schools with Online BS in Biology???

[Katzepatra]

I am asking this for a friend who has been in 2 B&M schools however she will be getting stationed with her soon to be husband before she completes her degree. She knows I've done online schooling and asked me to help her find a BS in Bio with a more flexible transfer policy (she's a junior). So far I've come up with SUNY in NY however they are listing it as a concentration in Biology not a Bachelor of Science in Biology and she balking at it, saying its not the same.

If anyone has any other ideas, let me know. I know she wants to become a Physicians Assistant and right now she is terrified that she has to "do it all over". It's taken some convincing that she won't loose all her classes - she was under the impression she would have to start over if enrolling to an online program. I know I've seen a few posters previously post about Bio and where to get the classes with labs but I can't seem to find the info on actual schools offering the degree. I'm also not familiar with that path (med school?) so any help would be really appreciated.

[sanantone]

First of all, she needs to know that a biology degree will NOT give her an advantage when applying to medical programs. These programs usually like diversity and biology majors are the most common applicants. That means that biology applicants have less of a chance of being chosen because they have a lot more competition. If she had majored in a subject that is rarely seen among applicants, she would have a much better chance. I'm saying this since she's making such a big deal about concentration vs. major.

I don't know which SUNY college you're talking about, but I'm assuming that the concentration requires almost as many credit hours in biology as a major. All of the Big 3 offer biology degrees. COSC, however, only offers concentrations. TESC and COSC will require transfer credits. Excelsior offers all of the needed courses in a test or online course format. I forgot, Excelsior's program is a natural science degree with a concentration in biology. So, TESC is the only one that offers a major in biology, but they also offer the natural science and mathematics degree program, which is extremely flexible.

The only other thing I could find was a BAAS with a concentration in Biology and Biotechnology at University of Houston-Victoria.

[Leherself]

Usually the key if you're pre-med (any pre-professional program, really) is to pay attention to the specific pre-requisites that you need. The major tends to not matter so much. For instance, when I was thinking about becoming a Physical Therapist, it was made clear that my major could be anything from Biology to Underwater Basket-weaving, but I would need lab Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy & Physiology, and a number of other specific pre-requisite courses. Several of the schools I was looking at would not accept CLEP/DSST exams as pre-requisites in the hard sciences, even if they were recognized by my undergraduate program, because they would not meet the lab requirement.

What she should do is check the pre-requisites to the medical program(s) she's interested in attending, and make sure that courses that satisfy those pre-requisites are documented on her transcripts. After that, she can finish her undergraduate degree in whichever program of study she can finish the fastest, or pursue additional studies based on her interests (all three of the Big 3 offer medical programs - mostly nursing - so she might want to take some elective credits in that field that have a chance of helping her out in her medical studies. Courses like medical terminology, pharmacology, etc. might help her in the future).

An example of what I'm talking about is the Master of Science Degree Program in Physician Assistant Studies from Albany Medical College. Their admissions states that applicants should have, among other things:

"Baccalaureate degree including the following prerequisites with grades of C or better:
-General Chemistry I and II with Labs (8 semester hours)
-Biochemistry, Organic, or other advanced chemistry (3 semester hours)
-General Biology I and II with Labs (8 semester hours)
-Anatomy and Physiology I and II or equivalent with labs (8 semester hours)
-Microbiology with Lab (4 semester hours)
-Statistics (3 semester hours)
-Psychology (3 semester hours)
-English Composition or other writing intensive course (3 semester hours)
One Chemistry and one Biology within five years.
All lab courses must be hands on."

But there is no mention of a specific academic major being needed. Probably most programs will have a similar list, but she definitely needs to look into the specific school(s) she plans on applying to, so she can be sure to meet their specific requirements.

Edited to add:

Another thing to think about is that the Big 3 will allow her to take courses she needs at a local school, and then transfer the credits to their degree program, if it's a course that they don't offer (like a hard science with a hands on lab). Attending an online school doesn't necessarily obligate you to taking their online classes. Just check with an advisor to make sure that they'll apply that credit toward her degree.

[Lindagerr]

Your friend should look at this site Physician Assistant Programs it list PA programs by state with links to their web pages. I checked out several and not one said a specific degree was required just a degree from an accredited school. If she has not taken the basic science courses with Labs by now she might have a problem I don't think many if any of these schools will accept the prerequisite science courses without labs. I would not want them to either. If she takes the lab sciences she has not completed at any local college she could finish the rest of her degree at TESC in Natural sciences/Math and get accepted at any of these schools. I think her main concerns should be getting good grades on the science courses.

[Katzepatra]

Thank you all so much! I honestly have no clue when it comes to med school and going that route via online undergrad however I didn't think a natural sciences degree, degree with concentration or even a nursing degree would have been a huge problem. I didn't realize how much resistance someone could have to online education despite knowing it will be the only way she can finish her degree. And I'm sorry, I meant Empire State College which looks like a nice program and would allow her a lot of flexibility. The link is below for anyone interested.

Science, Mathematics and Technology | Undergraduate Areas of Study | SUNY Empire State College

I will be forwarding all the info to her as well as the option to go though the Big 3 while taking classes if she still needs them. I myself am planning on TESC however I must have missed the specific Bio degree when looking at there offerings, I knew they did natural science degrees. I know she's got a lot of the science requirements done and she's in Organic Chem 1 now, I think she said she still needed 2 more science classes however I don't know what they are. Linda, thanks for posting that link, since she will be in 1 of 2 different states, it's great to have. Leherself, I will advise her to look at what her chosen program requires and makes her choice off that rather then a single heading on an undergrad degree. She has good grades in the work she's done already and if I can help her speed things up I definitely will.

[cookderosa]

My suggestion may not be her favorite, but if it were *me, I would use a liberal arts path to complete my bachelor's degree while stationed. THEN upon returning to the states, complete an ON THE GROUND, IN PERSON formal post-bac science sequence at a 4-year university that has a med school advisory committee (Harvard's extension comes to mind, but there are many).
Listen, she can use CLEP and distance learning, but that really muddies things if she's using it alongside her premed prereqs, and for the love of all things, be sure she's not attempting to test out of her prereqs. The reason people do bio/science degrees at a university is to have access to science advisors and committee letter recommendations. She's not going to get any of that doing it this way. She should complete the BA and then separately do her premeds once she's back here (assuming her goal is USA medical school). Duplication of credit has to be revealed in the process by the way, but doing a formal post-bac would look much better than the patchwork quilt she's building now.

That's just my opinion, but (and don't take this the wrong way) but the fact that she has YOU doing this homework for her is a huge red flag in my book. This is the easy part.

[Jonathan Whatley]

That's just my opinion, but (and don't take this the wrong way) but the fact that she has YOU doing this homework for her is a huge red flag in my book. This is the easy part.

I'm going to guess that Katzepatra has become a distance learning expert and evangelist among Kat's friends and colleagues – that it's not so much that our pre-PA student offloaded her degree completion plan to Kat, but that she hadn't thought much or at all about completing her degree by distance before, but oh here's Kat who knows how that's done.

There's tremendous wisdom here from Jennifer and every poster upthread.