I am in the Air Force stationed overseas and am trying to complete my Pre-reqs for application to medical school. Unfortunately I have no option to take these courses in a class room setting. I was wondering if anyone knew of any schools that offered these courses entirely online. I have been unsuccessful in finding any in my searches but have noticed that some Medical schools are beginning to accept credit from distance programs for the pre-reqs (although contacting those schools yielded no information on distance programs). Any help or guidance would be appreciated!
Which classes in particular? I don’t think you can do the entire class online because of the lab. There has to be a lab component to your prereqs and those have to be done in vivo at a college/university.
The schools in Maryland have quite a number of the prereq lectures online but the labs have to be completed at the university. I don’t see anyway around it.
Actually I’m working on getting my bachelors degree online (University of Maryland, to be exact), but for the prereqs I’m taking them at the community college (great science department) close to where I live. I think for the prereqs it is better to take these classes face to face. Also, since many schools require you to get LORs from science professors, face to face will help in that way as well.
Since I am very interested in PBL, I actually think that receiving my Bachelors degree online will be a plus because it will hopefully show the adcoms that I’ve the self-discipline to handle the PBL curriculum. Since I will be working full-time along with going to school, I’m hoping that it’ll work in my favor.
Krisss17
I am begining to think you are right. I need to complete Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Organic Chem. I know they all need labs and have not been able to find anything replicating that online.
You should check out UCLAs online course offerings, they have a wide selection, maybe even some with labs? Just search their website,
Good luck
I spinned my wheels before with that and it just ain’t gonna happen. You would have to find a school that offers an online component and then has an agreement with a local school to allow you to participate in the lab. I don’t see that happening. Even with all the educational oppurtunities for military members there isn’t a school that I found that offers an online science course and an online lab. Thinking about it for a moment, how would an online lab work? I have science books with virtual labs where you conduct the experiment but that’s not the same thing. That equivalent to playing profootball online and thinking that you can do the same thing in real life.
Caveman, take classes that will keep you in the books but are not necessarily science. Perhaps a bunch of math classes or anything that you find interesting would help. Just classes that keep your engine revving. Too much time away from school and it takes a while to get over the inertia.
Perhaps you can use this time, if you’re not already in the medical field, to shadow as many doctors as you can.
Thanks for the suggestions. I think I will do that. I am working on finishing up a Masters in Finance right now so after I finish that I think I will take some online science classes just to get back into that mindset. I wanted to avoid having to get out of the military to take the pre-reqs but don’t think that is going to possible! I think the best course of action is to get out and perhaps do one of the post-bacc programs I have read about and then try and get back in after hopefully being accepted to med school. Again thanks for the help!
Getting out to do prereqs is the way to go. You’ve done your time. Now get yours and if you want go back in the military it isn’t going anywhere. i don’t know though…civilized life is really sweeeet. 