How would you rate your experience with UF online microbiology degree?
I like it a lot! I have 2 children, 13 and 3 years old. So it allows me to get all my classes done and be a stay at home mom. This was important to me since I knew that if I got into vet school I wouldn't have as much free time. Plus daycare is so expensive!! I will say that trying to retain information from the lectures with screaming children and barking dogs running around is quite a feat!
I will say that you have to be super dedicated and manage time well. It's so much easier to get sidetracked when you don't have to go to class on a regular basis. I constantly find myself saying, "Oh, I'll get to watching that lecture later." Then next thing I know I have a test in a few days and I haven't viewed one lecture
. I also would find myself half way through a lecture and realize I just spent the last 10 minutes gazing out the window at squirrels chasing each other in the yard! The professors are usually pretty accommodating as far as scheduling exams, they usually give you a 24-72 hour window to take the exams. They know that people work and have other stuff going on, hence the reason for being an online student!
The exams are proctored via webcam with ProctorU and you have to schedule them in 3 days advance (to avoid a late fee). I usually have to take my exams after 10pm to make sure everyone is sleeping when I take my exams, so the time window is great for me.
The lectures for the core classes are usually on-campus lectures that are recorded. So, there are regular on-campus students in the same course as the distance students. A lot of the professors make sure to include the distance students as much as possible. If you have to do group projects it's usually a huge ordeal...Generally the distance students are grouped with other distance students, but it's almost impossible to get everyone to agree to a time to meet up online to get stuff done. Thankfully, I didn't have too many group projects to do!
Sometimes it's hard to really get what's going on in the class. For example, if a student asks a question and the professor answers, you usually can't hear the student's question. Sometimes the professor will repeat the question so we can hear it too. One professor I had for molecular genetics was great in that he had 3 options to watch the lectures. He had the regular UF recordings (where the camera is stationary), then he had a student come in and record the lecture (so the student could change angles, zoom in, etc) and he had narrated ppt recordings. I personally liked the latter.
The one thing that's a bit troublesome is that you have to do the micro labs in person, for obvious reasons. You can take it in Gainesville on-campus or if you're lucky enough to have a school near you that has a 2 credit micro lab and will allow you to just take the lab (w/o the lecture), you can take it as a transient student. If not, then you have to either take an accelerated 10 (maybe 11, I can't remember) lab in Gainesville that they offer once a year. They started offering a regular lab in Davie, FL (dependent upon enrollment needs) if you live near there. Then you have to either do research or take the advance micro lab, an accelerated 6 day lab in Gainesville (also offered once a year).
So now that I gave you a long answer LOL, my short answer is I think it's a great program! I got accepted into 2 of the 3 vet schools I applied to (UTK & UGA), so it helped me to fulfill both my educational and personal goals! If you have any other questions let me know!
