Need Some Direction

Transfer Students UC Transfers
1

<p>I currently am looking to transfer to a UC in fall 2013.</p>

<p>I am a poli sci major, I want to go to medical school, and therefore will be pre-med.</p>

<p>However I have a dilemma. I have not fulfilled any chemistry what so ever. Will I have time to do my upper division and do ALL my chemistry/pre-med courses?</p>

<p>Would I need to look into a post-bachelor pre-med program to fulfill my needed courses to go to medical school?</p>

<p>Before people question my drive to be in the medical field, I have been wanting to do this for many years, and have a great passion for human physiology. Unfortunately, at the time, I was not aware of a physiology degree because I blindly followed an counselor that was an imbecile. Currently, I simply have drifted too far into the political science major to stray from it.</p>

<p>All in all, before I transfer out to a UC or maybe even a cal state, I would like to have some sense of direction! Thanks so much.</p>

2

<p>You could I suppose…but it will be hard. There’s no need to force yourself to apply asap. Look into a postgrad program.</p>

3

<p>I think they’re called SMP’s. They’re for people who need to improve their grades I think, tho. I would think that you would have time to do this and it’s definitely doable if you take general chemistry now or during the summer and then orgo during the year. Sometimes they offer it during the summer. Chemistry is very important to get done.</p>

<p>I’d say take general chemistry I and Ii this year before transferring. It’ll cost more if you wait and probably be harder. Also, you could see if you aren’t cut out for it by being weeded out.</p>

4

<p>Unfortunately, with this fall semester and next spring semester, I am taking all the courses I need to transfer out for fall 2013. Which puts me at the credit transfer ‘limit’. My counselor told me that I cannot go over this limit or the courses cannot be transferable, or something of this nature.</p>

<p>if I take chemistry on top of the loads Im taking this semester and next, I will be supposedly “over” this limit.</p>

5

<p>What school are you coming from? California community college? Private university? CSU?</p>

<p>If you have only attended a CC, there IS no cap. I find that a majority of counselors are full of crap and give students plenty of wrong advice.</p>

6

<p>I am currently attending LAVC community college. I am applying this fall for all UC’s/Cal states. </p>

<p>So just to clarify, what he or she said is untrue, and I can jam in a basic or introduction to chemistry course (obviously still achieve an “A” in the course).</p>

7

<p>Go to assist.org to find out what courses you need to take. </p>

<p>If you can fit it into your schedule (don’t know what the unit cap is for how many units you can take per semester but mine was 19), you take the course that is listed for assist.org. Yes, this person is wrong.</p>

<p>I took 90 semester units before transferring. Many of my friends took well over 100. They will transfer up to 70 units and use the rest you’ve accumulated for credit towards other areas of your degree. Note: It has to exclusively be work from your community college so there isn’t a “unit cap” for transferring to a CSU or UC.</p>

8

<p>I understand, Thank for your help.</p>

<p>One question.</p>

<p>Do you suggest I stay an extra year in CC, and complete my introductory chem course and general chem I or II courses? as well as advance in mathematics?</p>

9

<p>I took a third year. A lot of my friends took a third year. Some started before me and were on their 4th or 5th years. They were all pre-med, bio, engineering, chem, physics, or math majors. They only took like 12 or less units per semester though (4th, 5th year CC students). </p>

<p>Have you taken chemistry before? I jumped right into General Chem I (with no prior experience) and depending on how much time you put in it could either be rough or the easiest thing you’ve taken in your life. General Chem II is pretty difficult (was for me). You should complete Calculus I, but I know that a majority (it’s a pre-req for pre-pharmacy at least) take Calculus II also. Use RateMyProfessors to your advantage. </p>

<p>You should have a list of pre-req’s somewhere that you need to take. You don’t have to finish them all at your CC, but I do recommend getting as many as you can out of the way. It is better to pay 40 some bucks (20 when I started going) than 100+ per unit for a course that counts the same. I still have biology to take for pre-pharm, but I decided that pharmacy isn’t really for me anymore (would rather be a lawyer or researcher in maths). </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>I do suggest that because it’ll be less coursework you’ll need to do when you transfer. I think a majority (if not all) of your pre-med stuff can actually be taken at a community college. It’ll also be cheaper to take the classes at a community college. Just make sure they transfer over so you can take the o-chem series, but I would think that you should take general chem I and II this year and the o-chem series next year. </p>

<p>Most people have to get a bachelor’s in whatever to become competitive. If you really want to stay competitive, you’re going to have to start volunteering at a hospital and doing research in bio labs or something like that (you can volunteer once you transfer or before but probably need to do research at a UC/CSU). I know that you should also take two physics courses, not sure if they have to be calculus-based or not (I took them calc-based anyway cuz it was part of my major).</p>

10

<p>I have never taking a course in chemistry before. However, I am not completely clueless when it comes to chemistry. I know enough to make introductory chemistry redundant, and I believe I can take Chem I and come out with an ‘A’ with the correct mentality and hard work.</p>

<p>Hmm, so you suggest I stay an extra year to catch with chem and math?</p>

<p>currently, I’m taking intermediate algebra this semester and statistics next semester.</p>

<p>The extra two semesters can be used to take chem/math courses… </p>

<p>If I decide not to apply for transfer this fall and take those extra two semester, I would be in community college for 4 years.</p>

<p>Edit: I’m currently volunteering at a hospital!</p>

11

<p>In light of the fact that you’ve spent two years at a community college and are going into your third year already, I’m not sure how to advise you in this situation. </p>

<p>I did not expect you to be in your third year and still taking intermediate algebra at this point. I know that taking pre-calculus was a prerequisite to taking my first chemistry class. That means that you’d end up transferring after this year and taking your first and second chemistry class wherever you transfer to. You’d be taking Organic Chem I and II your senior year while trying to jam in all of your political science upper-division classes into your schedule AND pre-meds. I don’t know how many prerequisites you have left for medical school, but it seems like you’d need at least 3-4 more years to be completely be done with your undergraduate degree (and able to get into medical school). </p>

<p>Why were you taking political science if you were interested in becoming involved with medicine? It seems like you went way off track and continuing down either is kind of a risk. Getting a political science degree when you have no interest in going into that field is kind of pointless and simply finishing it to get the degree is a waste of money. It won’t help your medical school application either. It seems like you could have been working towards becoming a doctor this whole time and be more on track by just simply doing Biology major. Was this a recent realization?</p>

<p>I don’t know how to advise you anymore because I was (for some reason) basing my decision on the fact that you could enter General Chemistry I this semester, General Chem II next semester, and then finish up the Organic Chem I and II your 4th year. Calculus I was a prerequisite for General Chem II for me. If that is still possible, sure it’s worth it. You’ll save a lot of money and I imagine you’ve already filled your political science lower-divison requirements (you’ve spent a good amount of time there), so you could focus on a lot of pre-med courses before transferring for Fall '14. However, I’d say that you’re looking into major time investments either way. You haven’t taken any pre-med courses yet and you’re starting your third year. That’s really late in the game. If you don’t mind spending probably the next 8 years in school and have managed to get a job as a medical doctor, I’d say it’d be worth it. Medical school is quite expensive, though. I’d do everything I could to get my medical stuff out of the way really cheap. Then again, I started my second semester of college and my semesters have been taken with the premed/prepharm courses in mind.</p>

12

<p>This is how it began, It was extremely naive and irreponsible of me.</p>

<p>I listened to a counselor as an incoming freshmen, he drew up my first two years of courses at CC as a Biology major. Time passed as I completed all these IGETC courses, and after about a year and a half, I noticed that something wasn’t adding up.</p>

<p>I got an appointment with what my friend said, is the best counselor. I go into his office and he explains to me that, I have a good GPA and pretty much have done the entire IGETC. However he paused and said, there is a major issue, “You are extremely behind in mathematics and Chemistry for a Biology major”. If your goal is the medical field, there is two routes I am going to give you.</p>

<p>He said I can either, select a non-science based major, apply this fall and transfer to a UC, slowly add some classes to catch up for pre-med while fulfilling the bachelor degree. After, enroll in a Post-Bachelor program, where I would take the rest of the courses necessary for medical school.
OR
I can stay in CC an additional two years, Hammer away at mathematics and chemistry courses and then transfer from that point.</p>

<p>He highly suggested the non-science based major. So, after taking two political science courses, I found it extremely interesting and very much enjoyed it. How I was intending for it to relate to medical school was by two ways:
explaining that I have a strong understanding of the health care system and the governments roll in the health care system. And secondly,of course, the generic “well rounded” argument. </p>

<p>The counselor was completely baffled as to why the prior counselor did not put ANY math onto my schedule. But ultimately, this is roughly what happened. </p>

<p>I am not sure about your school requiring pre-calc for general chem? As for my college requires the completion of Intermediate algebra for Chemistry 101, and requires Intermediate Algebra/Chemistry 101 for Chemistry 102. The next chemistry course is Organic Chemistry 211 which requires Chemistry 102, and Organic Chemistry 212 which requires Organic Chemistry 211.</p>

<p>Anyways, this is a rough explanation of what has occurred these past 2 years. Which route do you suggest? or is there anything else I could do additionally?</p>

<p>This is the career I want. Wether it takes me 6 years or 10 years. Effort and dedication is definitely not an issue with me.</p>

<p>Also wanted to thank you guys and caldud for helping me out, I really appreciate it. My incompetence is probably a pain to deal with.</p>

13

<p>If I were you, I’d stay in CC and not even think about transferring until I’d cleared most of those premed prereqs out of the way. Not to sound like an ass, but you may end up trainwrecking pretty hard (Chem, Physics, Calc… etc) and have to reconsider your future options… just sayin.</p>

<p>Besides, if what I’ve heard about Poli Sci is true, it might be prudent to consider a more practical degree (unless you plan on law school or something).</p>

14

<p>If in the beginning of your freshman year you were planning on a bio major, and seeing that you had no math or science did you not question that there might be a slight problem with your course plan? Counselors do not have to live with the advice they give, this is just another prime example of why students really need to look over there own futures.</p>