BS Degrees

[Cream Soda]

Alright, so trying to keep my options open.

I have my AA in Pre-pharmacy and am applying for Pharm schools for fall term next year.

My grades are okay, but not stellar and it's pretty competitive, so have to be realistic about it and explore other options in case I don't get in.

Looking at the BS degrees my college offers, the two I'd have the most credits towards would be Nursing BS (could do Nursing AS as well) or Biology BS and would be able to finish either in a year and a half (or less if I go summer term)

I was wondering what I'd be able to do with either of these degrees if anyone has any experience with either or both and what I'd be able to do with them upon graduation.

Ideally though, it's just to complete a BS as requirement to get a work visa for going to another country to (either Japan or Korea) to teach English, but yea, if that doesn't work out either, I may actually have to use one of these degrees, lol.

[Penthesilea]

I started in Pharmacy, realized it was a complete waste of time that I had very little interest in doing, outside of the pharmacology/toxicology courses. Ended up doing a BS in Biology and now I'm working in small molecule drug discovery.

There's a lot of options, what interests you most?

I'm sure others with BS in BIO will chime in as well with what they're doing

[Cream Soda]

Hmm, honestly, out of my current options (even if I do get into pharm school), the Korea thing interests me most at the moment. I was planning on going and doing it for 5-10 years when I graduated regardless of what I got my degree in.

But that aside, both math and science classes interest me. I just didn't choose any BS in math courses since I'd have to pretty much start that from scratch except up to calc I.

From the classes I have taken

Gen chem 1-2: medium interest
Organic chem 1-2: very interesting
Bio 1: medium interest
Bio II: Snorefest for most of the semester, did like the A&P portion of it though on the animals
A&P 1-2: Very interesting (though not as much as organic 1 and II)
Microbiology: In that now, as interesting, if not, more interesting than organic chem 1-2
Physics 1: High tier medium interest
Physics II: Medium interest

Gen eds are just that, not worth mentioning here.

Can't think of a specific passion though, I just find most of these classes interesting, so just looking at possibilities here.

[Plow]

A BS in nursing leaves you with a huge amount of options, ranging from schools to hospitals to old folks homes, asylums, etc. etc. Could also lead to sports therapy, or combine with further pharma teaching to go into sports medicine, all kinds of stuff in those fields as well.

It would also help strengthen your candidacy for ESL teaching overseas.

That's the direction I'd lean if I were you.

[Skyylya]

Don't get your BS degree until you are 100% sure you're ready to end your undergraduate studying. Once you have your bachelors you're never eligible for the pell grant again attempting for further undergraduate education barring some enormous oversight at the college FA department (i've seen it happen once, and the lady that got the pell is responsible for it...not us).

As for those two fields I wouldn't do biology unless you know exactly what graduate program it is going to assist you with. Nursing is a much better professional degree especially here in Florida where we live. There are more nursing jobs here in the bay area than anything else.

Of those two i'd pick Nursing, but I wouldn't pick either unless you're 100% sure.

[Cream Soda]

With my school, you can only change your "degree seeking program" one time, and I'm already on pharm AA, so once I change that to anything else, I won't be able to get aid anymore anyways because one of the requirements is to be in a degree seeking program(I had to pay this semester, for example, since I am taking courses outside of the pharm AA degree. Wanting to change it before January, so I can actually get financial aid for next semester)

[Skyylya]

Your school is retarded then, that is their rule for not wanting to do the paper work. The DoE simply say's you must be in a degree seeking program, it say's nothing about whether, and how many times, you change which degree it is that you are seeking.

They giggled when they got you to pay cash. What they DoE does say is that no school can receive more than 90% of it's funding through federal financial aid. At least 10% of their income must come from cash...you just supplied some of that.

Where do you go to school?

[Cream Soda]

Yea, it's bullshit. It's also why I haven't applied for my AA yet. I meet all the requirements, but if I get the degree, they wouldn't help me any further there either @.@.

Then they also have max time frame, so let's say I started at one BA and went to another, w/e degree I'm in needs X# of credits. Max time frame says if I've taken X#+Y% (i think it's 130%) of the number of credits required (whether its retaking courses or just taking courses not relevant to the degree I'm seeking) then they also cut you off

[Skyylya]

Max time frame is a normal thing. Otherwise people would just work towards the same degree forever and never go into repayment. But, you can complete as many degree's as you like up to the aggregate loan limit of 57,500$ in total loan debt, that is of course including using Pell so you can stretch it out quite a bit getting multiple AS/AA degrees from various schools. Of course going to less expensive ones is the way to drag it out the longest.

Really what most people do nowadays is enroll, get their loan refund and then withdraw. You end up owing the school a balance, but it'll never get sent to collections and you can just move onto a new school. Welcome to the new age welfare that I deal with every day!


Where do you go to school again?

[Cream Soda]

SPC (Saint Petersburg College)

[Skyylya]

They were a lot better when they were still a community college. Then they wanted to go all big boy and start offering bachelors degrees cause that's where the money is at. Rope people in for 4 years and profit more.

What is their tuition per credit? I looked at them a little over a year ago and they had a fully online associates in business admin and the in state was like 90$/credit which is crazy.

[Cream Soda]

I haven't checked recently, but 90/credit sounds about right. Little under 300 for a 3 credit course.

[Tyche]

If you haven't started nursing, I doubt you'd finish in a year and a half. Probably 4 semesters minimum. You can't take rotations concurrently, need a minimum amount of clinical hours, plus precepting. Getting into programs can be really competitive too, so it may be something you'd want to look at. As Plow said, nursing leaves some options open and it's not exactly a competitive field once you graduate. Most of the competition is in school. If paper is your concern, you can always go into anesthesia, if travel is your concern, you can do Doctors without borders. If you just want a job, you're a male minority, you can probably get any job you want as a nurse.

[Punices9]

Just finished my BS in Biology last December and honestly at least here in the Chicago area it is pretty useful. Currently working doing lung cancer research. If you get a degree in biology it leaves the door open to do a lot. Also if you liked micro you could do quality control at pharmaceutical companies or any other science based company that has quality control.

On the other hand, nursing in Florida is probably a great idea if you just want an income.

[Xno Kappa]

The wifey just finished her degree in Nursing and she had little to no trouble finding a good job immediately. Nursing in general seems to be one of the fastest growing fields still hiring.

[richardd]

If you haven't started nursing, I doubt you'd finish in a year and a half. Probably 4 semesters minimum. You can't take rotations concurrently, need a minimum amount of clinical hours, plus precepting. Getting into programs can be really competitive too, so it may be something you'd want to look at. As Plow said, nursing leaves some options open and it's not exactly a competitive field once you graduate. Most of the competition is in school. If paper is your concern, you can always go into anesthesia, if travel is your concern, you can do Doctors without borders. If you just want a job, you're a male minority, you can probably get any job you want as a nurse.

this field has started to interest me the most. im in health sciences right now, but im only my 1st semester in, and already looking into nursing and medical schools for afterwords. i love the fact that im a male and biracial, too. im more into the surgical aspect of it, but it interests me as a whole really. how tough is medical school as far as competition goes?

i honestly dont care about the income of nursing. im cheap as hell and can live PERFECTLY fine off of 20-30k a year, and dont plan on getting married anytime soon. but i love the feeling of actually walking in and doing different shit everyday and needing to be relied on. and the hours are pretty cool, too lol. i always preferred 40-50+ hour work weeks in bulk so i can have more time to myself afterwords than just 2 days off

[Cream Soda]

Sorry guys, not your typical CS thread, I know!

[Lucienne]

Sorry guys, not your typical CS thread, I know!

lol
My thoughts exactly.

What about the teaching part interests you? Have you tried teaching/working with kids before or do you just see it as an easy way to live in an Asian country, because if it's the letter you might want to look into other options and maybe pick a profession that is desirable in those countries. Have you considered the fact it will be significantly harder for you to get a job within your field if you spend ten years doing something completely different and then come back?

[Talus]

Well I'm not trying to troll but look at the bright side - regardless of what you want to apply for, you are competitive as long as you keep your GPA above a 3.0 most likely, whether it's pharmacy, nursing, etc. You're an underrepresented minority in healthcare professions so you have an advantage there (but you're applying to other people similar to you as far as applicant profile). If you could apply as an underrepresented minority and economically disadvantaged, well you'd be a shoe-in. (and the Asian and white kids with better GPAs that are competing against each other will nerd rage when they don't get in)

[Talus]

this field has started to interest me the most. im in health sciences right now, but im only my 1st semester in, and already looking into nursing and medical schools for afterwords. i love the fact that im a male and biracial, too. im more into the surgical aspect of it, but it interests me as a whole really. how tough is medical school as far as competition goes?

i honestly dont care about the income of nursing. im cheap as hell and can live PERFECTLY fine off of 20-30k a year, and dont plan on getting married anytime soon. but i love the feeling of actually walking in and doing different shit everyday and needing to be relied on. and the hours are pretty cool, too lol. i always preferred 40-50+ hour work weeks in bulk so i can have more time to myself afterwords than just 2 days off

Getting accepted to medical school is competitive. A little under 50% of all applicants to M.D. schools in the US get accepted (I think it was 47% last year). There's also D.O. schools as well, as far as practicing in the US is concerned, D.O. = M.D., but if you have any ideas about practicing internationally, M.D. opens more doors, plus there are some regional biases against D.O.'s by old school M.D.'s. To have a realistic shot at M.D. school you need a 3.5+ GPA and 30-31 MCAT.