Biology BS from Excelsior

[BlackLabRat]

Thanks for responding everyone! Long post ahead!!! I'm still at work and have been typing/saving it all morning.

cookderosa: When I first started college I was premed, had support, docs to shadow, even a part time job working with a well renowned doc at my university, until I realized that med students & residents have no life and...............I'm afraid of people! :leaving:

Any advice on making this as less expensive as possible would be great, but it is not my primary concern. I'm not feeling very positive about COSC: something about having a concentration instead of a major bothers me.

I'm finally accepted that UAB would not be possible with my current situation. I would need to win the lotto or marry a rich man so I can quit my job and go to school full time. UAB is messed up. Is it not made for someone with a life. Example: General chem is 3 classes: lecture, lab, and recitation. Yes, 3 damn classes hour+ long classes. Math is now 2 classes: lecture & lab. Who the hell has a math lab?!

My job is burning me out. I am unable to go school during the day because of my work schedule. There is no way to work around this. My supervisor had already told several people that they would have to go to school around their work schedule & no accomodations with be made (there's a story behind this but I don't want to start going down that road on this forum..EEOC :toetap: ) They've already made arrangments with me concerning my son. I was able to get him into a free preschool but I am required to go to "parenting classes" every monday.:nopity: So now I work Tues-Sunday. That is correct. 1 day off a week. I'm am transfering to a postion where overtime would be optional not mandatory. I don't mind working 6 days a week as long as I can get out in 8 hours.

I am not planning on going to grad school. I have not ruled it out but I already have my foot in the door career wise. I currently work as a microbiology lab assistant. My employer does hire & train BS biology majors to work as medical technologists.

When I first asked about tuition reimbursement, I was asked if I was going to school for medical technology....hell no. It is not possible. The program is challenging (not that I'm dumb, I could do it if I was 18 and didn't work 60hrs a week with a baby) and is FULL OF LABS and weeks of clinical rotations.
That’s when looked into obtaining a BS in molecular biology: less labs, no clinicals. I got approval from HR for that program but was presented with a contract to sign my soul over the devil for 2 yrs and I declined.

I was referred to ocean county college by allnurses.com because I needed to take general biology and chem., but after being up all night I now have a new plan because I do need an associate’s degree by the summer.

I contacted HR about the requirements for working as a MLT (medical lab technician). They have never hired someone with just an associates degree but I mentioned that I would have obtained MT certification through AAB route #3 American Association of Bioanalysts - MT(AAB) & would have a graduate certificate in molecular diagnostics from MSU (yes, they admit undergrads into the program with permission)

Once I am promoted to a tech at my job & finally obtain a BS degree I will test to become a registered microbiologist, obtain ASCP certification, and enroll in UMASS certificate program in molecular pathology. With all this done I can get the hell on away from this job (I’m not knocking my employer, they are the only people on earth that will provide on the job training in this field, but the pay is not on par with the education & credentials I will be getting)

Believe me, I'm not trying to take a short cut, I'm just want to hurry up and get a degree before of the loop holes in my profession are closed (which I doubt would happen anytime soon but I don’t want to take any chances). I see that I am not required to take physics or organic chem but I am going to anyway because I know I will need it if I do decide to peruse a higher degree.

I've been up all night/day devising a plan of action.
Currently these are the credits I have:
UAB:
English 101-3
English 102-3
Anatomy 115 w/lab -4
Math 102-3
Philosophy 101-3
Sociology 101-3
Art 101-3
Computer Science 101-3

South University Online
Medical Terminology-3
Student Success-3
Psychology 101-3
Speech-3

Now, with all this my general education requirements would be met except for my math. I want to use ALEKS to go through pre-cal and trig and UEXCEL for calculus and physics. I want to CLEP biology and chemistry, and take the Excelsior college exams for the microbiology and pathophysiology. I would have met the lab requirements for the degree from the anatomy lab at UAB and the molecular diagnostics lab component at MSU. I’m going to take the organic chemistry I &II w/labs through UNE online.

This would leave me at only needing to fulfill the upper level requirements for the degree.