Guest jk995 Posted November 27, 2003 Report Share Posted November 27, 2003 Hi everyone, I am hoping to seek your advice.... As I posted a couple of months ago, I am considering starting a second degree in hopes of having a chance at getting into medicine. I have already completed a bachelors in engineering (with a low GPA) and will be completing my masters in january. I have applied for the January term at "Waterloo" distance education program but the process has become much much more confusing than I expected. 1. I received a letter of admission however, they have not given me ANY information regarding how many of my credits have been accepted. 2. Out of the courses that I have chosen, they have only accepted one of my courses since all of the BIO courses are full and they are not allowing me to take CHEM237 (intro to biochem) because I haven't taken its prerequisite CHEM266 (basic org. chem) which is not being offered till the FALL!!! 3. When I asked them if I can take a course on letter of permission at U of T, so that I would ensure full-time status, I was told that I had to take courses at waterloo for three terms before I could take a course on letter of permission!!! But I already have one degree!! 4. Finally, some of the courses that they offer have prerequisites that aren't even being offered via DE and I didn't think that they would be as strict in enforcing prerequisites since this was my second degree. Your advice would be greatly appreciated. Also, if anyone can give me ideas as to the order of the courses they took that were accepted by the department since I seem to be having no luck, it would be very kind. Thanks again jk995 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Elaine I Posted November 27, 2003 Report Share Posted November 27, 2003 Hi jk995, I'm sorry that I can't help you much with Waterloo. However, if you aren't set on U of W, you might want to look at Athabasca. It's an entirely distance education university, with a lot of flexibility. Each course has a rolling enrollment, meaning that you can start any course any month, so you won't run into problems with prerequisites. Your transcript indicates your start and end date, so you can ensure that you take a full course load between September and April. Best wishes, Elaine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ec416 Posted November 27, 2003 Report Share Posted November 27, 2003 Hi jk995, Regarding CHEM237 at Waterloo, it's pretty easy to email the instructor directly and ask him to override the pre-req. As long as you can demonstrate that you know something about aldehydes, ketones, amines and such, Prof. Brubacher (I'm assuming he's still the course instructor) will let you in. Hope this helps. E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest steak Posted December 3, 2003 Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 Hey jk, I'm actually in 237 this winter. Just as ec416 mentioned, it's easy to email the prof and ask for an override - they are fairly accomodating more often than not. Depending on what you need on your trascript for course levels, etc., you may want to look at CHEM 124 - it's basically the same course as 266 and is offered in the winter. (this won't get you in to 237 on its own, but would likely add a little to the odds of Brubacher letting you in..) Don't worry - the DE program is really really simple once you get the hang of it. I'm in the exact same situation as you are (only a year and a bit further down the road) and will be done in April - I've done the whole 2nd UG degree via UW DE and haven't had any real problems. Feel free to post any other questions or concerns and I'll let you know if I have any insight. Cheers! Steak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jk995 Posted December 4, 2003 Report Share Posted December 4, 2003 Thanks to everyone for your responses. I contacted the professor but since I don't have the background it seems that I won't be able to take 237 till next year. If anyone on this forum is doing a second degree through waterloo and wouldn't mind sharing their email with me or if there is a listserve for waterloo students, please email me at jedi4567@yahoo.com. Here's a question for all Distance Education students ... How do you keep busy, since you are not on campus and can no longer show extra-curricular activities? Volunteering, work, research...? Thanks jk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest calvindog Posted December 4, 2003 Report Share Posted December 4, 2003 What do you mean "not too busy and cannot show extra-currics"? If anything, the fact that you must teach yourself from a textbook without a prof there to ask any questions usually makes the distance ed student a lot busier. Also, you may not be able to do "campus" extracurricular activities like research, but you can do them anywhere else. Remember, all Med school Admissions want is for you to have a bit of life experience outside of the classroom. Obviously research and clinical experience if preferred by most, but no one should underestimate the importance of other activities that do not fall into the above mentioned category. For example, traveling, part-time jobs, hobbies, and any volunteer experience that deals with human interaction. The distance ed student, if successful in their GPA, also shows the admission committee of their determination and ability for self education-a very important quality of a physician. Hang in there, get out and volunteer, and remember you are just as qualified as your fellow campus applicants. Good Luck!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Elaine I Posted December 4, 2003 Report Share Posted December 4, 2003 I second what calvindog said. Doing distance ed courses requires a lot of discipline. I have found that picking a time each week (for several hours) where I work on each distance ed course works the best for me. I treat each of those time slots as if it were an actual class that I had to attend. I wouldn't skip the class if it was in-person, so I don't skip the time I've selected to work on that class. As far as keeping busy... That depends on how many courses you are taking. Realistically, you will probably need 4-6 hours per week per class (or more depending upon the class). Therefore, you can be very busy just doing school work, even if you're not on campus! In addition, I volunteer a lot of time with the local and national science fair committees (the local ones exist in every region of Canada - something that we are very proud of!), and with my professional association. I do, however, have the advantage of already being a health care worker (paramedic), so I have not had to look for volunteer positions in the health sector. Instead, I volunteer in areas that interest me, and areas that I was volunteering in long before I decided to apply to medical school. BTW, I truly believe that whatever you decide to do, you have to do it because you want to, and not because you think it will look good on a med school application. You need a passion for what you do. Best wishes, Elaine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest khoberian Posted December 4, 2003 Report Share Posted December 4, 2003 Hi, jk995. I'm sorry I won't be able to help you much with getting into 237. However, I will say that profs generally tend to be far easier to deal with for override forms and the like. I wanted to get into 266 for the fall and the registrar's office gave me hell. I had to get the prof to sign my override form twice but he did it both times (after a bit of persuasion). So, as someone suggested I would simply approach the prof teaching the course - generally they tend to be co-operative as far as you getting into the course is concerned. One thing I was wondering was if you could tell me if Waterloo has told you how many credits they will give you yet. Also, will those credits just appear as credits for auditing purposes or will a mark for them show up too? Apologies for the flurry of questions. I'd really appreciate it if you could add some info here. Best of luck with your enrollment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jk995 Posted December 7, 2003 Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 Hello again, Regarding the extra-curricular stuff... I didn't say that distance ed students weren't too busy, what I meant was since you don't have access to many of the on-campus activities, and you're not attending classes on campus, what kind of activities do you participate in so that you're not sitting at home all the time studying 8o and have some kind of interaction with other people. Since this is a new field for me, and I haven't gone through the original arts and science field the first time, I would love to get some practical volunteer experience in health care. Unfortunately, many of the hospitals aren't accepting any more volunteers and I wonder if doing research with a prof might be too time consuming to handle a full course load. Anyways, that's just me thinking out loud... One more thing, waterloo told me that until you do at least a full term with them they won't evaluate the previous courses, hope that helps you khoberian. Cheers jk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest osindy Posted December 11, 2003 Report Share Posted December 11, 2003 hey guys. I was wondering if I could get some help please. I am currently working in TO and I wanted to take my final prereqs of biochemistry. I was going to take it through DE from waterloo but I have to take two biochemistry courses to satisfy med school requirements out west. I don't know what the next biochemistry course is after chem 237 and would greatly appreciate the help in locating this next course either at Waterloo or at Athabasca for any who know. Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ec416 Posted December 11, 2003 Report Share Posted December 11, 2003 Hi osindy, The best person to talk to would be Prof. Tiberiis (tiberiis@interchange.ubc.ca). He's the biochem advisor for UBC's faculty of medicine. I exchanged a few emails with him re my own biochem dilemma earlier this year and he was extremely helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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