<p>I am about to be 24, and took 5 years to graduate from UCSD with a major in Pyschology. I originally entered as a bio major with dreams of vet school. However, I didnt do well, panicked, and switched my major third year. </p>
<p>I graduated in June 2011, and I have realized that I really want to go into forensics, working in a lab all day analyzing dna. Most of these jobs require a bachelors in bio/chem, along with experience. </p>
<p>What should I do? Will I be able to go to a CC and transfer to a 4 year? Should I combine any classes from UCSD to do this? I know I need to speak with a counselor, but since I graduated I dont have access to their counseling resources unless I pay to be a member in their alumni program (which I might do anyway :/ )</p>
<p>You’ll have to check various schools’ web sites about whether they will accept students looking for second bachelor’s degrees, and whether their previous course work acceptance policy is.</p>
<p>You can’t start over completely. You are required to disclose your previous schooling records and that would put you into the post bacc category. Actually, that works for you. It depends on the school, but you could have many (or most) of the general education requirement exempted. You can take the lower division courses at a cc, but make sure to know the credit transfer rules since there are only so many hours you can transfer.</p>
<p>Pay the fee to join the alum organization, and then go speak with the counselors. You need to know what classes you are missing, and you need to know what restrictions you might face in trying to earn a second bachelors degree.</p>
<p>Do you plan to apply for financial aid? There are restrictions on how many hours you can attempt. You can receive assistance for seeking a second major or bachelors degree, but you need to know the rules.</p>
<p>If you are considering applying for re-admission, then you shouldn’t have to pay to find out what it will take to earn a second bachelors or second major. If you want career guidance, then I understand about joining the alum association.</p>
<p>It might be difficult to do this at a UC, and expensive at privates. See <a href=“http://www.ucop.edu/sas/ets/ReferenceMat/2ndBaccalaureate.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ucop.edu/sas/ets/ReferenceMat/2ndBaccalaureate.pdf</a> for a chart of what & where as far as UCs go. There is a back door that used to exist via the Cal State schools; may still be there. They, too, frown on 2nd bachelor degrees but their requirements for getting accepted into a MS program boiled down to a bachelor degree in anything (at one point in time, anyway; things may have changed). So the back door was to enroll for the MS in say bio even if you had been an Art History major, and then the 1st thing that happened was they let you enroll in all the prerequisite classes for the MS. Eventually you got the MS, but the advantage of this approach is that you didn’t run the risk of being turned down the way you would be when trying for a 2nd bachelors.</p>
<p>Since this is an advice forum, though, let me give advice. First off, why do you think you’ll do better in bio and chem this time around? Rhetorical question for you to think about, you don’t need to answer here. Second, have you actually worked in a lab doing the kind of work you mention? You say “I really want to go into forensics” and that is a reasonable goal provided you have some first hand knowledge of the field; not just reading about it, not just talking to someone in the field, not just a day shadowing someone on the job, but real exposure. I’m not saying this is you, but it is tempting and not unprecedented on these forums for someone a few months out of college to decide “Wait! What I really want to do is X” and X will require a few more years of schooling or prep, thus avoiding facing the real world for a few more years. </p>
<p>So if you don’t have significant exposure to forensic work then you need to get it. Get a job, any job, in one of those companies. Or set up an internship and work for free; free is an attractive price for employers and it will let you see if the field is really right for you. Even if you do nothing but wash bottles out for 3 months you’ll know by the end if its the work you should spend the next 2-4 years preparing for.</p>
<p>How much bio and chem do you have to date? If you started as a bio major, you may have most of the pre-reqs, and only need to pick up the upper-division courses, and be able to finish a second major in only a year or so, rather than needing to complete a full second degree.</p>
<p>Mikemac, you have brought up excellent points I have thought about myself. I struggled with the chemistry my freshman and sophomore year, but I do feel like I gave up too easily. When I entered my freshman year, I immediately started working 25 hours a week and jumped straight into classes I probably should have taken slowly. I also wasn’t willing to put in the work for it then because I was apprehensive about busting my butt in those classes since I was still uncertain about my career goals of vet medicine. A career in forensics is something I will really put in the effort to work towards.</p>
<p>Also, originally I was going to enroll in a cc and then volunteer myself somewhere, ANYWHERE, just to make sure. But I will take your advice, and I will try to find something before I go back to school. I really have always been interested in this field but always had the thought that I couldnt do it. But I know I will regret it for the rest of my life if I dont atleast try. Im extremely bitter about my undergrad experience, and I am going to do everything in my power to make sure I dont feel this way when I am 50. (I still, to this day, regret choosing UCSD over UCLA, and I need to fix the educational path my life is taking. For the first time since high school, I feel passionate about education and learning and I atleast need to give myself the chance to attempt something challenging and rewardingf)</p>
<p>You had brought up going for a masters in bio? I am not familiar with grad schools because getting through undergrad was difficult, but how would I go about doing this? Would I be able to take all those science classes at a cc that are required to get into a masters program and then apply with my Psychology degree? I would definately perfer that…</p>
<p>And to everyone else, I will definitely need financial aid. Thankfully, I only have 5000 in loans to pay back at my 5 years at ucsd thanks to scholarships and grant money I feel like I pretty much got a free education and so if I do have to take out mass loans then so be it. </p>
<p>Thanks for all your help you guys! I am definitely going to seek UCSD counseling but I really appreciate all the advice.</p>
There are probably a lot of roads for this; you could make an appt with a counselor at a CSU near you to explore your options. What I had in mind, something you used to be able to do (and still may, thats why I bring it up for you to check) is being admitted as something called a “conditionally classified” student.</p>
<p>What this means is you’re not fully accepted into the grad program until you make up the deficiencies in your preparation. The “deficiencies” are essentially the classes you would have taken to earn an undergrad degree in Bio. So if you get in this way they have in effect let you get a BS in Bio (with the provision that you have to go on to finish the MS). Whether you can do this is going to be up to the campus and will depend on how much demand there is for the program; if they are turning away fully qualified applicants then odds are maybe not so good. But its a little-known approach since the campus and dept web pages don’t make this tactic obvious; and little-known is good for you since it means you won’t be competing for admission with lots of similar candidates.</p>
<p>The reason I bring this up is the CSU schools are not traditionally very willing to admit people for a 2nd Bachelor degree or Post-Bac work, but by doing this you get a chance to take the very same classes you would have if they would have done so. Then, of course, you spend an extra year to get the MS. Here is one example link that describes this, although not in a lot of detail: <a href=“University Catalog | California State University, Chico”>University Catalog | California State University, Chico;
<p>But the most important advice I can give you, before you enroll anywhere and start taking classes, is to get a few months full-time exposure to the job so you know that its really what you want to do; realistically it will take 3-5 more years of schooling depending on whether you can start with upper division classes or need the lower division ones first. You ought to be 110% certain this is right for you before you begin!</p>
I feel like I pretty much got a free education and so if I do have to take out mass loans then so be it. </p>