Advice regarding school choice

[AlaskaNonTrad]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

A little background. I'm a 27 year old non-trad, first time college student. I began my degree in biochemistry two years ago at a highly respected university in my home state. As luck would have it, my husband got orders to Alaska (he was on a medical profile, supposed to be stuck at our last base permanently). The school choices up here are absolutely horrible. The University of Alaska has no biochem program and their chemistry track is laughable. The other colleges are not worth the paper their applications are printed on.

So, my options are to pursue something I am not interested in, but receive a decent education (marine bio), or utilize the distance education track through Oregon State. I would have to visit campus 2 weeks per quarter, but is doable since we have family there. Going this route, I could get a degree in something I actually enjoy, but I worry about how adcoms would see it. Any advice?

 

[MedPR]

A little background. I'm a 27 year old non-trad, first time college student. I began my degree in biochemistry two years ago at a highly respected university in my home state. As luck would have it, my husband got orders to Alaska (he was on a medical profile, supposed to be stuck at our last base permanently). The school choices up here are absolutely horrible. The University of Alaska has no biochem program and their chemistry track is laughable. The other colleges are not worth the paper their applications are printed on.

So, my options are to pursue something I am not interested in, but receive a decent education (marine bio), or utilize the distance education track through Oregon State. I would have to visit campus 2 weeks per quarter, but is doable since we have family there. Going this route, I could get a degree in something I actually enjoy, but I worry about how adcoms would see it. Any advice?

Why not do the laughable chemistry program at Alaska?

 

[AlaskaNonTrad]

The program is so small, the classes have wait lists to get into. After speaking with an adviser, I was told that it generally takes people six years to complete the program because there isn't enough room for everyone. I won't be in this state for six years and UAA credits do not transfer to any of the universities I would be attending should we have to move prior to our four year term.


Edited to add, they have what they call a biochem option, but it falls under their umbrella liberal arts program. The whole school operates in a very strange, scatterbrained way.

 

[Chip N Sawbones]

I'm glad to meet a fellow Alaskan, but I don't think I have much useful advice. In your situation if I was certain I was going to med school I would pick the easiest major I could find and work in the med school prereqs as electives. You should talk to Oregon State and see how their distance classes will show up on your transcript. It could be that they will be no different from regular classes, so adcoms will never know the difference.

I agree with you about the poor quality of the colleges and the bad class selection here. I did my prereqs at UAF, and I almost had to pack up and move to Anchorage unexpectedly because Bio II and Physics II were taught in the same time spot. Luckily the professors let me take both classes, attending lectures on alternate days (which I highly recommend, btw). I consider myself to be pretty smart for leaving Alaska after high school to go to college in the Lower 48, and pretty stupid to come back now. The good news is that WWAMI is pretty friendly to nontrads. If I get in there it will be worth it.

 

[AlaskaNonTrad]

I've spoken with OSU in depth while visiting over the summer. All of their eCampus programs have course numbers and descriptions that are identical to their on campus counterparts, so I have been assured no one would ever know it was a distance course unless I told them. Alaska really needs to catch up with the lower 48 in regards to higher education and, well, everything else.

 

[Chip N Sawbones]

If adcoms won't know that you took the classes through distance education, take them. Even if they did know, they probably wouldn't care. Will you be able to do the lab portions of the prereq classes by distance, or will you need to take those classes at UAA?

 

[AlaskaNonTrad]

The lab portions for all upper level courses are done on campus at OSU for two weeks per quarter. It would work well for me, since family lives in close proximity to campus.

 

[Chip N Sawbones]

Sounds like you've got a good plan then. I went to OSU last summer to take the general chem sequence and loved it there. If their distance education classes are the same as the on-campus ones, I might take biochem and anatomy through them next semester instead of going to Anchorage like I'd planned. I need to remain in Alaska to stay qualified for WWAMI, but I don't really want to move to Anchorage, and I sure don't want to spend another winter in Fairbanks.

 

[AlaskaNonTrad]

I know the online classes are taught by the on-campus faculty, most of which include video lectures you have access to.

I don't blame you for not wanting to move to Anchorage, though I can't imagine winter in Fairbanks. The negative twenties we experienced earlier this year was more than enough for me.