<p>this is my 3rd year of college and i started off wanting to do criminal justice. i decided to do management and did 1 semester of it. then i decided i wanted to do criminal justice again. i was planning on doing 4 years but i need an extra year in order to obtain enough credits to graduate (5 years total). the courses i've taken are mostly criminal justice and some management classes. i go to umass boston and there are 4 categories to fulfill: general education, diversity, major, electives. i have 0 hours completed for bio major if this makes any sense.</p>
<p>is it too late for me to become a bio major? would i have to do another 3-4 years of college?</p>
<p>You’re probably not going to be graduate on time since you’ve basically started over twice (right?) If you want to graduate fairly quickly, you might need a heavier courseload than you might like so that you can get through your requirements as quickly as possible. Is there a reason why you can’t ask your college counseling center for help?</p>
<p>the bio requirements will be something like: 2 semesters of gen chem, 2 semesters of organic chem, 2 semesters of calc based physics, 2 semesters of a general bio course, 1-2 semesters of molecular/cell bio, 1-2 semesters of calc, biostatistics, and then a certain number of more specialized classes (such as anatomy, physiology, genetics, neurobio, microbio, etc)</p>
<p>i’d say you’re looking at another 2.5-3 years of college. talk to your advisors or someone from the bio dept I guess.
you’ll probably have to do summer classes if you want to finish asap.</p>
<p>@soccerguy315
biology has always been my favorite subject. senior year of highschool i wanted to do biomed engineering (i still do but it’s way too late) and i figured biology is the closest thing to it. </p>
<p>i couldnt get into the college i wanted because i slacked off so much in highschool and had no motivation whatsoever. i just wanted the easiest route which is criminal justice, but now i realize (pretty late) i’m building my career and i wanna be happy about it</p>
<p>You have to ask yourself if it’s worth it. If you seriously don’t think you’d be happy spending the rest of your life working in criminal justice, then go ahead and switch.</p>
<p>The way I see it, 3-4 more years of college is definitely annoying, but it’ll seem like nothing when you’re done and start working – compared to graduating on time and hating your career.</p>
<p>If you overload credits and do maximum summer classes, you could probably finish in two more years.</p>
<p>Funny, because I am a senior biology major and I really would like to switch my major (A little too late now, though). I can tell you, though, that bio is a difficult major and I doubt you’d be able to overload your units too much to speed of the graduation date. </p>
<p>But, you are also very right. You are building your career and you should be happy with your choice. An extra year or two shouldn’t stand in the way of that. </p>
<p>Also keep in mind that biology is a lucrative career path. For the most part, you won’t even be considered with just a bachelors. A masters or a PhD is really where it starts. Could you finish your first major and come back for a masters in biology in the same amount of time or less? </p>
<p>House of London and Woofles have a good point. If you are almost done with your criminal justice major, it might be worth to finish that degree and take as many bio and calc/physics/chemistry courses on the side as your schedule allows. Then you could invest the extra time into a Master’s degree in biology instead of your undergraduate degree. This option has several advantages: you would get a higher degree for your time and you would have a chance to try biology before you make a commitment.</p>
<p>On the other hand, you indicated that you will need another two years to finish your undergraduate degree anyway. If finishing the criminal justice major feels like a bigger burden than meeting all of the requirements for a biology major, changing majors might be worthwhile. You can go over your options at your advising meeting.</p>
<p>im considering what Woofles mentioned. maybe i should get my bachelors in criminal justice and then get my masters in biology. what kind of career options do i have with that? also how long does it take to get a masters?</p>
<p>i mentioned before i wanted to do biomedical engineering. since it’s probably much too late for that, maybe i can do biomedical researching with a biology degree? i read this “In some fields, such as molecular biology, obtaining a Masters degree may actually make you less competitive for subsequent application to Doctoral programs. Many of the best programs in biomedical research no longer offer M.S. degrees.”</p>
<p>In some science fields it is not as common to get a Master’s degree first. Students with an undergraduate degree in that field are encouraged to enroll straight into a PhD program, and doing a Master’s degree first sometimes implies that one was not admitted to a PhD program initially (which are more competitive because there is more funding). </p>
<p>That is bad for students who should be prepared to enter straight into a PhD program, but not at all surprising for career changers. Of course you would not be qualified to enter a PhD program in biology with an undergraduate degree in criminal justice. Graduate admissions committees will know that you got the Master’s degree to acquire the necessary background for a PhD program and would not hold that against you.</p>
<p>Your bachelors wouldn’t define your career options if you got a master’s in an entirely different field. What I mean is, just because you got a bachelors in criminal justice doesn’t mean you’re stuck in a forensics lab if you get a master’s in biology.</p>
<p>I have never heard of a master’s being a disadvantage to getting your PhD. Maybe there is some time lost in that route, but every single one of my professors did the bachelors, then masters, then doctorate route. But then again, it seems you have done a good amount of research on this, so don’t take my word for it.</p>
<p>@Woofles: In most PhD programs, students are given a Master’s degree after 1-2 years in the program, after they have completed classes and taken all the exams - that way, even if they don’t successfully defend their disseration, they will still have an MS/MA. I’m sure lots of your profs enrolled in a PhD program right after getting their Bachelor’s, and simply got an MS/MA in the process.</p>