Prerequisites & Community College

I love the Fall. This picture has nothing to do with my post except that I started my road to prerequisites about this time last year in the Fall.

It was a plenty painful process to get my prerequisites completed. I did my undergraduate degree in apparel and textile management so I had a lot of catching up to do - I had to take 2 A&P, 2 Chemistry, 2 Physics, 2 Psychology classes. I took all these classes at a community college. It was $190/credit. At CUNY's (City University of NY), it was $280/per credit. At private schools, its about $1000/per credit. If you have to take prerequisites, take it at a community college. PT schools put more weight in overall GPA and prerequisites GPA than which school you attended. Unless you attended an ivy league school, they take that into account when looking at your GPA.

Some schools won't accept prerequisites that were taken more than 10 years ago. If you took it say 11 years ago (I would even push this if you took it 12 years ago), I would ask one of the counselors if they would accept it (bring your transcript and be prepared with your overall GPA). If you were generally a good student 3.0 and above, some schools will let it slide - make sure you get it in writing if they approve the use of a course. Never hurts to ask. I took a biology class just over 11 years ago. The director at one of the PT programs approved it as one of my prerequisites. Saved me $720 at community college and a semester's worth of work! Please note that I have more than a 3.5 GPA and went to an ivy league so this might have helped.... but boyyyy was I happy that I asked. Then I went to other schools with this information and generally they accepted it as well. I'm not guaranteeing anything but give it a whirl. You never know!