Organic Chem at night/weekend in NH/MA

[horselvr]

Hello everyone,

I am a newbie to posting although I have been reading the board for a while. I am a career changer hoping to apply to vet school for the fall 2008 term, but still have some science courses to take.

I am currently working full-time during the day with a fairly inflexible schedule. I am trying to find a school in the NH/MA area that offers Organic Chem at night or on a weekend either during the summer or in the fall/spring. It seems that all of the classes are offered during the day. I am looking for a school within an hour or so from the Manchester, NH area. It can be in NH or MA. I can get to a class by 4:00pm or so. There are several schools that offer O-Chem, I just can't seem to find any classes at night or on the weekend.

Is the only alternative to find a more flexible job that allows me time off during the day?

I still have to take Biochem as well, but since I need O-Chem as a pre-req, that will come later. I will likely take that one via distance education as there is no lab required. A saw a post in this forum that a few of you have taken it online.

Thanks in advance for your help.

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[sundoggie]

I took organic chemistry at night at Northeastern. They have an adult education program specifically designed for working people who want to go back to med/vet/pharmacology school. It isnt cheap, but it gets the job done. They also offer accelerated classes to do the whole year in just a few months. Just google Northeastern adult education.

Just a thought...

 

[KittenKiller]

Theres also Harvard Extension School. I took a few of my prereqs there and was very impressed by the teaching (ironically far superior to most harvard undergrad classes). they also offer summer orgo thats a full year in 8 weeks. The classes are reasonable too - i think $700-800 per semester - and it has a great reputation among postbac premed (and presumably prevet?) programs.

 

[soxbox]

Hi! I also had to take some prereqs this year... I needed orgo, biochem, and genetics...

I ended up taking orgo out at Worcester State (lab one night a week, lecture one night a week)... though I think Worcester might be a tad far for you...

I took biochem and am currently taking genetics at Harvard Extension (on the Harvard campus in Cambridge)... That school is great.. .it is geared towards people who work fulltime and are going back to school... and classes are affordable... each of the classes I took there were $650, so not too bad...

I looked into taking orgo there, but I live 1.5 hours from Boston, so traveling there 3 times a week was a bit much... but from what I remember, lecture was one night a week and you could take lab either one night during the week or they have labs I think every other Saturday.... Here is the link to the school: http://www.extension.harvard.edu/ I think they might also have some classes during the summer if you wanted to knock some out sooner than later

hope that helped a bit!!

 

[silverelf]

i have friends who took biochem before they took orgo. it was a little harder for them, but still managable, if you have to delay orgo until the fall or something, you could probably still take biochem over the summer

 

[horselvr]

Awesome! Thank you so much for your suggestions of Northeastern and Harvard Extension. I completely forgot about checking out Northeestern and I didn't realize Harvard Ext school offered premed classes. I assumed (silly me) it would be all business classes. I work near Woburn, MA so neither of these schools would be too hard to get to after work.

Geez - the Harvard Ext classes are cheaper than my other classes. I took a quick look and I see that Northeastern has O-Chem, but not lab (at least not
during the summer session). I will call them tomorrow to confirm and do some more poking around on the site.

Harvard Ext offers O-Chem with lab at night in the fall/spring. I don't see a summer schedule up yet at first glance, but I will do some more digging.

I can go to Worcester if I absolutely need to, but that would be a last resort. I have a friend in Gardner, MA that I could stay with on class nights if I need to.

Thanks again!

 

[horselvr]

i have friends who took biochem before they took orgo. it was a little harder for them, but still managable, if you have to delay orgo until the fall or something, you could probably still take biochem over the summer

Hi Silverelf. I thought most Biochem classes needed O-Chem as a prereq in order to be eligible as a vet pre-req? Or maybe that was only a requirement for certain schools.

 

[NSilverwolf]

Hi Silverelf. I thought most Biochem classes needed O-Chem as a prereq in order to be eligible as a vet pre-req? Or maybe that was only a requirement for certain schools.

I took the Biochem course at harvard extension this past semester. Technically, 1 year bio and regular chem were the only classes required to take the class. However, I had taken ochem prior to the class, as had many of my study partners. We all found it much easier with that ochem background though it wasn't required.

Each school does vary with what they require.

I'll also throw my hat in for harvard extension as a whole. It's been a good experience thus far and some really great professors who understand the needs of non-trad students and the realities of trying to work and study at the same time.

 

[silverelf]

Hi Silverelf. I thought most Biochem classes needed O-Chem as a prereq in order to be eligible as a vet pre-req? Or maybe that was only a requirement for certain schools.

Some do, some don't. Even though its "required" at my school, they never check prerequisites so it doesn't matter.

 

[sundoggie]

For the Northeastern Orgo, the lab is sometimes included in the class description and sometimes it is a separate class to register for. So, keep an eye out for that. I have never seen them offer the class without the lab as the two go hand-in-hand there. Sometimes they dont get all the classes for the next sessions up right away, but you can call and ask what is offered for the following quarter. The reason I chose Northeastern over Harvard was that you could start Northeastern at a number of different points in the year instead of only fall like at Harvard. They offer Orgo 1 in Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer sessions (followed by Orgo 2 and 3). Northeastern also offered the accelerated full year in three months option which I really liked and vet schools didnt seem to mind since I got accepted with it. That being said, if the scheduling works for you, Harvard is significantly cheaper than Northeastern and the quality of the class is probably going to be better...though I am not sure because I never attended both for comparison. Good luck!

 

[sundoggie]

Oh..and one more thing...I THINK bunker hill community college also offered organic chem, but I am not sure.

I also think Northeastern has online biochem, but I didnt take it with them so don't quote me on it.

 

[soxbox]

I took organic chemistry one concurrently with biochem... I think in the very beginning and a few places here and there it would have been helpful to have had orgo completed already, but for the most part it wasnt too hard to do them at the same time... and sometimes we ended up learning some stuff in biochem that was helpful for orgo...

so it can be done

PS: The only downfall that I found with harvard extension (if you were taking them during the fall next year) is that you start classes pretty late (end of september) and you do not take finals until the end of january... so instead of getting everything done by winter break, you have those classes hanging over your head for another month

 

[horselvr]

sundoggie -

I would definitely be interested in getting through a year of O-Chem in 3 months, providing it is doable with a full-time job. I didn't get a chance to call Northeastern but I definitely will tomorrow. KittenKiller stated Harvard Ext offered O-Chem in the summer for 8 weeks. I am a bit nervous going through a year of O-Chem in 8 weeks with everything else that is going on, but I am sure it is doable. I will look into both of them more.

Thanks

 

[horselvr]

PS: The only downfall that I found with harvard extension (if you were taking them during the fall next year) is that you start classes pretty late (end of september) and you do not take finals until the end of january... so instead of getting everything done by winter break, you have those classes hanging over your head for another month

soxbox - that's a bummer. It would be nice to be done before the holidays, but I'll see how it all works out in my schedule. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[sundoggie]

I found that the O chem was doable in 3 months even with a full time job. I had to study, sure, but if you stay on top of things I think you will do ok. I am pretty sure most people in the class do quite well. They also offer the classes as a full quarter too...if you find the first quarter is too tough as an accelerated class.

 

[horselvr]

I found that the O chem was doable in 3 months even with a full time job. I had to study, sure, but if you stay on top of things I think you will do ok. I am pretty sure most people in the class do quite well. They also offer the classes as a full quarter too...if you find the first quarter is too tough as an accelerated class.

Sundoggie - I will likely end up taking O-Chem at Northeastern because I can take it in the summer at night. Summer session at Harvard Ext is during the day, which I can't do. Do you have to take O-Chem 1-3 in order to get the full year of O-Chem required? I know most schools offer it in 2 semesters. It looks like their Physics classes are the same way.

 

[sundoggie]

Yes. Northeastern is on the quarter system. So, 3 quarters equals two semesters. The system gets a bit tricky if you need 1 semester of something since that would technically be a quarter and a half, but for a full year it is three classes worth.

 

[horselvr]

Thanks sundoggie

 

[cyrille104]

they also offer summer orgo thats a full year in 8 weeks. The classes are reasonable too - i think $700-800 per semester - and it has a great reputation among postbac premed (and presumably prevet?) programs.

Really? I had always heard that the harvard summer orgo is looked down upon because it's too easy and doesn't cover enough material. That's just the word on the street here though...anyway I don't think it matters since it's probably close to impossible to take 8 weeks off with an inflexible job...

 

[cyrille104]

Yes. Northeastern is on the quarter system. So, 3 quarters equals two semesters. The system gets a bit tricky if you need 1 semester of something since that would technically be a quarter and a half, but for a full year it is three classes worth.

A quarter is actually worth 2.67 semester credits, which is even more annoying because you get so frustrated over 1/3 of a credit. On the up side, some schools will take 2.67 instead of 3 if it's an uncommon requirement and they're going to be nice about it. I know that one girl at my school took a quarter of a questionable microbio class (microbio and the environment or something) and cornell took it as a full 3 credits of microbio because there was nothing else she could do (no other microbio classes offered) short of taking classes over the summer when she wanted to get experience. She got in, too, so it's not like it hurt her that much...a little OT but just a tip if you were thinking about doing some of those pre-reqs at Northeastern. Make sure you call the school before taking the class, though, to make sure that they will indeed accept it. Better yet, email them and save their response all year so if they ever give you a hard time about it you have it in writing.

 

[ri23]

It really depends on the school and the class for quarter credit transfer. The best thing to do is to contact the school. Personally I love the quarter system, it makes those horrible classes that you can't stand go by so much faster. Though I've heard from a lot of people that it is an adjustment switching from one system to another, so for those switching from semesters to quarters that's something to think about.

 

[JIKJen124]

Oh fantastic... more complication!

 

[KittenKiller]

Really? I had always heard that the harvard summer orgo is looked down upon because it's too easy and doesn't cover enough material. That's just the word on the street here though...anyway I don't think it matters since it's probably close to impossible to take 8 weeks off with an inflexible job...

Hmm, I know a lot of people who took it who got into top medical schools, but that might have been despite the summer orgo. It was 4 hours of class a day (2 lectures, 2 hrs section) and 8 hours of lab a week, so in terms of hours spent in class, it probably matched a semester-long course. But memory retention suffers when you cram like that, and my lab skills are certainly sub-par (when I started working at a new vet tech job last month I floored my co-workers, who knew I was going to vet school next year, when I asked how to turn on the centrifuge), so its probably "better" in terms of learning quality to take a full year course. I wouldnt say its easier though in terms of landing a grade - I think it was curved around a B-.

 

[horselvr]

I've always been on the semester system, so I am not sure how I will like the quarter system. I would rather get it over with in 2 classes versus 3, plus it is less money for 2 vs 3. Regardless, Harvard-Ext and Merrimack offers O-Chem in the summer, but during the day. Northeastern is at night, which fits my schedule, so I will probably go there. I want to study for the GREs as well so am worried about the hectic job schedule, plus O-Chem and trying to study for the GREs, but I guess that is what vet school will be like (or maybe worse). I need to find a better way to study on my hour commute to and from work. That is 2 hours of valuable studying time!

 

[JIKJen124]

Maybe register for and take the GRE before organic starts? That would be my strategy! And you'll avoid the summer rush before the format changes. I found 6 weeks of studying (while doing summer physics, volunteering, and travelling often to see SO 3 hours away) worked out well - and I generally think those tests hate me me.

 

[horselvr]

JIKJEN124 - Yes, I am a little worried about the summer rush. I should try to take it soon, which gives me time to retake it if I need to.

 

[JIKJen124]

That would be my plan. Just sign up for a mid-late May date, and start working those vocab cards and doing those geometry problems and be done with it!