organic chemistry in NYC

[j8131]

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I'm taking organic II next semester somewhere in New York, probably at a CUNY school. Does anyone have any recommendations/non-recommendations from past experience? Any former Hunter students recommend or not recommend org II at Hunter? Is the course well-taught? How much time per week is required to do well?

I'm open to other CUNYs too, there just seems to be less experience here with them. This is the only course I have to take so I'm not interested in the whole post-bac program, just the quality of the course.

thank you, post-bac community!

 

[Stratus2675]

I have heard that Queens College has an above average Chemistry Dept. A prof I had at another college recommended that I go to Queens for Orgo, but I couldnt get in on short notice.

 

[Lindyhopper]

As is so often the case the teacher makes the course. Last year Hunter had a great teacher Dr. Karen Phillips. Dr. Grohman is also great. The course is demanding. I don't know who is teaching it this spring.

 

[j8131]

Lindyhopper, did you take the course at Hunter? I might try Hunter if there's indeed a good teacher, and I'm curious how much time I should budget to try to do well.

 

[stoleyerscrubz]

a lot of people say to not take Prof. Santoro for Organic Chem but his class was the only one that fit into my schedule. He does lectures by powerpoint and he has them on the Hunter website so you can print them out. Well...a lot of people don't like his teaching style and I will do everything in my power to get into Dr Philips class. Classmates tell me she goes into great detail on topics and is patient and wants you to learn. Her exams are "tough" but I have never heard anything negative about her and only heard good praise.

Dr Philips will no longer be teaching Ochem lab 223 from what I heard. She will only teach the Ochem Lecture 222

Ochem lecture and lab are 2 seperate classes though. The Ochem labs are 4 hours long. And there is 1 hour recitation each week for this 2.5 credit class. so 5 hours of class time is needed. There is also a video in the library that you can loan for 2 hours at a time to watch in the library that should help you with the labs. So that's about 30 minutes.

Then in order to start the lab you need to do your prelab (about 1-2 hours)report which includes:
1)Physical Properties and Harzardous Materiuals data that can be found in Merk, CRC, and Harzardous Materials. Those books are at the reference desk
2)Procedure with flow charts and diagrams of equipment setup(you are not allowed to use printouts during lab. only your lab notebook)
3)discussion of lab - you will have to do some reading for this part.

final writeup with questions varies with a lot but I give myself about 4 hours.

So you are looking at about 10 hours+/week for this 2.5 credit lab class. There are 2 midterms with no final. The midterms count for 25% of the grade and lab is 75%. This semester the first midterm was for experiments 1-4 and midterm 2 will be for experiments 5-8

I really can't say how much time you will need to budget for Ochem lecture because I have santoro.

You can go to the chem department to see who is teaching a particular class when the schedule comes out. They did not have that info on the registration website last year.

Lindyhopper, did you take the course at Hunter? I might try Hunter if there's indeed a good teacher, and I'm curious how much time I should budget to try to do well.

 

[stoleyerscrubz]

Here is another hunter thread that may help:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=143206&highlight=hunter

Getting into Ochem labs is very tough. They have a waiting list and you really need to get there at least 1 hour early to get a good spot on the list. After that you need to show up to the lab you want to get into:

1)they make sure everyone who signed up for the lab is there.
2) depending on the number of no-shows and I think they allow for 2+ students they give priority to getting into that lab on the following.
a)graduating seniors
b)those who have COMPLETED Ochem II lecture already
c)postbacc
d)waitinglist #

Make sure if you have to get in through lab that you are vocal about being post-bacc. That is the only reason why 2 people got into my current lab

So using the waitlist is almost to get in

 

[ma-bas]

I took 2 semesters of Physics with lab over at City Tech in downtown Brooklyn. It is easy to get to, and the classes were decent. It is one of the 4 year CUNY schools, and it is easy to matriculate as a non-degree student. I wouldn't say the class was amazing, but I got an A, and still learned enough to do really well on PS on MCAT so it was worth it.

 

[Lindyhopper]

I took the course at Hunter a few years ago & the instructor has since retired. I sat in on several of Dr. Phillips lectures for MCAT preparation. She is an excellent lecturer. All I know about Grohmann, is that people I know & respect love the guy.
From left field but truly tremendous is a free lance tutor name Marty Gluck MD. I went to Marty's shadow course. It was tremendous. The guy is like a near genius and just a great teacher. I don't remember what he charged, but it was affordable. I probably could find his contact info.
I would take seriously the registration issues. RE time, alot.
Good Luck

 

[no-see-um]

Brooklyn College's O-Chem may be alright. Not sure... The school's goot though.