I graduated a couple of years ago with a degree in chemistry. My first 2 years at State I made nothing below a B+. I got As in all of my science courses. Then in my junior and senior years all of the chemistry courses turned into physics and math courses disguised as chemistry courses. I'm kind of bad at anything above Calc 2. I also had had to get a stressful 35 hour/week retail job to pay for college because my parents stopped paying for it and wouldn't cosign for any loans. My grades went from all As to mostly Cs, Ds, and 3 Fs. I took a lot of Earth Science courses though, which I kind of liked, and somehow managed to get my gpa to exactly 3.06 before I graduated. I wanted to change my major to Clinical Laboratory Sciences and transfer to another school that offered it (UNC or ECU) during my senior year but was already too far deep into my major to just quit.

Right now I have a quality control chemist technician job that only pays ~30k/year. It's a low level job that that has no chance for advancement due to the nature of the job. I'm not interested enough in chemistry, due to my last 2 years at State, to go to grad school for chemistry. Also my grades probably wouldn't allow me to get into anywhere decent.

I'm going to take courses at UNC Pembroke (I currently live very close to this school right now) including all of the biology prerequisites that are required to get into the CLS program at UNC Chapel hill (or ECU as a secondary option). I also plan to take and ace Biochemistry and some other "hard" courses with an A+ to try to show them I'm still as smart as I was when I first started State before I had to get a part time job. It's going to take about 2 years before I can save enough money to go back and get to a point where I won't have to work a job and can just focus on school unlike at State. I also plan to get an MBA with an emphasis in this area later on too.

What are my chances of getting accepted and what else should I be doing to increase those chances?

3/16/2011 8:01:26 PM

so you're going to get a second bachelor's degree? how is this going to help you get anything except a tech position similar to what you have now?

3/16/2011 8:09:41 PM

[quote]so you're going to get a second bachelor's degree? how is this going to help you get anything except a tech position similar to what you have now?[quote]

While it is a bachelor's degree program at UNC it is also a certification program. At many other schools people can only apply to this type of program once they've received a BS degree. I also find it kind of dumb going back to get a second bachelor's degree but its the only way to get the certification, education and training I need to change fields. Also lab tech jobs in this area are offered more room for advancement and higher salaries.

3/16/2011 8:37:20 PM

Quote :

"Then in my junior and senior years all of the chemistry courses turned into physics and math courses disguised as chemistry courses."

maybe your freshman and sophomore years all of the chemistry courses were bullshit disguised as chemistry? (i think that's more likely)

3/16/2011 9:57:23 PM

You need to talk to an academic counselor, preferably one at UNC. Try emailing the counseling department at UNC and possibly NCSU, explaining your situation, maybe include a transcript, and see what advice they have to offer. Best of luck.

3/16/2011 10:10:50 PM

Don't go wasting two years saving for another bachelors degree, three years of undergrad education while earning no income, then presumably some break before another two years of MBA. You already have a good undergraduate degree from a good school. Nobody cares about your GPA. This is more education than most people have, and all that you'll ever need on a resume. The triangle is full of people making six digits plus with only a high school diploma.

Your education is checked off - show how smart you are by starting your own company or working really hard at someone else's. If you put all of the blood, sweat, and tears into your professional life for the next (2+3+1+2=8) years instead of trying to hang more paper on your wall, you'll spend the majority of your time after that in hot tubs with supermodels, interrupted only by trips to the liquor store in your new Maserati.

At the very, very least skip the bachelor degree idea. Total waste of time and money - you already have one. You'll only be qualified for a new graduate starting salary, and employers are going to wonder why you are older than everyone else. If nothing else, take the GMAT and apply to an evening MBA program. Double or triple up on the classes and use your nights and weekends that your job doesn't interfere with to knock these classes out post-haste.

You can do it without taking this long-cut. Alexander the Great was 32 and took over most of the world by that point. Assuming you're blessed enough to have 8 more years on this planet, you can get much further along without detouring back into undergrad.

[Edited on March 29, 2011 at 10:42 PM. Reason : just can't get enough]

3/29/2011 10:38:15 PM

^Best advice ever?

3/30/2011 7:02:53 AM

Quote :

"The triangle is full of people making six digits plus with only a high school diploma."

source?

3/30/2011 9:53:44 AM