Prerequisite Course Advisement

[NursingStudent]

Hello everyone,

I am a non-traditional nursing student interested in exploring a career as a physician assistant. Here is my current strategy: My GPA today is 3.9 halfway through the nursing program. I also have three years experience as a home health aide and will shadow this spring.

Spring 18: General Chemistry I w/o lab.

Summer 18: General Chemistry II w/lab.

Fall 18 - Spring 19: Complete first year of clinical placements.

Summer 19: Organic Chemistry w/lab

Fall 19 - Spring 20: Complete second year of clinical placements and graduate.

Summer 20: Biology II - unifying principles AND General Chemistry I lab.

Final transcript for core prerequisite: Statistics, Psychology, Sociology, Biology I - Cell biology, Biology I - Unifying Principles, Chemistry I&II w/lab (but one lab will be non-concurrent), Organic Chemistry w/lab, AP I&II w/lab, Microbiology for Health Science lecture (non-competitive but accepted as fulfilling a core requirement) w/competitive micro lab.

 

I have three important questions at the moment. Firstly, may I take general chemistry without the lab as I go about my current program, but then complete the lab during a later semester? Secondly, is my microbiology lecture being non-competitive code for me being rejected until I retake the lecture a second time?

 

Thirdly, what should I do about an unusual transcript? My transcript will list both biology courses the same way if I take one of the courses over the summer. Confusing, right? Allow me to explain:

UNE offers General Biology II as a cell-focused course, while General Biology I is focused on unifying principles. But most colleges, like the one where I am matriculated into the BSN program at USM, practice the opposite of UNE. As a result I have already taken General Biology I - cell biology - through USM. But I will need to take General Biology I - unifying principles - through UNE. Will I even be able to fill out the CASPA appropriately? Will my application be thrown the in the shredder the first time people look at it, assuming that I must be trying to game the system? I know that I have put myself in a sticky situation. But I would like to hear other opinions before I directly call PAEA representatives and admission offices.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Ket131]

I am not an expert, but I can try to answer from what I have seen.

1. General Chemistry I w/o lab, might not necessarily affect you depending on the programs prerequisites.  Mine does not require General Chemistry, but required Biochemistry.  If you were to take an upper division science course like Biochemistry and lets say that is required prerequisite for the PA program, it is possible you may have needed a General Chemistry I lab taken at the same time, but I don't see that really being the case if you end up taking it eventually.  I don't understand why you would want to take it two years later, I assume it has to do with you being in nursing school, but I was terrible at inorganic chemistry and would have likely forgot everything from class to be able to use in a lab with such a long time in-between.  

2.  Not sure what non-competitive mode is for Microbiology.  Many of these programs will have something written as such..."Microbiology...this course must be taken at the science major level."  Whether that means Microbiology taken for Biology majors carries more weight than Microbiology for Health Science majors, I cannot say.  I don't see why it would matter, as long as it is accepted by the programs you want.  Personally I would go with whatever is more competitive, but perhaps with your busy schedule this is what you can work with,

3.  Sounds like you would be able to pick which General Biology I course you want to use as your prerequisite course if General Biology I is a prerequisite in the first place.  CASPA allows you to select which courses you want to take credit for various prerequisites.  To be honest, it sounds like "unifying principles" would be the one I would select.  I did not take General Biology I, those of us that were declared Biology majors were pushed to 200 level "general" biology courses with names such as "Diversity vs Adaptation" and "Genetics, Ecology and Evolution."  However, the university did have General Biology I courses for non-science majors and I do not recall the names for those.  That being said "Cell Biology" at my university was a 300+ level course and, General Biology I Cell Biology is likely no where near as in-depth and a PA program, in my opinion, would recognize that if you were to say you took a cell biology course.  The PA program I was accepted into suggested Cell Biology OR Molecular Biology as upper level course work.  

I know it might not be ideal but calling the PA programs is probably the better option, which is why it seems no one is saying anything as to not give you the wrong information.  All these PA programs are different and there does not really seem to be a standard to which they all follow.  Everything I said is up in the air.  I wish you luck.