Is anyone doing Northwestern post-bacc?

[PsychStudent]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I'm a Northwestern PhD student in a non-science area, and I'm thinking about enrolling for the post-bacc chemistry course to give this pre-med thing a try. I'd love to chat and compare notes with you about the program!

Thanks so much!

 

[ATN19]

I went to NU undergrad. Are you talking about classes through the School of Continuing Studies? I believe Barry Coddens teaches the ochem (or orgo at NU 🙂 ) SCS classes. I had him all year at the undergrad level and he was TOUGH but very good. My first C ever. However, SCS classes tend to be more laidback and have less gunners compared to undergrad obviously. I took the upper-level biochem class and it was fine. Taught by a prof from the med school. I'm actually trying to get a hospital job in Chicago and take upper-level bio courses through SCS myself. But I'm still holding on to my BU MAMS seat for now. Just in case. So, I'd recommend NU SCS classes.

 

[PsychStudent]

Yep, I do mean SCS! The professor for chemistry is actually Bennett Melnick. Do you happen to know anything about him? Also, do the regular chem labs have any fees associated with them? I noticed that there was a $200 materials fee for the chem lab in SCS and I was just curious about whether that was typical. For the second and third quarters I'll probably take the class with the undergrads. . . unfortunately none of the three labs worked with my class schedule this quarter.

 

[ATN19]

Don't know anything about the guy who's teaching chem. Sorry. There aren't any fees for undergrad but I think tuition is a LOT higher for ug. SCS is ~$1000/class while ug was ~$30,000 for the year (give or take 12 classes). When they're charging that much already, they can't really tack on additional lab fees 😛

 

[PsychStudent]

Thanks for the info! There's one thing I'm still confused about. . . do you know if full-time Northwestern students can take SCS classes during the school year without paying the 1000K per class? Since I'm a PhD student my tuition is paid for, but my stipend definitely isn't large enough to be able to drop that much on a class at this point. The SCS chem class comes up on Caesar (dunno when you graduated, but that's the electronic class sign-up program) just like all the other chem classes so I had assumed I could just add it to my schedule. Thanks again for your help!

 

[ATN19]

I just graduated in June. So yes, I do know what Caesar is 😉

I took the SCS class my senior year. SCS students get priority over other students so you can't officially register for the class until the add/drop phase of SCS I think. I know FT NU kids could take the classes if there were still spots (and even if there aren't, just email the prof b/c sometimes they'll still let you in i.e. my biochem class). All I had to do was get a form signed by the WCAS dean to get dual credit or something. And no, I didn't have to pay extra b/c I got ug credit for it, making it covered by my tuition.

If I were you, call the Office of Registrar on Monday. I think it's Jackie Rivera who does a lot of the stuff between the day and evening campuses. They can give you the all the answers b/c I'm clueless to graduate school requirements. I don't know how PhD stuff works re: what classes can count toward tuition, dual credit, etc.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Since Illinois is my home state, I'm shooting for Northwestern as well for my post-bacc. Just wanted to bump the thread to see if there are any other post bacc'ers out there in the program that can either recommend it or otherwise.

 

[PsychStudent]

Anyone else interested in NU? By the way, the premed chem class (not orgo) is Chem 101 and the premed bio class is BIO 210, right? It seems weird that the numbers are so different. Thanks!

 

[Just A Nobody]

Barry Coddens is not teaching Organic Chemistry?!?!?!?! *shock to the system* Good for you guys!!! He is the meanest grumpiest man I've ever encountered in my life. Him and Owen Priest are a combo from HELL!

Just to warn you...I'm sure you already know this, but just to let you know. I just graduated from NU, and I have to tell you that pre-med classes here are hard as hell. Just to give you an indication of how hard Bio is (regular year and summer bio). Our former pre-med advisor used to tell his students to go to Harvard to take bio because taking it at NU is "like a landmine - everyone that goes through it gets hurt" - that is a direct qoute from him. I took Bio at Harvard, and it was much easier than my other science classes at NU, in general. Hard to believe? Well...it's true. Our former pre-med advisor told me that NU has one of the hardest science curriculum in the country. He actually left to go take up some position at Harvard this past year. Leaving all of the pre-health students at NU with NO pre-med advisor for a while! (Oh how I loved thee, NU!) --> (extreme sarcasm).

That being said, SCS classes have a reputation for being easier and more laid back (but that's coming from NU students who take the classes, not people who have been out of school for a while), but by no means should you put your guard down. In my opinion, if you can, go somewhere else, go. But if you can't or are set on NU, just be prepared to WORK! You should be able to attain some success since they tend to go easier on SCS'ers.

 

[zerom]

So it isn't just that one professor, but rather the whole curriculum? Are there any other profs you know about or have heard about? Just wondering, I was hoping to do the post-bacc program at Northwestern for geographical reasons.

Barry Coddens is not teaching Organic Chemistry?!?!?!?! *shock to the system* Good for you guys!!! He is the meanest grumpiest man I've ever encountered in my life. Him and Owen Priest are a combo from HELL!

Just to warn you...I'm sure you already know this, but just to let you know. I just graduated from NU, and I have to tell you that pre-med classes here are hard as hell. Just to give you an indication of how hard Bio is (regular year and summer bio). Our former pre-med advisor used to tell his students to go to Harvard to take bio because taking it at NU is "like a landmine - everyone that goes through it gets hurt" - that is a direct qoute from him. I took Bio at Harvard, and it was much easier than my other science classes at NU, in general. Hard to believe? Well...it's true. Our former pre-med advisor told me that NU has one of the hardest science curriculum in the country. He actually left to go take up some position at Harvard this past year. Leaving all of the pre-health students at NU with NO pre-med advisor for a while! (Oh how I loved thee, NU!) --> (extreme sarcasm).

That being said, SCS classes have a reputation for being easier and more laid back (but that's coming from NU students who take the classes, not people who have been out of school for a while), but by no means should you put your guard down. In my opinion, if you can, go somewhere else, go. But if you can't or are set on NU, just be prepared to WORK! You should be able to attain some success since they tend to go easier on SCS'ers.

 

[Just A Nobody]

Well, some of the professors in the other science classes are much nicer (Dr. Schmidt - Physics - the nicest man you will EVER meet!). But whatever, it's not about the professor's personality (although it helps alot)...the curriculum is tough - no doubt about it. The thing is, you can know your stuff, study you @$$ off, do all of the homework/reading etc...yet still not attain the kind of success you want. They have to find a way to seperate A's from B's so they make Final exams really tough on purpose. I think all of NU's science classes follow a pretty rigid bell-curve, although they tell you otherwise. Although I haven't been able to confirm this, several people have said that they do. Again, this is coming from me though, who was in the regular day-classes. I hear SCS is a different ballgame. But I hear this from students here who purposely take SCS classes because they are supposedly "easier". How so? I'm not sure. But my hunch is that they take advantage of the fact that many people in SCS classes haven't been in school for a while. So my advice is...if you've been out of school for a while, or have limited amount of time to devote to studying, you might want to consider somewhere else. If you went to a tough undergrad, then you'll be used to it and know what to expect. My purpose here is not to scare you all and say that you can't come here and do well...it's just that...I think you can go somewhere else and benefit MUCH more..and save yourself some big bucks and stress. If you're doing your post-bacc for GPA boosting reasons...this is not the place to do it. This school is a big-rip off and you get nothing to show for it in the end. If you need to come for geographical reasons...you have to do what you have to do, so dont be intimidated, just be mentally prepared to work and study hard. Hope that helps. OH! And one more important thing to keep in mind. SCS just switched to the quarter system. The quarter system SUCKS. It's much more grueling than a semester system. Keep that in mind too.