I am trying to find all available online post-bacc programs. So far the only one I can find is at the University of New England . It looks good, I was just wondering what other options there are. I’m a mechanical engineer with four little kids at home, so going back to school full time is pretty much out of the question. So if anyone knows of other online programs, or has other suggestions, that would be great.
I would actually hesitate to recommend this to you. If things are just two hectic to take two prereq classes a semester (it’ll take you two years to finish your prereqs), I would wait until timing is better.
Post-baccs are pretty much meant to complete your prereqs that haven’t been completed during your undergraduate years. All the sciences are going to require labs, which pretty much require you to be in class and not online.
I know that once you get the dream you just want to start making it come to fruitation…but sometimes you need to sit back and realize that timing plays a lot into it. Don’t worry, medical school will still be here in a few years…enjoy your little ones young years, because once you start on the road, your time will be even more pressed.
thom,
First let me say I totally understand where you are coming from. In addition, I don’t want to be discouraging in anyway but… I have extensively talked to Med Schools, Adcom’s, and others and the ruling for online courses was not good. I was in a position that made it extremely painful to leave my job to return to school so I wanted to do the courses online as well. After much research here was the consensus.
Online courses ok/online science prereq’s not ok. Yes you can find them at places like UNE and CCConline as well as many other community colleges. However, the admission people I talked to said I would be at a severe disadvantage if I were to take my prereqs online compared to other applicants. Some schools were willing to take some of the classes online but the vast majority would not or strongly looked down on the idea.
So, I am sure it has been done and could be done but I believe you would be putting yourself at a big disadvantage and closing a lot of doors. If you are like a lot of us on the board you may be overcoming less than perfect previous track records. Maybe if you were a 4.0 student in every other way with a strong science background it wouldn’t matter but again the people I talked to convinced me enough that I am taking a job at half my previous salary to go back to school. This was a hard pill to swallow and took and lot of soul searching with my wife and consideration for our son.
Good luck whatever you decide to do and remember to take my words with a grain of salt as I am but a lowly premed.
Thom, as an ME, it may not take you 2 yrs to complete your prereqs. I assume you have physics I/II, calc, and probably g-chem 1, maybe g-chem 2. I am also an ME, and my prereqs will take 1.5 yrs. I did it with spring 1=biology 1 & test out of chem 1, summer 1=chem 2, fall 1=ochem 1 & biol 2, spring 2=ochem 2. (I had to redo the chemistries due to a weirdness with transfering my old credits).
Although people have poo-poo’d the online courses, I have taken biology on line. I think you are probably won’t have too much trouble with acceptance of online courses from a real, local school as opposed to some questionable online program (not that UNE is questionable, I have no idea). We had real labs that we had to come in for on Saturdays and only lecture was online. Nothing on my transcript shows that I was in the online section as opposed to the equiv on-campus section. Being honest, biology is 180 degrees from ME courses, so it may not be the best idea to take it online. . .I had a previous bio course as a freshman so it wasn’t all foreign to me. There just aren’t any derivation problems to do, which was a bummer!
I have half the kids you do, but otherwise, I have a fair idea of what you’re up against. My advice. . .try a night or online class through a local univ or CC (people here hate to recommend the CC, but I’m talking about 1 class to dip your toe in). See if you still are enthusiastic about this idea after a semester of juggling. The juggle (and poverty) will get worse in med school, so I am told, so I say test the water before making a rash decision to become a FT student.
Good luck!
[I should say I am speaking from my situation, with my stats, and my advisor. All others Beware. . .Interestingly enough the state med school which I hope to attend podcasts all their lectures so you can almost attend the first two yrs of med school online (minus labs), which could be why they aren’t against online prereqs.]
Ali makes a great point - so many schools are now doing online classes that they often consider them as equal to an on-campus course and don’t mark them as being different on a transcript. It might be worth your while to call UNE or other universities and ask if they consider these classes equivalent to on-campus courses and how they put them on their transcripts.
However, you may want to reconsider online courses as being an “easier” option. Other than the fact that you have a lot more flexibility in when to do your assignments, they may not be any easier. I have found that some online/branch/CC courses are actually more difficult than the equivalent class on campus - I think the non-main campus profs tend to have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder about people thinking their courses are easier, and thus sometimes go out of their way to make things harder.
I am a little concerned about the “going back to school full time is not an option” statement. Assuming you complete the pre-reqs and get accepted to medical school, what will change in your life/situation between then and now? I assure you that working more than a few hours here and there, a family and medical school are not compatible. In other words - if you aren’t able to make the commitment to go to school full-time now, will you be able to do it for medical school?
I want to reiterate that I am not trying to be unsupportive I just wanted to let you know my experiences from all the inquiries I made. This issue was a big deal for me and I really did not understand why I could not do them online. However, I am glad I checked with the particular programs that I’m interested in or it could have been 2 years of very hard work down the drain. I live in the Southeast and those are mostly the programs I check into if it makes any difference. Make sure when you call that you talk to an actual admissions person. In one case I got a response from and administrative person at a school that the online credit would be accepted and then was told by an Adcom at the same school that it would definitely ruin my chances.
Best of luck!
- Emergency! Said:
However, you may want to reconsider online courses as being an "easier" option. Other than the fact that you have a lot more flexibility in when to do your assignments, they may not be any easier. I have found that some online/branch/CC courses are actually more difficult than the equivalent class on campus - I think the non-main campus profs tend to have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder about people thinking their courses are easier, and thus sometimes go out of their way to make things harder.
I totally agree with this statement. I've a friend who had gotten her BS in Public Adminstration and took it all online...the girl was buried in work, and it wasn't easy either. I didn't see her for most of the semester this past spring because from the time she got home from work until she went back to work, she was doing some sort of research, writing or project.
- Emergency! Said:
I am a little concerned about the "going back to school full time is not an option" statement. Assuming you complete the pre-reqs and get accepted to medical school, what will change in your life/situation between then and now? I assure you that working more than a few hours here and there, a family and medical school are not compatible. In other words - if you aren't able to make the commitment to go to school full-time now, will you be able to do it for medical school?
From a lot of what I have read, medical schools really want to see that you can handle a full-load of classes before going to med school.
I just finished taking UNE online Medical General Chemistry I and it was one of the most difficult college courses I’ve taken (and I have well over 200 college credits in my lifetime between associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees). Even the instructor, who is excellent, said that the online version is more difficult than taking it in person in the classroom since you are essentially teaching yourself General Chemistry. Somehow I managed to get a B+ in the class, so I’m very happy. The instructor said that about 50% of the medical schools in the country accept their online chemistry and biology courses as prerequisites for med school and she said the # of accepting med schools is growing. The majority of med schools I’m looking into have said they would accept these courses and a few of them said they would accept a few community college courses as well.
I do hope that schools continue to move in this direction. I have done plenty of traditional classroom, online learning, and hybrid coursework and I believe they are all valid methods of instructions. Technology is changing as is the way we learn. As long as the knowledge can be tested and verified I don’t see how it matters in what format that knowledge was obtained.
I wish I could do that coursework online and keep my current job since the pay is better and I love what I do. Unfortunately all the schools I am looking at don’t seem as progressive as the one’s you have talked with.
One other potential pitfall I forgot to mention in my earlier post - letters of recommendation. Most medical schools want recent academic LORs from science professors. I would think that it would be far more difficult to get an outstanding LOR from a professor you’ve never met in person.
I do think that there will be more acceptance of online/hybrid classes in the future, but for the moment I think medical schools are generally pretty skeptical.
You’re right, I have all of my Chemistry, Physics and Calculus. I would only need Biology and O-Chem.
I guess I need to clarify my statement. Going back to school full time doesn’t seem like the best option because I only need Biology and O-Chem. Once I get accepted to medical school I’ll be able to apply for loans, grants, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not thinking this is some easy in to medical school, nor do I think these classes will be easy. It seems silly to go back to school full time when I’ll only be taking 8 credits a semester. I guess I could take other classes that aren’t required but would be helpful in medicine. Thanks for the feedback.
- Emergency! Said:
Ali makes a great point - so many schools are now doing online classes that they often consider them as equal to an on-campus course and don’t mark them as being different on a transcript. It might be worth your while to call UNE or other universities and ask if they consider these classes equivalent to on-campus courses and how they put them on their transcripts.
However, you may want to reconsider online courses as being an “easier” option. Other than the fact that you have a lot more flexibility in when to do your assignments, they may not be any easier. I have found that some online/branch/CC courses are actually more difficult than the equivalent class on campus - I think the non-main campus profs tend to have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder about people thinking their courses are easier, and thus sometimes go out of their way to make things harder.
I am a little concerned about the “going back to school full time is not an option” statement. Assuming you complete the pre-reqs and get accepted to medical school, what will change in your life/situation between then and now? I assure you that working more than a few hours here and there, a family and medical school are not compatible. In other words - if you aren’t able to make the commitment to go to school full-time now, will you be able to do it for medical school?
However, you may want to reconsider online courses as being an “easier” option. Other than the fact that you have a lot more flexibility in when to do your assignments, they may not be any easier. I have found that some online/branch/CC courses are actually more difficult than the equivalent class on campus - I think the non-main campus profs tend to have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder about people thinking their courses are easier, and thus sometimes go out of their way to make things harder.
I am a little concerned about the “going back to school full time is not an option” statement. Assuming you complete the pre-reqs and get accepted to medical school, what will change in your life/situation between then and now? I assure you that working more than a few hours here and there, a family and medical school are not compatible. In other words - if you aren’t able to make the commitment to go to school full-time now, will you be able to do it for medical school?
Wow, thanks for the info. I was planning on sending an email to the schools I am interested in to see if the credits would be accepted. I guess I’ll try to call and talk to someone who really knows. Great advice. Thanks.
- jjcnbg Said:
I want to reiterate that I am not trying to be unsupportive I just wanted to let you know my experiences from all the inquiries I made. This issue was a big deal for me and I really did not understand why I could not do them online. However, I am glad I checked with the particular programs that I’m interested in or it could have been 2 years of very hard work down the drain. I live in the Southeast and those are mostly the programs I check into if it makes any difference. Make sure when you call that you talk to an actual admissions person. In one case I got a response from and administrative person at a school that the online credit would be accepted and then was told by an Adcom at the same school that it would definitely ruin my chances.
Best of luck!
Best of luck!
Actually, between the lecture and lab portions of both biology and organic chem, it would be a pretty full schedule. So if you took both of them at the same time, even though the actual credits would be 8 (i.e. part-time), each lab is about 3 hours, so it is almost like you have 14 credits.
How long has it been since you’ve been in school?
- Krisss17 Said:
Actually, between the lecture and lab portions of both biology and organic chem, it would be a pretty full schedule. So if you took both of them at the same time, even though the actual credits would be 8 (i.e. part-time), each lab is about 3 hours, so it is almost like you have 14 credits.
Kris isn't kidding. . .it's a lot of time. I'm in class 4 nights per week now and with lab it's from 6-10 pm.
I reached my limit of stress this week, to the point where I almost said 'no mas' - no available time to do my hmwk + my office moving buildings + my parents moving (after 22 yrs & living on my block) + my son getting ready to leave his daycare he's been in his whole life to start kdgtn + planning a trip. This happens monthly, and then I catch up and feel good about this choice until the cycle repeats.
- In reply to:
I guess I need to clarify my statement. Going back to school full time doesn't seem like the best option because I only need Biology and O-Chem. Once I get accepted to medical school I'll be able to apply for loans, grants, etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm not thinking this is some easy in to medical school, nor do I think these classes will be easy. It seems silly to go back to school full time when I'll only be taking 8 credits a semester. I guess I could take other classes that aren't required but would be helpful in medicine. Thanks for the feedback.
Ah. That makes a little more sense, then. Definitely call the schools you are interested in and ask them about whether or not they will accept those courses.
I graduated in May of 2006, so it’s been three years.
- Krisss17 Said:
How long has it been since you’ve been in school?
- thom9446 Said:
I graduated in May of 2006, so it's been three years.
How long has it been since you've been in school?
- Krisss17 Said:
How long has it been since you've been in school?
Well, that isn't too bad... I would suggest if you are planning on taking organic chemistry soon that you review some of your general chemistry principles...acid/base, VESPR, molecular geometry...I did great in general chem but it has been a few years since I took it so I am using my summer to prep. For biology, I found that taking a survey class before the fundamentals course helped a lot.
Good luck to you!