<p>I guess I'll jump right into it. What do I need to do to finish an undergrad and satisfy all premed requirements in 3 years? I don't really care what my major is, as long as I can finish in three years. </p>
<p>Now before someone jumps all over me "not caring," let me say that currently, I'm serving on active duty in the military. I've spent a good portion of my twenties hunting terrorists in every corner of the globe, and I'll be 26 when I START my undergrad. I'll be going to the University of Alabama (free of charge compliments of uncle sam and the yellow ribbon program). Due to the nature of what I do now, i've decided that I want to devote the rest of my life to saving lives instead of, well, what I do now. I want to be a doctor. I will be a doctor. But I'm also not naive. I understand that by starting at 26 (and a half...) that I'll be almost 40 by the time I finish my residency.</p>
<p>As such, I'm really looking for any way that I can get my undergrad in three years. As long as I finish in less than 8 semesters (summer semesters included), I can graduate without having to take out loans. I don't have any AP credits or anything like that (I've been out of high school now for 8 years) although I do have access to an unlimited number of free CLEP testing via the college office on base. </p>
<p>Also, I know not everyone gets into medical school. So if anyone could offer any advice as far as picking a major that I can complete in three years with all the premed requirements, that wouldn't be completely useless in the unlikely event that I fail to gain admission to medical school, it would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>[University</a> of Alabama Undergraduate Catalog 2010-12](<a href=“Page Not Found | The University of Alabama”>Page Not Found | The University of Alabama) lists Alabama’s CLEP credit policy. Note that it also mentions “Transfer Credit for Service Experiences” at the bottom. But note that pre-med courses need to be actual college courses for many medical schools, not CLEP/AP/IB credit.</p>
<p>The <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys-4.html#post15425078[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys-4.html#post15425078</a> may help you compare majors’ job and career prospects. However, you need to go through the degree requirements at Alabama to determine which majors can be done along with pre-med courses while graduating in your time limit. The easiest major to do the pre-med courses with is biology, but it is one of the majors with relatively poor job and career prospects.</p>
<p>Look for a major that doesn’t have many sequential courses. Some STEM majors have a very set matrix within the major making it difficult to speed up the sequence. Engineering, math, chem, biochem…</p>
<p>History and economics and poli sci do not have very many sequential courses at all and you might be able to CLEP some of these that would not be necessary to fulfill any premed requirements.</p>
<p>The premed requirements are pretty much the same but will be increasing in the next few years. 1 year bio, 1 year inorganic/physical/general chem, 1 year in Organic, 1 year physics and english and 1 year math calc/stats. They have added biochem and some humanities, look at the new MCAT for specificity.</p>
<p>What do you enjoy? If you are going to do this quickly it might as well be something you like. And what kind of student were you in high school? yes I know it has been a lifetime, but a math disability or reading problem will still be present. Your view toward school will have changed, kinda does that but ability remains the same. Motivation however can trump much.</p>
<p>Upon discharge your final orders will be to Alabama giving you residency there? If so, then those will be the state/public med schools you will be looking at…take a look at their pre-reqs and class profile. It will give you an idea of what you should be aiming for, anything beyond that and its just icing.</p>
<p>Hope this helps. </p>
<p>And thank you.</p>
<p>Kat</p>