Community College Courses

[mw199618]

Hello! I graduated with my BA in 2018 and I do not plan on applying to grad school for 1-2 years. I have a full-time job in government relations. I am currently enrolled in some community college courses just to keep my brain sharp and to learn about new topics. Has anyone also done this and utilized this experience for their grad school applications? I am under the impression that good grades from these courses will not necessarily boost my application, but that poor grades will harm it. Has anyone mentioned community college courses in their statement of purpose?

[Westpolicy]

Some schools have areas where you can add transcripts for these classes.  Some programs also have sections where you can explain what you took.  I think good grades help especially if you are going to a program that is quant heavy or requires the GRE/  stats/ Econ/ calc classes in their program.  That is if you are taking these types of classes at community college and show you have a good grade/ know the material.
 
You might also look into programs you are interested in and attend virtual sessions / read online material to see what will help you with your admission to the program.  Even if you aren’t interested in applying for 1-2 years attending these sessions may help you determine if the program is the right fit.  Many top public policy degrees want to see you know how to do quant.  

[IndominusTaco]

I'm about 2.5 years out of undergrad and took Calc 1 at my local community college this past summer to beef up my quant skills a little bit for MPP applications I'm putting in now. I'm applying without GRE scores and didn't take a lot of math classes in undergrad so I wanted to at least have something to show that I'm preparing for MPP coursework despite my background. I knew going into the class that I had to get an A, so I did.