taking prereqs at cc or grad school

[catnips]

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Hey everyone!
I feel like I keep asking all my questions here but here goes...

I am in a situation where I need to graduate next year fall as my husband and I will probably be moving out of this city we live in to wherever he gets into grad school. Since I failed (or passed with a C) in orgo this semester, I can't possibly complete all my prereqs before graduation (need to take orgo 1 again... I hope this is not a complete no-no for vet school but orgo is killing me) and I still have to take my biology major classes and I don't wanna take too many science classes with orgo again, cause well I saw how that went this semester...

So, wherever we move next year, I am either planning to take the rest of the prereqs (physics 1 and 2, orgo 2 and biochem) there. I have searched forums for community college classes and it seems fine to take it at a community college (right?) however I will be a nondegree seeking student. I was wondering if any of you know if there are loans for nondegree students? Also I read that sometimes there are not enough seats for nondegree seekers and you end up not being able to take the class you want...

Or, I was thinking I could go for masters and take undergrad prereqs while doing my masters. Do any of you know if this is possible? I am not just going for masters to take my prereqs, I am very interested in conservation biology/wildlife ecology stuff so I was thinking I could do masters in something like that. The ultimate goal is vet school, but maybe I could combine what I did in masters with what I learned in vet school in the future somehow. (I know wildlife and zoo vets are really competitive...) Maybe get A's in grad school so that vet schools hopefully may not care too much about my failure in orgo... Of course, this will add to the loans but hoping itll pay off at the end...

Any insight is appreciated! You guys tend to help me a lot, so I am sorry if I am asking everything here but I get help here 🙂

 

[sewak]

If you searched the forums and people said it was fine to take classes at ccs then pay attention to them, but I know that I tried to submit planned classes for next semester at a cc and a bunch of schools didn't take them. I think a lot of schools prefer that you're taking your prereqs at a four year institution. If you have schools in mind it might not be a bad idea to just ask them or go on their websites and see what they say about the topic. Instead what I am doing is registering as a non-degree student at a four year college in the area and taking those courses there (the college I'm currently attending lacked the appropriate pre-req courses which is why I branched out). Any reason you couldn't do that? Instead of doing it at a cc? I've never had too much trouble registering as a non-degree student. If you do it as soon as registration opens you have a good shot at getting a spot, you just need to be industrious about it. As to the grad school question I have no idea, sorry... I'm sure someone else on here does!

 

[onisteverina]

I know that at least some of the schools I applied to this year list biochem as an upper division.. so that would need to be at a four year. Probably best to check the requirements of the schools you are interested in.

 

[Museum Nerd]

Not sure about signing up for a Masters and taking undergrad classes but a friend of mine registered as if she was going after a second Undergrad degree and then just took the pre reqs she needed for Vet school, this got her around having to wait for all the degree seeking students to select classes before she could register. You may have to do your research and figure out if you can get classes at the university you want as a non degree and if the Vet school you want to attend will take courses at a CC.

 

[epivetlove]

As someone who has finished her Masters degree and is working on her Doctoral degree...the odds of getting to take undergraduate classes is small. You're there to take graduate-level courses and you will have a degree plan that you will need to follow, usually set up by your committee or advisor. I know that some undergraduate courses can be taken if they relate to your degree. There's a MS student in my lab that has been approved to take 2 undergrad courses (nutrition and statistics). You'll have to discuss with the graduate programs about how many undergraduate courses you can take, if any. There are also extension and distance learning options that I know are accepted by a decent amount of vet schools. Maybe that's something to consider too.

Good luck! 🙂

 

[battie]

I was told by all of the schools I am applying to that taking certain classes at community colleges is a straight up no. I also needed to retake o-chem and e-mailed them about where would be an appropriate option since I needed to retake it over the summer. O-chem is only offered in the fall by one teacher here and is a pre-req for biochem, molecular biology and a few other classes I am taking this year as a senior. The schools said they wanted any upper division pre-reqs to be at a four year university or college. So I would contact schools you are interested in to make sure it is okay.

 

[catnips]

Thank you so much everyone! I thought since o-chem is offered at cc's, it might not be an upper level course. But biochem deff is, at least. After reading these, I will play it safe and take it at a 4 year undergrad. The only reason I wanted CC was because of money. I better start working and saving up... Thank you everyone for all the insight!

 

[catnips]

As someone who has finished her Masters degree and is working on her Doctoral degree...the odds of getting to take undergraduate classes is small. You're there to take graduate-level courses and you will have a degree plan that you will need to follow, usually set up by your committee or advisor. I know that some undergraduate courses can be taken if they relate to your degree. There's a MS student in my lab that has been approved to take 2 undergrad courses (nutrition and statistics). You'll have to discuss with the graduate programs about how many undergraduate courses you can take, if any. There are also extension and distance learning options that I know are accepted by a decent amount of vet schools. Maybe that's something to consider too.

Good luck! 🙂

Thank you so much! Great insight, I really thought I could take undergrad classes in grad school, good thing I found out I might not be able to before I got into it. (Although I really wanted to do conservation stuff!) I have no idea how grad school system works and there was a grad student in my botany class, so thought I might able to take o-chem and physics. But they won't have anything to do with what I want to do in Masters, so it makes sense that they might not let me. And congrats on finishing your Masters and working on Doctoral!

 

[epivetlove]

Thank you so much! Great insight, I really thought I could take undergrad classes in grad school, good thing I found out I might not be able to before I got into it. (Although I really wanted to do conservation stuff!) I have no idea how grad school system works and there was a grad student in my botany class, so thought I might able to take o-chem and physics. But they won't have anything to do with what I want to do in Masters, so it makes sense that they might not let me. And congrats on finishing your Masters and working on Doctoral!

No problem! Every program is going to be a little different, of course, which is why it won't hurt to contact those schools that you are interested in. They might tell you different. 🙂

Also, thanks! It's been an interesting road. I can't wait to add DVM to the mix (if I can convince them to let me in).

 

[ESD_2029]

What i'm doing is taking my basic pre reqs (gen chem, bio, humanities, etc) at a CC then transferring for the upper level courses (ochem, microbio, etc)