Today was the first day of chemistry class. Chem class? Why am I taking a chemistry class?
From the job-free vantage of 2004, I several times considered taking my massage training into a more rigorous direction, such as going back to school for a degree in Physical Therapy, or Chiropractic, or perhaps even full-on med school. However, when I looked closer at any of those options, they tend to require a list of pre-requisites that my training in civil engineering simply did not provide; chemistry, organic chem, biology, physics. And somehow the prospect of two years of pre-requisites before you can even enter a degree program is a bit… daunting.
Thankfully, some chickie-babe steered me towards New College in SF. They offer a series of classes designed to fulfill pre-med requirements, condensed into a weekends-only, 8-month program. Two months of weekends for Chemistry, two more for Organic Chem, two more for Bio and two more for Physics. In other words, just a staggering amount of knowledge in a really short span of time. Drinking from the firehose.
So, the general plan is to do Chem and O Chem back to back, assuming I can keep up with the pace. Then I’d like to take a term off for traveling, camping, and letting my head clear, then rushing into Bio and Physics. Frankly, I expect those last two to be much easier than the two Chem classes.
And why? That still remains to be seen. Maybe I’ll finish all four classes and rush into a degree program. Or maybe not. I’ve always enjoyed “education for education’s sake”, so even if I don’t do a thing with all of this material, I still think I’ll enjoy the process. Hey, it gives me something else to geek out over, and that’s usually a good thing, right?
The classes are right at Fell and Market, in SF. If anyone has lunch suggestions in walking distance from there, I’d love to hear about it. Today I was able to catch up with phidiana at Zumi, which was lovely, but far too brief.
glad to hear you started on that!
Hmm…. I don’t think I realized that PT was really on the list of possibles for you– I thought you were more about chiropractic. If you decide to get serious about PT, it’s worth your time to check out schools now, so you get a good feel for application dates, prerequisites, and the different flavors of volunteer hours you need.
I recommend you go here:
http://www.apta.org
and check out the ‘education’ section. It has a list of PT programs by state, and a brief paragraph about each one that lists the % of students accepted vs applied, the tuition rates, the prerequisites, volunteer or paid hours, etc.
I recommend you ignore the cal state schools… I think I mentioned that…. they take too long. SF State is good, but last I heard, hard to get into.
It’s also worth knowing that all the listed schools are accredited by an organization related to/run by APTA, so they all teach the same basic cirriculum. (Accordingly, if you call up the program director and ask about their specialty, they all say, “Oh, we try to graduate generalists.”) Some of them teach the cirriculum more effectively than others, and US News and World Report does rate them.
I’m doing all my pre-nursing classes right now through the local community college, pretty much the same classes you identified above. I have only been able to polish off one at a time, since I work full-time. I’m envious that you can get it all done so quickly.