<p>I got accepted into BME at Cockrell back in September, but now I decided that I want to take the pre-pharmacy route and be a bio major (I know, last minute indecisiveness before school has even started). Will it be a hassle to switch majors during orientation? (as in will they change it immediately or will I get stuck with BME for the semester?) I heard that even if they are not able to do it right away, I can still sign up for those basic pre-req. classes for pre-pharmacy, but will they still make me take intro BME classes too? Also, would it be advisable to try faxing them and changing now before orientation or wait until then?</p>
<p>Any information on transfers would be appreciated.
Thanks!</p>
<p>You’ll be fine waiting until orientation. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to actually transfer then but registration should be no problem. As long as you plan on taking lower division courses, you should be able to register for whichever classes you want. It is perfectly normal for a student who is planning to transfer to not be in any of their major-specific classes. Often, a student will realize that the major they are in isn’t for them and will drop all of the major specific courses to avoid jeopardizing their grades.
As far as the short term is concerned, you should be fine. But as a pre-pham student, you should be aware it’s pretty common to shoot through your undergrad and move on to pharmacy school in 2 or 3 years so you may want to submit some AP credits you have to allow that. However, petitioning credits is a very serious and irreversible process so if you’re sure that pharmacy is what you want to do, make sure that you let your adviser know your intentions.
The time you get with advisers during orientation is very sparse. You’ll first meet with a student “adviser” (quotes very much needed) who’ll basically make sure that you aren’t completely clueless. Afterwards, you’ll meet with a BME adviser but they may not be that knowledgeable about pharmacy. In any case, you should decide this summer how fast you want to go to pharmacy school as that will determine which classes you should register for. While they will highly (!) recommend that you do not claim credits for your Intro Biology and Gen. Chem. classes, you may want to consider it if you feel like you have a solid understanding of them already. Together, they occupy half of your schedule for all of freshmen year, so claiming those credits can really up your pace.</p>
<p>But to clear your doubts: this summer they can not FORCE you to take any BME classes. You have the final say on what classes you take.
If you do not apply for the transfer until Fall, know that it will not go into affect until the next semester (Spring). This isn’t a big deal if you’re still working through your lower division classes but the upper division classes will be restricted to those within the major. Try to transfer ASAP if you are sure that biology is where you want to be.</p>