I am trying to find some financial aid so that I will be able to go back to college and begin taking pre-med classes. I already have a BA in education, so would be returning at he post BA level.

I know there are all sorts of sites and info ou there, I just thought a fellow folc might be able to point me in the direction of a good one.

Thank you

Mona

I wouldn't be able to help you, I'm afraid, but I do think it would be a good idea to indicate where you are.

I started back to college a few months ago (online, not full time -- only two courses per quarter), for my bachelor's, and while the forms were dizzying, I did get enough in student loans to cover the Fall, Winter & Spring quarters (it covers textbooks to a limited extent); I assume that at the end of Spring I can apply again. (Assuming the banking system hasn't collapsed entirely, of course. But if it has, I'm not sure it'd be worth my while to get a BS in Accounting, anyway. ) I'm finishing my first quarter now, and so far the only thing I've paid out of pocket is about $20 for books.

PJ
who has to write a Term Paper this week and take two finals next week... ah, the joys of education...

Congrats Pam on going back to school. I never realy considered taking online classes but especially since I truly need all the basic math and science courses- and lol, am not naturlaly gifted in either subject, especially science, being able to truly study on my own might help. I'll have to check it out. I live in LA, by the way.

Mona

Mona, one of the things I like about Strayer is that while all the courses I need are online, they do have a building pretty close to me, so I can go in and use the library, etc. They do free tutoring; a different subject every night. You're having problems in Math, come in Tuesday nights and someone (professor or grad student) will help you out. That kind of thing. I haven't used it yet but I'm thinking I'll have to come Spring -- I'll be taking Accounting 3, but Acc 2 was a *loooong* time ago I'm kind of surprised they transfered my credits, to be honest. Anyway, it's kind of a best-of-both-worlds scenario.

So far I'm enjoying the whole thing. Well, except for one of my two professors, who is just sloppy with assignments, quizzes, etc. You see stuff like: "this quiz may be taken December 8th to the 14th, grades will be posted by October 20th." I'm getting a 97% but she really gets on my nerves.

None of which is helpful to you! Sorry 'bout that... guess I drifted.

PJ

Way to go Pam! I have a BS in Accounting. Stick with it! If you get past Intermediate Accounting, it's all downhill from there. I always heard before I took the courses that Intermediate was the hump of the camel, and wow, were they right. The University I went to had 3 Intermediates we had to take but I've heard the curriculum has changed since then. Keep at it!

And congrats Mona on doing pre-med!

Good to know! I expect to be doing that in the spring. At the new-student orientation, they said that if you get through the first two quarters, then you'll graduate. Mostly because if you can do that, you've figured out how to set aside time to do the work. It's very different from what I remember, living on campus. I like this better, I think. If all I had to think about was term papers and finals, I'd go nuts This way, I have a whole *variety* of things to stress out over

PJ
p.s., looks like I'll be taking Intermediate Accounting I and II. There's free tutoring to help me out, not to mention the accountants I work with every day. But I know I can do this.

Well your currently looking at a Senior majoring in Accounting as well. And I didn't take my teacher in high school seriously when he said intermediate sucks. But it really does. It really is all downhill from there (at least for me. I knew I wanted to be in this field since I was a junior in High School.)

Not many people understand it... considering I get asked to tutor all my friends that are business majors and need to take accounting 1 and 2.

Thank you again Pam, I will look into Strayer. I never heard of it though. I think around here, The University of Phoenix is one of the biggest online/actual campus colleges. I could also take a good two years worth of classes at a junior college to save money.

And, aw, thank you very much, Stephanie. It's always been my dream to become a doctor and it'll be a long road but I so plan (hope) to see it through.

Mona

Hey, Mona! Yay for pre-med!

I'm a first year med student in Texas, and if you need any advice or such, feel free to talk with me!

I would normally agree with the posts above, but you may want to think twice about the online classes. Some med schools will not accept online class credit or will see it as a "cop out" for taking the real classes at a college/university. You especially want to take ochem and biochem at a university. The preliminary basic science courses you should be able to do at a community college.

Make sure you know your basic sciences, especially physics, because they're all on the MCAT. I actually teach MCAT classes, and I know that the verbal and physics/chem sections are the hardest for people to master. I would suggest taking a prep course for the test because I more than doubled my score using one.

Anyway, hope that helps! PM me if ever you need anything! Best of luck!

Mona, I think Strayer only has buildings on the East Coast, though I guess the online part you can do from anywhere. I'll agree, though, that you should check ahead of time if an "online" degree will be accepted, especially with pre-med, as medicine is so very hands-on. Community college might be the way to go. They're getting more popular these days. Some of them have some online courses, too.

PJ

Squirky, thank you very much. I'll send you a pm in just a second.

Pam, hug for all your suggestions and nod, I dop think community college will be the way to go. I started to take a class a year ago at my closest Cal State School and for just one class, one class, (well it would have been good up to 6 at 6 units) it cost over $1000! And I don't think that included books, school supplies, or parking. Crazy, huh? When I was in college (my first time around) I did take a few classes over the summer at the local junior college and they cost like $13 (that was over 10 years ago now) a unit. So much cheaper! And yeah, right now, since I really need all the basic basic math and science courses, I'd think at least some of them would be okay to take at a community college level. As I said I'm really going to start doing massive google scholarship search after the holidays.

Thanks again, everyone,
Mona

Mona, something you might want to think about if you're going to be taking some classes at a community college is to find out how they transfer. I've been to three colleges for three different degrees, and each time I've had to re-take math because it wouldn't transfer from one to the other. What a waste of time and money when the syllabus in each class was virtually the same!

Good point, Rona. I spent two years at a community college, back in the late eighties, and a lot of that stuff transferred. (Before that, I'd spent two years at a university, but I radically changed majors halfway through and therefore had 4 years of college with no degree in sight) Anyway, Strayer transferred in credits for Math 300 (statistics) and Math 310 (calculus), but they still want me to take Math 105 (intro to college math). How crazy is that? I asked about it, and they said that Math 105 is a different *type* of math (algebra), so I still have to do it.

I'll start that in January, and my sixth-grade math-genius son is looking forward to it. If I need any help, I'll ask him

Thank God, they transferred in my English Composition credits. The community college didn't; they wanted me to take it again. I *hate* English Comp. And I like to think I know how to write...

(Though, to be fair, I think both my math and english credits were from AP exams, not actual classes. Good enough for the university, but not good enough for the community college :rolleyes: )

Um, where was I? Oh yeah, I think my point was that transferring credits is a bit of a crap shoot. But all you can do is do your best, and try not to transfer more than once.

PJ

Rona, that is great point and so important to do. Also depending on your major, need to be certain the class, especially if it's a General Ed Class would even count. For example there's chemistry classes for both science and non science majors.

Pam, aw, that stinks and is so very strange! I mean if you passed Calculus shouldn't it be obvious you understand the basic math? :p I hope that will work out for you. Hey, when I get to calculus someday can I ask you for help?

Mona

You'd think so, wouldn't you? Oh well, I don't mind; I'm a math geek and it has been a long time...

Sure! I'll get my son right onto that. So far he's only up to trigonometry, but hey, he's only 11. He'd love a calculus book for Christmas. Seriously, he would. The trig book was for his birthday, and it was his favorite present. He wanted me to buy two textbooks for the Algebra class, so he could have his own.

On the other hand, this is a boy who still believes in Santa. But that's one of the characteristics of autism; advanced in one area, way behind in another.

PJ

I have to echo the caution about online courses - even though I did a postgraduate qualification online myself and it's THE qualification to have in my field. Well, I'm particularly cautioning you about the University of Phoenix. Google University of Phoenix reviews and you'll see what I mean. A friend of mine started an online degree at Phoenix and as time went by got more and more disillusioned by the standard of teaching, marking, materials provided and university regulations, not to mention other students not pulling their weight - which mattered since almost all the assignments were group work. She eventually decided to quit and enrol in a university near her home. She got very little credit for her UoP courses because the local university said they were practically worthless She felt, in the end, that all UoP cared about is getting money from students and did very little to ensure quality and appropriate educational standards.

One thing you could look for at your community college is whether they offer courses leading to specific professional designations. In Canada the community colleges do - I don't mean licensed professions such as medicine or chartered accounting, but things like payroll certification, building inspector certification etc. Look in their catalogue; usually if a course is recognised by a professional association there would be a professional association logo next to it. Then you don't have to worry about transferability.

Good luck!


Wendy

Thanks for the warning, Wendy! I'm sorry that happened to your friend. Nod, about the classes not being transferable. The thing is I really would be basically completing a second bachelor's degree, except whereas my first was in Child Development, this one would be in Biology. When I spoke with a premed advisor we figured out that (yikes)! I would need a good 12 classes,not including a few highly recommended extra ones, I believe at least 8 of them were lower division. If I could save some money on those it'd sure be nice!

Mona

Yes, I'd heard about the group work thing; it's how they skimp on paying professors, most of which are part-time. Because of course college students work *really* hard when nobody in authority is watching. :rolleyes:

According to my textbook, this sort of thing is called "social loafing" -- there will always be people who want to coast on other people's labor. Which, in college courses, is fair to nobody. The good students have to work harder, and the loafers aren't actually learning much of anything. And since employers and other colleges can't tell which is which, they tend to assume nobody learned anything. A degree from UofP might be better than nothing, but it might not.

Not all online schools are like that, though. I haven't had any group projects, really -- there's a discussion that you need to participate in every week; post your answer to the question and then respond to two other students' posts. But there was no problem getting enough people to participate in that. One of my professors would monitor it, too, and throw in questions like "why do you think that? can you explain your reasoning? but have you thought about ___?" and give hints if we weren't getting something My other professor kinda sucks but I guess thems the breaks. I'm still getting the work done okay, though.

PJ

I do second the online degree caveat. It works for some things, but as far as the UofP goes--never heard one good thing. Avoid if at all possible.

I'd also second the community college thing. Their credits tend to be much more transferrable since they usualy have direct arrangements with local universities.

Also, in regards to funding, check to see if you're eligible for state funding. I'm getting my PhD, and I get tax write-offs for doing "continuing education." As an undergrad I also qualified for a couple different state scholarships. Being a returning student, you might also qualify for a fair amount of packages through the schools themselves--although you need to look right now, because most of the money goes out at the end of the year/beginning of next year. Talk to several schools to see what they might offer you for your major and your "maturity." Honestly, those online scholarship things are usually useless. The schools themselves are much more helpful most of the time. And I went through all my undergrad on scholarship, so trust me on that one