<p>^^^^^The BS Arch still requires four years of studio design. Also transfer requests must include a portfoloio.</p>
<p>See this quote from the department:
"Transfer admission to architecture is extremely competitive. Applicants must submit an application to The Pennsylvania State University, Undergraduate Admissions Office, 201 Shields Building, University Park, PA 16802, by December 31, 2011, for admission for fall 2012. A portfolio and college transcript must be submitted to the Architecture Department, 121 Stuckeman Family Building, University Park, PA 16802, between January 1 and February 15, 2012. Questions about the portfolio should be directed to the Architecture Department: (814) 865-9535. </p>
<p>The portfolios will be evaluated by a committee of faculty members from the Department of Architecture. Recommendations from the committee will be forwarded to the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and the final decision to admit the applicant will be made by the Admissions Office. </p>
<p>In all cases, students selected via this process must understand that the program requires four years of design in order to complete the Bachelor of Science pre-professional degree program and an additional fifth year of design in order to complete the Bachelor of Architecture professional degree program. It is not possible to accelerate by taking make-up work during the summer session or by scheduling two design courses in a single semester."</p>
<p>I’ve contacted the Arch dept and the advising office. They both said if accepted for a later semester, I would probably be a year behind and that is a 5-year program to start, and if I’m going to submit a portfolio for the architecture major next spring, then very few of the first year’s courses will work toward the major, but there are a number of courses only available to those already in architecture,which would not be available to me until the second year. Since I just found my passion in architecture during the last 6 months , I 'm not quite sure whether I should persist in this obsession by now.</p>
<p>Just because the process is difficult, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Just realize that you may be taking a bit more financial risk by extending the length of your college career. I did that, and I think it was well worth it, considering what I learned my 4th and 5th years, compaired to what I learned from my 1st to 3rd years in the traditional path.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t advise sticking around at Penn State (or any other college) for more years unnecessarily, but if you know architecture’s what you want to do, it’d be a bad idea not to pursue that path just because of the extra year(s). If you know what you want do whatever it takes to get it.</p>
<p>That being said, make sure you don’t waste the extra time and money. If you know you’re going to have a few extra semesters, try and find a minor or two or second major that you find interesting or you think will help you in the future and add it on. Tuition’s the same regardless.</p>
<p>finneSu - one more thing. You can ALWAYS go to grad school and get an MArch degree with any undergrad degree. (PSU, unfortunately, does not have an accredited MArch degree) The length of time you would take to get your MArch is dependent on your undergrad program, but the end result is still a professional architectural degree. MArch programs range from 1.5 years to 3.5 years - it’s primarily determined by how much studio time you spent in undergrad (and the grad school in question).</p>
<p>finneSu, You might want to ask what the admission rate for transfers typically is; I suspect the number is pretty low. If you are truly passionate about architecture you might consider taking a gap year, seeing if you can find work in the field (paid or otherwise, are you proficient at CAD?) and reapplying as a freshman to PSU and perhaps some other schools as well. Better to delay one year than spend considerable time and money doing something that you are not really interested in. That would also give you time to get a portfolio together (many schools require one for freshman applicants).</p>
<p>You stated that you applied to medical school. By majoring in bmb, did you still take bio 110 and bio 230 or 240 sequence to fulfill your general biology requirement for applying to medical because I read somewhere that the courses in the bmb major will fulfill those requirements even though bio 110, 230 or 240 are not required classes for the bmb major. Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>I took Biol 110 but that’s because I spent my first semester planning on being a biology major. You should not need to take BIOL 110, 230, or 240 as a BMB major applying to medical school.</p>
<p>For example, BMB 252H was one of the best classes I had at PSU. It was with Ola Sodiende (highly recommended professor!) The class was moderately harder than regular 252 based on what I heard, but the grade distribution was still definitely skewed towards As and high Bs.</p>
<p>BMB 402H was hell on earth. Not recommended at all, because the additional level of detail covered in this class does not actually aid your understanding of anything. It merely requires you to memorize (memorization in its purest form!) more pathways, structures, and enzyme names than the lucky people who chose to take regular 402. Even so, the grading was generous. Anyone who put in significant effort in the class got an A or A-.</p>
<p>A random 400-level honors Geography class I took as a gen ed was awesome, easy but interesting, and had generous grading.</p>
<p>Trends for honors courses:</p>
<p>Written exams instead of multiple choice (much harder in some circumstances!)</p>
<p>Lots more effort required (especially since the class is small and the professor actually knows how much work each student is putting in)</p>
<p>You get to know your class well and have a great interactive experience</p>
<p>Often far more generous grading than the regular sections of a course AS LONG AS you put in the extreme amount of time and effort demanded of you. Professors are more likely to adjust grades upward based on their opinion of you in honors courses while regular courses tend to stick to the precise calculated grade.</p>
<p>All in all, I’d recommend taking a couple honors courses or so for classes that you think sound very interesting. They’re a good experience. Just make sure to ask around for people’s assessments of the course and professor so you don’t end up taking the wrong one.</p>
<p>Hello. I heard that one don’t have to take calculas-based physics if that person majors in the Molecular and Cellular Biology option. If that is true, does that mean you have to take calculas at all? If one can skip the option of taking calculas, would it hurt his/her chances of getting into a top college for graduate school if that college saw that person didn’t take calculas?</p>
<p>I was wondering if you think know if many of the textbooks are available on ipads…oh, and sometimes my daughter will post on either my or my husband’s user id:)</p>
<p>All BMB majors, regardless of option, must take MATH 140 and MATH 141, which are Calc I and II.</p>
<p>I don’t know the details of graduate admissions other than medical school, but if your goal is to go to grad school and become a biological or physical scientist it would be a mistake not to acquire as strong a quantitative background as possible. It can only help you in the future.</p>
<p>nitnat:</p>
<p>Not sure of the details of e-textbooks. They came out my last few semesters and I thought they were overpriced and quite a ripoff. They weren’t that much cheaper than the actual books! Buying used books online (off Amazon, etc) is the best way to go in terms of value. Plus, while an iPad or Kindle may be great for books for reading (novels and even fluffier textbooks) I think it’s much easier to work with paper science and math textbooks.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. Also, what is the difference between a BMB and a Molecular and Cellular bio major? I know the difference in subjects, but most of the classes for both of their four year plans seem very to almost exactly similar. My plan is to get a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology, but would it be better for me to go for the Biochemistry route as I would probably get a stronger understanding in Physical Chemistry and physics (as the BMB four year plan shows I would have to take more physics and Physical Chemistry courses).</p>
<p>Penn State does not have a “Molecular and Cellular bio major.”</p>
<p>There is the biology major which has a variety of options, none of which really focus on molecular/cellular biology.</p>
<p>Within the BMB major, there are two options: the Biochemistry Option and the Molecular and Cell Biology Option. I think what you were referring to was the Molecular and Cell Biology Option of the BMB major. Obviously the options focus on different areas. This is most evident if you look at the upper-level (400 level) courses required by each of them. The Biochemistry option also has more rigorous physics and chemistry requirements, as you also noticed.</p>
<p>When it comes to deciding between the options, obviously your interest should be the primary factor if you already know whether you are more interested in biochemistry or molecular biology. Personally, I think it would be very hard to have enough exposure to each of these areas at this point to know with any certainty which you are interested in.</p>
<p>That being said, I am biased towards the line of thinking you mentioned when it comes towards developing a strong background in physical chemistry and physics. I did not have to choose an option because the major did not have options and only had one set of requirements for my entering year. If I had to go back and choose from the current set of requirements, I would do the molecular biology option but choose to take the more rigorous courses required in the biochem option (PHYS 211/212/213/214, CHEM 450/452). I find molecular biology quite a bit more interesting than biochemistry but really appreciate the background I got from all these more difficult courses and wouldn’t want to give that up.</p>