Not this fall

[cjsmith]

I will not be applying to UCDavis veterinary school this fall. Biochem (of which I must take at least two quarters) requires previous completion of o-chem (a full year), which in turn requires completion of the chem I'm in during the spring. And no, I can't start o-chem in the summer. It's not offered.

All of this fussing around about fitting the courses in, and it turns out it never would have been possible to do them all in two years. Three = minimum.

This does kind of put the pressure on to get in on my first try. I simply don't have the financial wherewithal to go *four* years before entering vet school.

Good points:
- No GRE this spring!
- May be able to drop physics this spring (and get better grades in what's left).
- More time to gain a variety of animal experience - wildlife, etc. This is huge.
- More time to get to know veterinarians at all these places = potentially better letters of recommendation.
- Opportunity to take some really cool courses I don't specifically need. Micro! Human anatomy!
- Opportunity to beef up the transcript in the humanities.

Bad points:
- Money.

Comments

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

Ouch, that's very frustrating. But you seem to be handling the news well, and all you can do is try to make it into a good thing. It definitely sounds less stressful and the ability to take courses because they are interesting rather than required sounds cool, although ridiculously unusual in colleges I have been at. :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I think taking courses because they are interesting is possible only for people who have no deadlines, which is insanely rare at schools that cost money. Tuition at De Anza is ludicrously low, most folk there are living with their parents, and, as best I can tell, many also have no particular educational goals. (Why should they? Right now they've got the cushiest life they'll ever have.) Even among the academically excellent, very few seem to have the feeling that they need to finish a four-year degree in four years. Community college insulates people from a lot.

Me, I've got a goal and a big sense of urgency, but with this dependency chain in the prerequisites, suddenly I may as well take the fun stuff too. Well, unless I need to find a paying job. That's my big worry now.

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

Colleges are kind of out of control. Back in the day, I did the traditional four year thing and it didn't seem to bad. I was the minority among my friends, graduating in four years, but it was doable. And I even found time to take two courses a year that I didn't exactly NEED. I don't know how unusual my experience was, but it seemed like that could be done if you buckled down, back then.

Compared to going to a expensive four year school (and especially compared to going to an expensive four year school before you really know what you want to do), I think community colleges are a wonderful opportunity for most people. But the four year schools, in my admittedly limited experience, are handling the loss of control very poorly.

Kim decided a few years ago to go to school and pursue a degree in accounting. She is just finishing up her second year at community college (will finish the Spring, plus two classes in the Summer) and has been accepted to UMKC in the fall. But the last two years have been pretty stressful. When we first saw the list of what UMKC required to approve a transfer, it was ridiculous. To do it in two years meant taking 17-18 credits every semester, plus two course each summer. No dropped classes, no repeats, no fun classes, nothing. That was just the classes that UMKC required her to have before considering the application.

Half the time, the classes barely make sense. She needed to take two classes on computer applications. Eight credits to verify you know how to use Word and Excel? Seriously? When I first got to Temple, it was assumed you would just go to the computer lab and learn that on your own. By the time I left Temple, it was a required class, but it was a one credit Freshman seminar. But now they want you to invest a few hundred hours of your life in it before they will check it off the list. Craziness.

[steph-2012.livejournal.com]

Tip: *some* profs at DA will let you take some pre-reqs concurrently. You just have to ask and be prepared to make some sort of personal oath up front. Being a "grup" (especially one with a technical degree) usually carries a lot of weight with them. You can also petition to take pre-reqs concurrently.

Good luck!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! This one's not going to fly quite so easily, as biochem is an upper-division course not offered at De Anza. I'll need to use my wheedling to convince (say) Santa Clara U that De Anza's o-chem is good enough. (Handy dandy fact: my chem prof this quarter is also Santa Clara U's biochem prof!)

It sure did work out well, though, when I got to take first quarter bio and first quarter chem at the same time. I did what you suggested: ask, and promise to be the best little squeaky clean student they'd ever seen. That time it worked. I'd be in deep doo-doo if I hadn't been able to start both of those in the fall.