Academia Ghetto Thread

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

One thing that's interesting is that I looked at the bio major requirements at Amherst out of curiosity, and they're utterly different from Portland State. Like, very significantly different. It's interesting. Of course, because you're on semester and we're on quarters it's really hard to say whether it's really as different as it seems, or whether both programs cover the same material in different time frames and with different names.

It's even different here sometimes. Northeastern is a 5 year university, for some reason, which made it a pain in the ass for friends of mine to transfer out of there. I had a few friends that went there (you know, when they were supposed to), and one or two of them ended up transferring to UMass Boston and it was a bit of a headache transferring the credits because it was a different credit system. Maybe it was something like that where it was a quarter system or something, I don't know. But the Massachusetts state system is roughly 1 credit per hour per week of class time. Obviously that's not an exact measurement since I did about 10 hours of Genetics, but it was also half the time and double the misery, but non-lab courses are generally 3 credits, lab courses 4.

Our in-state systems are pretty integrated, but it's also about 1 credit for every hour of class/lab time, so 180 credits to graduate, for a BS, and some schools register labs separately (because the labs aren't required for every degree) while others combine the class and lab into one registered course. I think maybe course numeration is really different, because your Principles and Genchem courses are listed as 100-level, yet as far as I can tell they're the exact same curriculum as our 200-level Principles and Genchem, spread over 2 semesters instead of 3 quarters.

I noticed that looking at UMass Boston's courses, and it took me a second to figure it out that we might have to register for lecture and lab separately. At BHCC, if it's a lab course, you're registered for both.

Our numbering system probably is pretty funky. Sometimes annoying due to prerequisites. Also sometimes confusing. As a history major, my science electives were Intro to Biology and Astronomy. Looking back at my old Intro Bio text book, it's basically a lesson in the most generic biology and then mammalian anatomy, but Intro Bio doesn't count towards the bio degree. It's a throw away class. That's sort of a new concept for me. General Physics is a throw away class for Biology majors. Everyone else has to take the more difficult College Physics. Maybe that's why my physics professor is such a smirky hard ass.

You wonder about these things. The science department head is my Gen Bio II professor and the Chemistry degree is an AA instead of an AS. You kinda wonder, ok dude, who's the chemist what pissed you off? lol

Wow... no shit? That's harsh!

At both PCC and PSU, there are these science classes for non-science majors, and since non-science majors have to have at least 8 credits of science, they are apparently just these vague overviews... what you called a throwaway course, and what truly seems like one from a science major perspective.

We don't have any throwaway physics courses, though; you have your choice of calculus-based or non-calculus-based, and bio majors only have to take the first class & lab.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

You're apparently supposed to take physics before chemistry. Oops. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It hasn't been updated for spring (Environmental Microbiology is apparently debuting in spring) but here's the program at BHCC for Bio transfer:

http://www.bhcc.mass.edu/programsofstudy/programs/biologytransferoption/

Oh yeah, your course numbering is just way different but I can see how the courses themselves are probably really similar. Our credits are a little weaker; most classes are 4-5 credits and it takes 90 to graduate. I sometimes wish we were on a semester system; the quarter system seems too rushed.

I kinda noticed that a little when we were both doing Gen Bio and using essentially the same text book.

Yeah, your Gen Bio 195/196 seems to be analogous with our Principles of Bio 211/212/213, and likewise your Gen Chem 201/202 appears to be the same as our 221/222/223.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

One thing that's interesting is that I looked at the bio major requirements at Amherst out of curiosity, and they're utterly different from Portland State. Like, very significantly different. It's interesting. Of course, because you're on semester and we're on quarters it's really hard to say whether it's really as different as it seems, or whether both programs cover the same material in different time frames and with different names.

It's even different here sometimes. Northeastern is a 5 year university, for some reason, which made it a pain in the ass for friends of mine to transfer out of there. I had a few friends that went there (you know, when they were supposed to), and one or two of them ended up transferring to UMass Boston and it was a bit of a headache transferring the credits because it was a different credit system. Maybe it was something like that where it was a quarter system or something, I don't know. But the Massachusetts state system is roughly 1 credit per hour per week of class time. Obviously that's not an exact measurement since I did about 10 hours of Genetics, but it was also half the time and double the misery, but non-lab courses are generally 3 credits, lab courses 4.

Our in-state systems are pretty integrated, but it's also about 1 credit for every hour of class/lab time, so 180 credits to graduate, for a BS, and some schools register labs separately (because the labs aren't required for every degree) while others combine the class and lab into one registered course. I think maybe course numeration is really different, because your Principles and Genchem courses are listed as 100-level, yet as far as I can tell they're the exact same curriculum as our 200-level Principles and Genchem, spread over 2 semesters instead of 3 quarters.

I noticed that looking at UMass Boston's courses, and it took me a second to figure it out that we might have to register for lecture and lab separately. At BHCC, if it's a lab course, you're registered for both.

Our numbering system probably is pretty funky. Sometimes annoying due to prerequisites. Also sometimes confusing. As a history major, my science electives were Intro to Biology and Astronomy. Looking back at my old Intro Bio text book, it's basically a lesson in the most generic biology and then mammalian anatomy, but Intro Bio doesn't count towards the bio degree. It's a throw away class. That's sort of a new concept for me. General Physics is a throw away class for Biology majors. Everyone else has to take the more difficult College Physics. Maybe that's why my physics professor is such a smirky hard ass.

You wonder about these things. The science department head is my Gen Bio II professor and the Chemistry degree is an AA instead of an AS. You kinda wonder, ok dude, who's the chemist what pissed you off? lol

Wow... no shit? That's harsh!

At both PCC and PSU, there are these science classes for non-science majors, and since non-science majors have to have at least 8 credits of science, they are apparently just these vague overviews... what you called a throwaway course, and what truly seems like one from a science major perspective.

We don't have any throwaway physics courses, though; you have your choice of calculus-based or non-calculus-based, and bio majors only have to take the first class & lab.

It's weird. A bio major can still take College Physics if s/he chooses and it would still count, but here's an easier physics pair for you bio majors specifically.

Truth be told though, I did thoroughly enjoy Astronomy, and Intro to Biology was way grosser lab-wise than any bio course I've had to take as a bio major. Dissecting pig fetuses? That's fucking nasty. And it stinks. And it's a throw away class. Let's look at a diagram.

Gen Bio II? Here's how you dope up fruitflies and rip the heads off their babies in order to get their salivary glands. It's cool though, ether still stinks, but in a different way, and they're just bugs who are going to die at the end of the month anyway.

Stinkiest though? Microbiology. Wow.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

It hasn't been updated for spring (Environmental Microbiology is apparently debuting in spring) but here's the program at BHCC for Bio transfer:

http://www.bhcc.mass.edu/programsofstudy/programs/biologytransferoption/

Oh yeah, your course numbering is just way different but I can see how the courses themselves are probably really similar. Our credits are a little weaker; most classes are 4-5 credits and it takes 90 to graduate. I sometimes wish we were on a semester system; the quarter system seems too rushed.

I kinda noticed that a little when we were both doing Gen Bio and using essentially the same text book.

Yeah, your Gen Bio 195/196 seems to be analogous with our Principles of Bio 211/212/213, and likewise your Gen Chem 201/202 appears to be the same as our 221/222/223.

That's pretty interesting.

God, I can only imagine what it's like transferring between states.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I think the most obvious thing that we have to jump through hoops with here is math courses, if you're a science major. George is fucking done with math. He told me that he took a ridiculous amount of math courses. It was either 7 or 9. I forget, but it was, in my opinion, unreasonably high. And actually I noticed that too when I decided to go from AA to AS. Time was also a factor- when I took College Algebra, in like, 2005, that was the baseline algebra for all degrees, but they differentiated after some point. And I also took statistics which doesn't count towards my electives because it's not statistics and lab (wut).

So I've taken:
College Algebra (no longer exists)
Statistics (doesn't count)
Intermediate Algebra
College Algebra for STEM
Precalculus

Shit. Yeah. I can see how George could have easily taken 7 math courses if he didn't do well on his placement exam when he first came in.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Here's the kicker. For the bio major, the math requirement is satisfied by Calc I, with Calc II or Stats and Lab as an elective.

But the prereqs to get there..... which count for nothing.....

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

It hasn't been updated for spring (Environmental Microbiology is apparently debuting in spring) but here's the program at BHCC for Bio transfer:

http://www.bhcc.mass.edu/programsofstudy/programs/biologytransferoption/

Oh yeah, your course numbering is just way different but I can see how the courses themselves are probably really similar. Our credits are a little weaker; most classes are 4-5 credits and it takes 90 to graduate. I sometimes wish we were on a semester system; the quarter system seems too rushed.

I kinda noticed that a little when we were both doing Gen Bio and using essentially the same text book.

Yeah, your Gen Bio 195/196 seems to be analogous with our Principles of Bio 211/212/213, and likewise your Gen Chem 201/202 appears to be the same as our 221/222/223.

That's pretty interesting.

God, I can only imagine what it's like transferring between states.

Horrible, probably.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think the most obvious thing that we have to jump through hoops with here is math courses, if you're a science major. George is fucking done with math. He told me that he took a ridiculous amount of math courses. It was either 7 or 9. I forget, but it was, in my opinion, unreasonably high. And actually I noticed that too when I decided to go from AA to AS. Time was also a factor- when I took College Algebra, in like, 2005, that was the baseline algebra for all degrees, but they differentiated after some point. And I also took statistics which doesn't count towards my electives because it's not statistics and lab (wut).

So I've taken:
College Algebra (no longer exists)
Statistics (doesn't count)
Intermediate Algebra
College Algebra for STEM
Precalculus

Shit. Yeah. I can see how George could have easily taken 7 math courses if he didn't do well on his placement exam when he first came in.

Why would you even NEED a lab with Stats? I took Stats I and II, which satisfied my math requirements for my undergrad and for all the grad programs I'm looking at.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

But I will also say that there is a reason I have been so hell-bent on moving through my degree in a fairly short time frame, and that is because I don't want them to go changing shit up on me midstream.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I think the most obvious thing that we have to jump through hoops with here is math courses, if you're a science major. George is fucking done with math. He told me that he took a ridiculous amount of math courses. It was either 7 or 9. I forget, but it was, in my opinion, unreasonably high. And actually I noticed that too when I decided to go from AA to AS. Time was also a factor- when I took College Algebra, in like, 2005, that was the baseline algebra for all degrees, but they differentiated after some point. And I also took statistics which doesn't count towards my electives because it's not statistics and lab (wut).

So I've taken:
College Algebra (no longer exists)
Statistics (doesn't count)
Intermediate Algebra
College Algebra for STEM
Precalculus

Shit. Yeah. I can see how George could have easily taken 7 math courses if he didn't do well on his placement exam when he first came in.

Why would you even NEED a lab with Stats? I took Stats I and II, which satisfied my math requirements for my undergrad and for all the grad programs I'm looking at.

No clue. I mean, technically it's an elective course, but statistics is statistics. I could quite honestly use a brush up, but I don't need a lab to do it. I think the lab bit is just to make it science specific, with no actual lab needed. If I recall, Precalculus was 4 credits, which makes it a lab course.

You could, but you'd have to give it a practical application. My Astronomy labs were largely mathematical, as you would expect, since you can't exactly touch the thing you're measuring. So why not combine those? That would be pretty awesome really. You have to take this math course as a prerequisite that's not going to count for anything but a prerequisite. Why not combine it with a science course that could broaden your perspective and satisfy both requirements? Cool, I'm a biologist, and I can calculate the mass of this exoplanet. Not as accurately as NDT, but I can give you a decent figure. Cool, I'm a physicist, and I can calculate the distance between these two alleles that occur on the same chromosome. I might not be.... eh... someone who's more active in biology than Dawkins should be (seriously, why is an evangelist the most famous fuck researching biology biologist?), but I can explain crossing over.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

But I will also say that there is a reason I have been so hell-bent on moving through my degree in a fairly short time frame, and that is because I don't want them to go changing shit up on me midstream.

That is definitely part of my thing.

Also the pressure to get on with it ye feckin' bastard. ("It" being adult life, and the meaningfulness in employment and the financial security to marry and reproduce that all of that entails)

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think the most obvious thing that we have to jump through hoops with here is math courses, if you're a science major. George is fucking done with math. He told me that he took a ridiculous amount of math courses. It was either 7 or 9. I forget, but it was, in my opinion, unreasonably high. And actually I noticed that too when I decided to go from AA to AS. Time was also a factor- when I took College Algebra, in like, 2005, that was the baseline algebra for all degrees, but they differentiated after some point. And I also took statistics which doesn't count towards my electives because it's not statistics and lab (wut).

So I've taken:
College Algebra (no longer exists)
Statistics (doesn't count)
Intermediate Algebra
College Algebra for STEM
Precalculus

Shit. Yeah. I can see how George could have easily taken 7 math courses if he didn't do well on his placement exam when he first came in.

Why would you even NEED a lab with Stats? I took Stats I and II, which satisfied my math requirements for my undergrad and for all the grad programs I'm looking at.

No clue. I mean, technically it's an elective course, but statistics is statistics. I could quite honestly use a brush up, but I don't need a lab to do it. I think the lab bit is just to make it science specific, with no actual lab needed. If I recall, Precalculus was 4 credits, which makes it a lab course.

You could, but you'd have to give it a practical application. My Astronomy labs were largely mathematical, as you would expect, since you can't exactly touch the thing you're measuring. So why not combine those? That would be pretty awesome really. You have to take this math course as a prerequisite that's not going to count for anything but a prerequisite. Why not combine it with a science course that could broaden your perspective and satisfy both requirements? Cool, I'm a biologist, and I can calculate the mass of this exoplanet. Not as accurately as NDT, but I can give you a decent figure. Cool, I'm a physicist, and I can calculate the distance between these two alleles that occur on the same chromosome. I might not be.... eh... someone who's more active in biology than Dawkins should be (seriously, why is an evangelist the most famous fuck researching biology biologist?), but I can explain crossing over.

I don't really get it either, except that it sounds like you took it before they changed the class to meet new standards? I took a bunch of math classes that only count as prerequisites, simply because I was so math-deficient when I started. There was no reason to wrap those classes into the classes they're prereqs for, simply because most people have math enough to prep them for  college algebra or calc by the time they graduate high school.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I think the most obvious thing that we have to jump through hoops with here is math courses, if you're a science major. George is fucking done with math. He told me that he took a ridiculous amount of math courses. It was either 7 or 9. I forget, but it was, in my opinion, unreasonably high. And actually I noticed that too when I decided to go from AA to AS. Time was also a factor- when I took College Algebra, in like, 2005, that was the baseline algebra for all degrees, but they differentiated after some point. And I also took statistics which doesn't count towards my electives because it's not statistics and lab (wut).

So I've taken:
College Algebra (no longer exists)
Statistics (doesn't count)
Intermediate Algebra
College Algebra for STEM
Precalculus

Shit. Yeah. I can see how George could have easily taken 7 math courses if he didn't do well on his placement exam when he first came in.

Why would you even NEED a lab with Stats? I took Stats I and II, which satisfied my math requirements for my undergrad and for all the grad programs I'm looking at.

No clue. I mean, technically it's an elective course, but statistics is statistics. I could quite honestly use a brush up, but I don't need a lab to do it. I think the lab bit is just to make it science specific, with no actual lab needed. If I recall, Precalculus was 4 credits, which makes it a lab course.

You could, but you'd have to give it a practical application. My Astronomy labs were largely mathematical, as you would expect, since you can't exactly touch the thing you're measuring. So why not combine those? That would be pretty awesome really. You have to take this math course as a prerequisite that's not going to count for anything but a prerequisite. Why not combine it with a science course that could broaden your perspective and satisfy both requirements? Cool, I'm a biologist, and I can calculate the mass of this exoplanet. Not as accurately as NDT, but I can give you a decent figure. Cool, I'm a physicist, and I can calculate the distance between these two alleles that occur on the same chromosome. I might not be.... eh... someone who's more active in biology than Dawkins should be (seriously, why is an evangelist the most famous fuck researching biology biologist?), but I can explain crossing over.

I don't really get it either, except that it sounds like you took it before they changed the class to meet new standards? I took a bunch of math classes that only count as prerequisites, simply because I was so math-deficient when I started. There was no reason to wrap those classes into the classes they're prereqs for, simply because most people have math enough to prep them for  college algebra or calc by the time they graduate high school.

That is essentially what happened. And I was quite honestly really pissed off. Again, like with Stats, could use the refresher, but going from College Algebra to Intermediate Algebra to College Algebra for STEM is pretty irritating. The intermediate should have been cut out. They would have been right to ask me to demonstrate my math abilities after that much time and that much of a switch, but not so much as to negate what I'd done before and add another class or two....

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think the most obvious thing that we have to jump through hoops with here is math courses, if you're a science major. George is fucking done with math. He told me that he took a ridiculous amount of math courses. It was either 7 or 9. I forget, but it was, in my opinion, unreasonably high. And actually I noticed that too when I decided to go from AA to AS. Time was also a factor- when I took College Algebra, in like, 2005, that was the baseline algebra for all degrees, but they differentiated after some point. And I also took statistics which doesn't count towards my electives because it's not statistics and lab (wut).

So I've taken:
College Algebra (no longer exists)
Statistics (doesn't count)
Intermediate Algebra
College Algebra for STEM
Precalculus

Shit. Yeah. I can see how George could have easily taken 7 math courses if he didn't do well on his placement exam when he first came in.

Why would you even NEED a lab with Stats? I took Stats I and II, which satisfied my math requirements for my undergrad and for all the grad programs I'm looking at.

No clue. I mean, technically it's an elective course, but statistics is statistics. I could quite honestly use a brush up, but I don't need a lab to do it. I think the lab bit is just to make it science specific, with no actual lab needed. If I recall, Precalculus was 4 credits, which makes it a lab course.

You could, but you'd have to give it a practical application. My Astronomy labs were largely mathematical, as you would expect, since you can't exactly touch the thing you're measuring. So why not combine those? That would be pretty awesome really. You have to take this math course as a prerequisite that's not going to count for anything but a prerequisite. Why not combine it with a science course that could broaden your perspective and satisfy both requirements? Cool, I'm a biologist, and I can calculate the mass of this exoplanet. Not as accurately as NDT, but I can give you a decent figure. Cool, I'm a physicist, and I can calculate the distance between these two alleles that occur on the same chromosome. I might not be.... eh... someone who's more active in biology than Dawkins should be (seriously, why is an evangelist the most famous fuck researching biology biologist?), but I can explain crossing over.

I don't really get it either, except that it sounds like you took it before they changed the class to meet new standards? I took a bunch of math classes that only count as prerequisites, simply because I was so math-deficient when I started. There was no reason to wrap those classes into the classes they're prereqs for, simply because most people have math enough to prep them for  college algebra or calc by the time they graduate high school.

That is essentially what happened. And I was quite honestly really pissed off. Again, like with Stats, could use the refresher, but going from College Algebra to Intermediate Algebra to College Algebra for STEM is pretty irritating. The intermediate should have been cut out. They would have been right to ask me to demonstrate my math abilities after that much time and that much of a switch, but not so much as to negate what I'd done before and add another class or two....

I'm surprised they wouldn't let you test out! It sounds like their system is in transition and they haven't worked all the kinks out maybe?