valid reason when you apply to medical school.

If your concern is going to a less prestigious school (not so much the cost issue) - my suggestion would be to go to that less prestigious school, and if you do extremely well, you can then transfer to a better school part way through. You'd have at least as good of a chance of transferring from a mediocre 4 year college as you would from a community college (at least I think that should be the case even though I don't know that for a fact).

As to whether it is better to go to a mediocre school for 4 years vs 2 years at community college and 2 years at a great school, I'd say that the latter would probably be better (but not for the reasons you'd think). As I mentioned above, I don't think you'd be able to get all the pre-med courses done those last 2 years and apply to medical school right away. I have no real evidence to support my opinion, but my thought is that in order to get into a great school after 2 years of community college, you'd have to have done extremely well those 2 first two years. I'm not sure how tough it is to get into Berkley or Davis coming from a community college (or even a mediocre 4 year university for that matter) but I'd guess it'd be tough. I would think it'd be tougher to get into those schools as a transfer than it would be to get into a mediocre 4 year school, thus, you'd have to have proven yourself in order to have taken that route.

So - just my opinions. I'd talk to a college advisor for more experienced thoughts.