What do you do when you cant find the degree you need?

[Marshalscienceguy]

Lets say you dont have enough money to transfer out of state or country for your Major of choice. So you figure you will try a community school. Will community schools have stuff like

 

Meteorology

Microbiology

Parisitology

Engineering

 

It seems that some majors are just very difficult to find and only at very specific locations(Colleges). Despite there being several colleges particular subjects can only often be found at the most high end colleges. So if you wanted to transfer from a community school would it actually be possible to do so which these type of majors? If you cant find the classes you need how do you know what to take in the mean time? For Meteorology can you simply take a bunch of earth science classes? for Parisitology can you just take a bunch of Bio and Chem classes?

[Sato]

Many of the courses you'd take for those specializations would be general prerequisites, like introductory chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, earth science, physics, calculus, etc, each of which would usually take two semesters on its own. So, by the time you finish taking all of the low-level stuff that isn't your particular interest, you will have taken up two years, not spent money on courses that are very similar between universities, have better chances of getting into the university that you want, and then be able to take primarily courses in your specialization of interest. If you don't want to or can't continue on, rather than dropping out as a sophomore with lots of debt, you now have a relatively inexpensive associates degree in a science. It'd probably be best to speak to a professor or department head at the community college you're looking at about selecting courses for this purpose.

 

Hope that helped!

[fiveworlds]

while we are on the subject of hard to find courses.

 

Gemology

Morphyology

Horology

icecream science (because I like ice cream and was told by an ice cream shop owner she had to go to Italy to study it)

Edited July 3, 2015 by fiveworlds

[Klaynos]

I know quite a few people who work in the meteorology industry, a large fraction of them have physics backgrounds.

 

You also have to bear in mind that some courses are more expensive to run than others. The sciences tend to need labs and lots of contract time...

[nudibranche]

My advice to you would be to check for degrees in the UK - there is such a high diversity there, and the main advantage is that 1) it's way cheaper 2) you study your specialisation from the beginning, instead of starting broader and then only specialising later during your studies. That is the reason why I came here, because my degree could not be ind in my home country (I would have had to first do a biology or geography Bachelor's, which I didn't want to do!). It's worth having a look, since their choice of degrees is really diverse, I have seen things here I had never known you could even study elsewhere. But maybe you dont want to be that far form home, which is also understandable of course.

[tayrosie]

May I ask what state/country you are in? California has a website called ASSIST that shows you what classes to take if you want to transfer from a community college to a CSU or UC. Also, may California communit colleges have Engineering, but you probably will want a bachelor's degree for jobs.

 

The UK has more majors, but if you can't afford to leave the country then I guess that's not really helpful. I was in a similar position myself (I wanted to go to University of Glasglow because of their Parasitology major, but my family would never forgive me if I left the country). There are also some UK schools that take FAFSA, so if you qualify that would reduce your cost (Glasgow is one of them).

 

As long as you take the right classes, it is definitely possible to transfer into any of these majors (except maybe Parasitology since that it hard to find). Try to find the program you want to transfer to first so that you don't waste time taking classes you don't need. If your state has a system like ASSIST, use that to look up the classes you need to take to transfer or look on the websites of the programs you want. You might also want to meet with a transfer counselor at your community college for some direction. For example, you wouldn't just take a bunch of Earth science classes for Meteorology. Think about what the first two years of a four-year program is like. You will take general ed like writing and humanities, as well as your core science like chemistry, biology, and physics, and college level math like calculus or linear algebra. The upper division classes are usually the more specialized ones, like Meteorology classes or Microbiology classes, which you would take after you've transferred.

You will probably end up taking fewer higher level classes than you would like, but after you've transferred is when you get to the cool stuff. Make sure you complete any breadth or general ed requirements at the community college because colleges want to see that you've taken equivalent classes to what a lower division student would take at their university. They will also want to see that you are likely to succeed at a four year university and are not starting out behind, so you will need a high GPA and have completed all the classes required for transfer admission.

 

Does this help?

Edited August 1, 2015 by tayrosie

[verabrittain]

Hello. I know it can be difficult to find the right school with the right courses. Try this link, http://www.careercolleges.education/program-search-results/?mj-4=1&mj-11=1&os=microb&zip=&tp-4=1&ctf=0%3B255000&cbs=0%3B58500&crb=750%3B125000&rate=0%3B100&srt=maj I found it helpful when I was in this predicament. Using the site, you are able to set your own filters such as location, course specification, type of institution, program length and also program cost. You can also set your own parameters in order to limit the cost of the programs shown to you, so you know that none of your options will be above your financial limit. You can even input your own zip code to make sure none of the result you get will be out of state. This made it easy for me because it helped me view a wider area of study which meant more niche courses that I was previously unaware of. Although you will still need to do your research, should help to simplify the process