I'm trying to decide whether to go the community college route or do a post-bacc program. One thing I haven't been able to figure out is how to take biochem after the CC classes if I was to go that route. My experience is that upper-division science courses (especially biochem) are crazy-hard to get into even for undergrads that are majors at the college. I assume that biochem should be taken as an upper-division course at a full college (as opposed to an "intro" class at a CC). How does a non-matriculated student go about getting in to one of these courses? One of the most attractive things to me about a post-bacc program is that this would not be an issue. What does one usually do in this situation when following the CC route? Any advice is appreciated.
How easy is it to register for biochem after CC?
- Thread starter Leopold2
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Typically, when enrolling at a 4 year university, a student that already has a degree will need to enroll as a post-bac or second degree student. Different universities have different policies regarding registration priorities for each "group" of students. Some on here have found that enrolling as a second degree student enabled them to register before the general student population. As this is institution specific, you would have to look at each particular school's registration policies (either online or by contacting the registrar's office). Best of luck to you.
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I think any biochemistry course is going to be fine. I don't think they're going to discriminate between upper and lower division.
Biochem is the hardest to find, and the hardest to register into, mostly because prereqs are typically actually enforced.
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I've had the same experience and found that spots in a full class tend to open up ~a week before the class begins, perhaps because people hesitant about taking the class decide to take/drop last minute.
If you don't get into a class when registration opens, just keep checking until a spot opens up.
Thanks for the advice. This is what I expected, more or less. So is the consensus that though this is a hurdle, it can be (and is) done? Do people typically take a 200 level course at a community college or do they usually go for an upper division university course? I did not realize that medical schools don't discriminate significantly on that factor.
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It is hard to generalize as, again, every university / department is different. At my first undergraduate school, bio chem and organic chem were upper division. At my CC / current 4 year university, biochem is not upper division. Medical schools don't distinguish upper vs lower division based on course numbers alone but rather on the content that is covered i.e. genetics is considered upper division while gen chem is considered lower division.
