Supplementary Classes: CC vs Universities

Question

Hey everyone. I'm planning on taking a class or two to boost my quant profile, and I'm curious if it makes much of a difference whether I take these courses (likely business calc and stats for business) at a community college. A number of prestigious universities have solid online course options, but those are about $3,500 whereas my local CC has courses for about $350. Do you think it makes a huge difference when we're talking about one class. Any one have experience with this?

abk · Answer

I talked to an admissions consultant who said that it was best to take well-known schools' online courses than local CC because the quality of CCs is so variable that it would be hard to quantify whether your A was really an A.

I've only started to research online courses, but it seems like UCLA is the cheapest school at about $555 a class. There are some self-study modules for $195, but I'm not sure if they are graded or not (and what it would look like on the transcript).

I really want to look in Coursera since it's free and Ross has an Intro to Finance class that's Pass/Fail... but then again, not sure how schools would receive this either.

chains1910 · Answer

Interesting, thanks for the info. Maybe I will reach out to the admissions offices at some target schools and get their opinions.

Thanks

Admissionado · Answer

Just take the local CC course. For "Extra coursework" nobody cares where you get your grade from, and there's no reason for you to spend all that extra money. Instead you can spend it on Admissions Consultancy

maxroper · Answer

Hi chains1910

While you are boosting your quant profile via math and stat classes, I suggest that you also consider boosting your leadership and community involvement profiles. These areas can be just as valuable to your overall application.

Participating in volunteer experience that challenge you professionally can elevate your profile. How about joining a non profit Board of Directors or consulting a struggling small business with its financial, operations, and marketing challenges?

Consider partnering with a volunteer organization such as SCORE, Net Impact, USALC, or Taproot. These orgs provide strategy consulting assistance to emerging organizations in need by structuring part-time projects for professionals like yourself.

Thank you & good luck,

Maxwell Roper
Outreach Director
USA Leadership Corps (USALC)
www usaLeadershipCorps org

chains1910 · Answer

Thanks for the insight Max. I'm not really lacking for extracurriculars as I have stayed involved with non-profit consulting through an undergrad club I was involved with, and I also have been president of my fraternity alumni chapter, but it might not hurt to get some quant focused consulting in. Thanks!

Supplementary Classes: CC vs Universities

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