Master's Requirements

[umecyne]

I've looked through most of the wiki but I'm struggling to figure out what the cheapest option would be for filling a couple of required courses before applying to a master's degree program at ULF.

The required courses are (no labs required)

• General Biology (2 semesters)
  
• General Chemistry (2 semesters)
  
• Organic Chemistry (1 semester)
  

According to their advisors there's not any option for me to test out of these requirements, they want actual course completions.  Their suggestion was to take the courses at UC San Diego's extension program.  But the cost is just way too high for me.  If anyone has any suggestions, I'd really appreciate it.

[davewill]

If you're in California (guessing because of the UC San Diego suggestion), it's hard to get much cheaper than community college. All of those courses should be offered at the CC. However, you're looking at two semesters for those.

[Jonathan Whatley]

Portage Learning, transcripted by Geneva College, is another lower than average priced option.

[bjcheung77]

Even if you're not in California, you can check out the classes online from other state colleges or universities... You haven't mentioned what part of the WIKI you've reviewed, your budget, and which options you have looked at besides UCSD Extension. Check the WIKI for community college/universities, and the obscure credits links and find something in addition to what has been mentioned already.

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Oh, you didn't mention what institution ULF is, the first thing that came to mind was... Ultra Low Frequency, but that's not what you're referring to!

[umecyne]

Even if you're not in California, you can check out the classes online from other state colleges or universities...  You haven't mentioned what part of the WIKI you've reviewed, your budget, and which options you have looked at besides UCSD Extension.  Check the WIKI for community college/universities, and the obscure credits links and find something in addition to what has been mentioned already.

---

Oh, you didn't mention what institution ULF is, the first thing that came to mind was... Ultra Low Frequency, but that's not what you're referring to!

Sorry I was honestly exhausted yesterday and didn't realize until later on in the night I had left out quite a bit of information.  ULF would be University of Florida, specifically their online program for Medical Microbiology.  The advisor told me they didn't care what school the credit came from as long as it was considered "accredited" (https://admissions.ufl.edu/apply/graduate/accreditation).

I've looked through the "Sources of Credit" part of the wiki, and looked at a few of the Distance Learning options.  It was just a bit overwhelming trying to find schools that had those required courses, and figuring out if they actually offered an online option for that specific course.  Asynchronous would be the most ideal, and that just complicated things further.  Was mostly hoping maybe someone had some ideas off hand or previous experience with a similar set of classes that they needed.

I'd prefer to stay under 3000 USD in terms of budget, and I think UCSD Extension came close to a total of 4225.

[jg_nuy]

Take a look at New Mexico Junior Colleges, as they offer many of these including the labs
https://www.nmjc.edu//

[bjcheung77]

Oh, I was thinking it was UFL but it was a typo where you transposed the letters... That was the exact program I really wanted to take from them a few years ago. Here's their program link and requirements, you may want to ask them if they'll take conditional acceptance, do you have a Bachelors already? Link: https://microbiologyonline.ifas.ufl.edu/

[umecyne]

Oh, I was thinking it was UFL but it was a typo where you transposed the letters... That was the exact program I really wanted to take from them a few years ago.  Here's their program link and requirements, you may want to ask them if they'll take conditional acceptance, do you have a Bachelors already?  Link: https://microbiologyonline.ifas.ufl.edu/

Sorry, I didn't even realize I had managed to swap the letters around.  I have a Bachelors in Software Development from WGU, so that would be why I'm lacking those courses.  I had some credits transferred over from a community college, but I don't exactly remember what was transferred over.  I'm fairly certain I didn't take any of these 5 required courses though.  I'll try and ask them about the conditional acceptance, I wasn't aware that was a possibility.

Thank you for your help, and thank you to everyone else that's posted in this thread.

[wow]

Be careful with New Mexico Junior College. Their online intro biology courses may not count as general biology at every institution. You should check with your program before taking the courses to make sure they meed the requirements. (As for the learning experience there, it's great. I've taken multiple science courses online and was impressed by the profs and curriculum.)

They sometimes offer a semester of intro chemistry, but I don't think that would count as general chem. ASU Universal Learner offers one semester of chem that may count -- you'll have to check.

For the rest, look at community colleges in your area. I haven't been able to find cheap organic chem or gen chem 2 online anywhere.

[davewill]

There's generally two tracks for Biology, Chemistry and Physics. One for science majors and one not. You have to be clear which ones you need. The fact they don't need the labs suggests to me it's the latter.