I’m changing my major half way through my time at community college, and as a result, haven’t completed any of the requirements for the new area of study. I need 2 semesters of Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Physics. I’d like to be able to do this in just two semesters, but I don’t know if it’s really all that practical. I don’t want to spend anymore time at community college than I have to, but I don’t want my grades to suffer because I’m trying to rush through stuff. On top of this, I anticipate working full time.
I guess my real question is: How should I break up these classes? Go for it all at once or spread it out over three of four semesters? If you think I should spread it out, how should I pair the classes?
I’d really appreciate any advice on the best way to do this, so thanks for stopping to give this a read.
Is chemistry a prerequisite for organic chemistry? If so, are you allowed to take them concurrently? Do you have any experience with these subjects before or will they be essentially brand-new?
I’ve taken three lab courses in a quarter before, and the main problem was just the amount of time I had to spend in the lab. There were more hours in the day dedicated to in-lab work, and then I had to write lab reports and such outside of lab. Four lab courses at my school would have been really difficult mainly because it would just be hard to work out a schedule where the lab sections didn’t conflict.
I would say if you have experience in the subjects already and just need the credits so you can transfer, then it’ll probably be okay to take them all at once (provided you can schedule them all in). If these are subjects where most of the material will be brand-new, then it might be better to break them up. Also, if you know you will have other commitments, like a part-time job, clubs, volunteering, family obligations, etc, then it might be better for you to break them up.
If you do break them up, I would recommend take chemistry the first two semesters and follow it up with organic chemistry the next two semesters, since general chemistry is often a prerequisite for organic chemistry. Biology and physics can go in whichever order you prefer.
IMO, it is unrealistic to take all of the classes, get strong grades and work full-time, but I suspect that the first problem will be the one that @baktrax identifies: scheduling. If you are strong in science generally AND you have the option, I would suggest Bio + Chem then Physics + Organic, but irl it will probably be what you can schedule.
Summer, btw, can be your friend IF your full-time job is time flexible, b/c courses are often offered 5 days / week, so you can get through 2 semesters in a summer.
Sounds like you are changing to premed? Or prepharmacy, but that usually requires less physics.
I assume you already covered the English requirement, also math? You probably need Calc 1 and 2 as well.
I would not take more than two science classes with lab at once, that alone is 8 credits and together with other classes and time commitment with lab time and lab reports, barely possible. So it will take 2 years, not 2 semesters.
If med school is in the future, will they accept prerequisites taken at community college?
I completely missed the part where you said you would be working full-time. I definitely would not recommend taking four lab classes at once if you will also be working 40+ hours a week. I just can’t imagine that you would have enough hours in a day to go to all of the lectures, labs, and your job and then still have time to go home do your lab reports and study. Not to mention if you want to do anything extra like go to office hours or a study group.
I think anything is possible, but I would only recommend trying it if you are a science whiz and have prior experience with the subjects (perhaps you took an AP course or previously took one of these courses and the credits won’t transfer for whatever reason so you have to retake) so much of the matrial will be new. If all of the material is brand new, I wouldn’t recommend taking them all at the same time and working full time unless you’re willing to take a potential hit to your GPA.
Labs add a considerable amount of time commitment to the class. The in-class lab time can be as much as the in-class lecture/discussion time, and preparing for and writing up the lab can take up a similar amount of time as other class assignments.
What you want to do is not possible - you need to take bio1 and chem 1, then bio2&chem 2, then organic chemistry, as a sequence. Organic chemistry is a killer so I would strongly advise you take no hard classes at the same time. Your schedule would be: winter quarter bio&chem 1, spring quarter bio&chem2, summer physics 1, physics 2, then fall quarter organic chem.
You’d have 3h class, 3h lab 2h lab report, 6-8h homework, per science class. If you work full time and your job allows you to have two afternoons off for lab plus two mornings for class - could be the same day - then doing 2per quarter would okay. 3 or 4 per quarter would not be feasible because of the sequence needed and the time commitment.
Thanks for all the help! Not pre-med, just your average science major. I figured I would have to break it all up, but I was holding out hope, since I dread the idea of having to stay at CC another year. Oh well, gotta do what you gotta do.
DO NOT DO IT
Since you are changing majors and apparently starting all over with the science major, it is to be expected for it to take longer. These are very time consuming and hard classes. Not to be rushed. You need a good GPA to transfer to university later, or to be competitive for a professional program.