Biology degree, military

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I've read through this section quite a bit and noticed that my situation is a lot different than most other posters.
I graduated high school long ago and went to a community college out of my own pocket. I received about 75 credits before I ran out of money. I've wanted a degree in biology for a long time. I actually want to teach with it at a community college level, and possibly a university level later on.
After I ran out of money, I decided the only way I would ever get my degree would be to join the military. That's what I did. My four years is up at the beginning of June.
This puts me in a very different situation.
My grades were decent in community college, 3.6ish average GPA. My grades in high school were terrible, and I took the SAT back when it was still 1600 points. I never studied for it. I can go to almost any school I want financially. Even more costly schools aren't out of my reach if they participate in the yellow ribbon program. Using the GI bill, I can get in-state tuition rates anywhere. I receive no money unless I'm actively taking classes, even for living expenses. I've been financially independent for years now, I don't know how that effects things like the FAFSA and grants. I'm also married.
I don't care about school size or location, I just want to make sure that I get a quality education.
I have had my eye on UCSD for a while. I'm from San Diego, and although I would willingly go anywhere except heavy snow areas, my wife loves it in SD and my family is there. UCSD only takes students in during November. That means that from June until November I would have an income of 0. While I can possibly make this work, that's a lot of compromise that I am not willing to make.
I'm now trying to find other schools with a great biology program that will work better with my payment method. I can leave the military up to around two months early if it will help with scheduling.
What suggestions would you guys make for me? I've tried tools like SuperMatch College Search and other similar ones, but most of the categories I just don't care about. It doesn't narrow things down for me at all.
Besides quality of education, I guess the next most important thing to me would be scheduling, location and then the overall 'feel' of the college. The location can be anywhere that doesn't experience heavy snowfall. I have a car that I love too dearly to lose to rust. Shallow? Yeah, maybe. Everyone has different priorities, though. </p>

<p>Any input that any of you have I would really appreciate!</p>

2

<p>You should look for colleges whre you can get undergraduate research experiences.</p>

<p>NSF puts out the undergraduate colleges that produce the most PhD’s. In Life Sciences it is Reed College, Swarthmore, Harvey Mudd, Univ Chicago, MIT, Kalamazoo, Carleton, Haverford and Grinnell. </p>

<p>Food for thought:</p>

<p>

[12</a> reasons not to get a PhD - CBS News](<a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57468913/12-reasons-not-to-get-a-phd/]12”>http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57468913/12-reasons-not-to-get-a-phd/)</p>

3

<p>Sorry if I wasn’t clear in the original post, but for now I would just like advice on where to complete my bachelor’s degree. I will figure out where to complete my master’s at a later time, since it will probably be at a different school.</p>

<p>Why is the number of PhD’s produced a meaningful statistic?</p>

4

<p>^Those are all places where you can earn a bachelor’s degree. BrownParent was giving you a list of places to consider. Number of PhDs produced is important because you said you wanted to teach biology at the university level someday, and the PhD is a requirement to do that. If you want to teach at the community college level an MA alone may suffice depending on where it is - but remember that the academic market is really competitive and some community colleges (especially in desirable locales) are hiring mostly PhDs as full-time teaching staff.</p>

<p>First of all, I checked out UC-San Diego’s website and their first day of classes for the fall quarter is in late September, not November. November is just when the application is due - as in, you’d have to apply by November of this year for admission by September 2014. GI Bill MHA, though, is not paid until after you’ve been in college for a while - so you won’t see the MHA until maybe mid-October at the earliest (and probably late October or early November). My husband and I go through this at the beginning of every school year, although his college is pretty helpful in releasing emergency funds to help us get by.</p>

<p>I checked out UC-Riverside and UC-Irvine, the two closest UCs, and they are the same - you can only start in the fall quarter. San Diego State appears to be the same way, although they are on a semester system so you would begin earlier, in early September. However, I urge you to think about it this way - if you went to a traditional semester campus you would likely begin school in early September, meaning that your first MHA check would come around early October. It would probably only be 3-4 weeks earlier than your check would come in San Diego - except that at San Diego, you’d have the support of nearby family and friends.</p>

<p>I’m also not sure what else you would be able to do. Even if you can get released 2 months early, that puts your release in April at best. The spring quarters/semesters in most places begin in January or February. And few schools allow students to begin in the summer. Most likely you would have to wait regardless of where you decided to go.</p>

<p>And even if you did get admitted to one of the few schools that allows students to begin over the summer AND has enough credits for you to be full time, </p>

<p>But with that said, here are some other suggestions of schools that are pretty friendly to veterans, especially with Yellow Ribbon:</p>

<p>Columbia’s School of General Studies allows first summer enrollment. My husband is a veteran, and this is where he attends on the YR program. The deadline is April 1. Keep in mind, though, that the GI + Yellow Ribbon here only funds 24 credits a year, so if you attend full-time in summer and fall you may mess yourself up for the spring semester.</p>

<p>Fordham University has a good veterans’ affairs set-up, although they only do fall and spring admission.</p>

<p>George Washington University is noted as being pretty good for veterans. They have both fall and spring admissions.</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon participates in the Yellow Ribbon Program. So does University of Chicago, which BrownParent already recommended.</p>

<p>If you want closer by private colleges, Santa Clara University and University of San Diego both participate in YR. USC does, too.</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the info Juillet, I think I have a better idea of what I need to look for now.
Can you elaborate on what you meant by this?
“My husband and I go through this at the beginning of every school year, although his college is pretty helpful in releasing emergency funds to help us get by.”
It would be helpful so that I can ask if other institutions offer this same type of assistance.</p>