First time poster here. I’m looking for a little advice on what school I should be applying to.
Some Background on me.
I’m 32 and returned to school after a 13 stint in the Navy; spending most of my adult life riding around in a steel tube designed to sink. After my last 6 month deployment (which I compare to 6 months of solitary confinement) to the Persian Gulf; I decided to leave the military and spend more time with my family and return to school. Since I transitioned out of the military I’ve done a bit of soul searching (and a taken quite a few aptitude test) and find that I’d do well in the medical field. My family is very supportive of my decision to return to school and pursue my dreams.
Living in the Seattle area, I have quite a few educational options.
I will be enrolling at the local C.C. to get my grades up.
Which school should I transfer to? UW-Seattle (which has the major I would like to pursue, Biological Anthropology) or Seattle Pacific (which brags about a 100% med school acceptance rate)
JBow,
Just wanted to say welcome and applaud your service to this great country of ours. That it was done in a “tube meant to sink” makes me anxious just thinking about it. Sending you a warm “high five” and a /salute from MN.
I would really encourage you to read up on what others say about CC classes. It gets reincarnated on this forum about every week in some variant vein. There is a lot to consider, and perhaps you already have.
Good luck to you in pursuing your dream!
I spent most of my time on submarines, I was one of the lucky ones who got to see the sun, through a periscope, but never the less I got to see the sun.
Salute!
From a former Army Brat, thanks!
Good luck on your journey. And feel free to do a search of my name. I’ve personally started quite a few of those cc. threads.
I’m also a veteran. The link below is to a posting I wrote about how to select a premedical college. While it was written as an answer to the community college versus the four year college debate, I think my recommended order of questions in selecting a school will be helpful for you to decide on what school on your list to choose from.
http://www.oldpremeds.org/fusionbb/showtopic.php?t…
Thanks for your insight. It definitely gives me something to think about.
One more question for all of you on the board.
Would taking Chemistry & Biology at the same time be overkill, That’s about all I have left aside from a course in Statistics and another Anthropology course before I transfer from CC to the University.
Thanks
It depends on whether the biology is heavily chemistry based and how solid your chem is.
For me, the biology class I’m registered for is chemistry based including high level organic chem and what-not.
One thing that helped me decide what to do was buy the books. I read each book’s first few chapters to see if I could comprehend the information, and answer the questions readily found at the end of the chapters.
You may not need to do that as I am tending to be overly analytical (read: fearful) of this journey I’m starting. However, I’d still suggest maybe checking out the books, see if they make some sort of sense to you, and make a decision from there.
It’s definitely doable depending on the other requirements on your time (job, family, etc). You may want to check the pre-reqs, though. At my school, chem 1 was a pre-req for the bio 1.
I’m transferring to UW soon, also from a CC. I thought about other local Universities, including SPU, but UW is a renowned for it’s biological science’s - I’m going into bioengineering. SPU has a great acceptance rate, but it’s not 100 every year - that happened once. The bigger schools have lower acceptance rates, partially because they have more students who are not totally committed. Its really about the applicant, not the school. If you pursue an undergrad that you are interested in, it will help your grades and make you a better applicant. Of course SPU is a quality school and has a lot of advantages - great premed advising, and premed support, clubs, etc. As an older student I don’t think these things would be as useful. Good luck. Try to get all A’s at the CC or it’s probably a mute point.
- Emergency! Said:
Emergency! is there any reason why OSU makes Chem 121 a prereq for Bio 113? Are there chem concepts that carry over to Bio 113 or is this simply done to weed people out.
In the U of M’s case, chem is a pre-req because a lot of the biology covered (ATP, polypeptide, polysaccharides chains, throw in the DNA, RNA, transport, etc) is chemically based. Think about the reactions taking place when a cell become carnivorous and eats another cell (cancer, for instance) - understanding the underlying concepts of chemistry will only build the knowledge base.
Last night the professor skimmed over the valence electron bonding pieces and I believe, those who do not understand why that is important, will struggle greatly when the protein (ala DNA) discussions come up later… but then again, what do I know!?
That, by the way, is from what I remember from 1982 when I took Biol the first time around… 27 years and I think, I still remember a thing or two!
Hugz - it was explained to me pretty much the way jkp explained it. My biology prof said that when he first started at OSU he had waived that requirement for a few people and for most of them it turned out to be a bad idea.
FWIW, the biology series is allegedly easier than the chemistry series at main campus.