Previous Life as an Undergrad

So, seeing as I graduated two months ago (wow, that long already?), I thought I would talk about what I spent the last four years doing in school. Here we go.

For those of you that don't know, I did my undergrad at the University of Arizona, located in Tucson, for all four years. I received my Bachelor's of Science in Health Sciences with a major in Physiology - the only undergraduate major to be offered through U of A's College of Medicine. With that said, I had some pretty amazing professors...but the curriculum was no walk in the park.

2 semesters of calculus, 2 semesters of biology, 2 semesters of chemistry, 2 semesters of organic chemistry, 2 semesters of physics, 2 semesters of anatomy and physiology, 2 semesters of integrated cellular physiology...are you starting to get the picture? And there's more...but that's kind of boring to read through. (If you're really interested, here's a direct link to the PDF that has my entire major's curriculum:  http://physiology.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/psiocurric1213.pdf)

Now the way a lot of "medical profession" programs work (medical school, pharmacy school, dental school, optometry, etc.), you will generally have to complete some sort of bachelor's degree in order to apply. Generally, it doesn't really matter what your bachelor's degree is in, but they will most likely have a list of prerequisite courses that you need to have completed.

So basically...you can major in whatever you want, but you have to have those classes done by the time you apply. So...for those who know they want to go on to pursue that type of profession, they will get a bachelor's degree whose curriculum already contains many of the prerequisites to complete (killing 2 birds with 1 stone).

So for example...here is a screen shot of my school's prerequisites that I needed to have done.

Look familiar? The only courses that weren't included in my major were microbiology and statistics. Fortunately, I had already completed those my first two years when I was originally a pre-nursing major. So...that actually worked out pretty well.





The way all of my classes ran were pretty similar. With my major, the majority of my classes were all science classes with lots of memorization. We had a special website created by the school that allowed us to have a "webpage" for each specific class that we took. It was here that we could see announcements the teachers posted (such as a delay to an assignment due date), as well as download powerpoint lectures that the professors used in class (which is pretty much what all my professors used).

Here's a screenshot of my classes from the spring. Each blue link was for each class (labs included). I had four classes and two labs - each separated by what department they were in. This made is super easy to download a powerpoint to take notes on in class and then refer back to when I was studying for an exam.

Additionally, teachers could also post quizzes on this website that we would have to complete for a grade...usually with a deadline. So if you forgot about it, it wouldn't allow you to take it any longer. The same went for turning assignments or papers in. Each class had a "dropbox" that we would upload our papers to and then submit electronically. I think I only had a few classes where we actually had to turn paper copies of assignments into the teacher in the classroom. This way, less paper wasted and the computer could also screen any paper for plagiarism. Pretty handy.

So, after four years of that, here I am. I graduated and got to sit through a pretty awesome ceremony that the University put on for us.

Here's a youtube video of the finale :)

Left: The bracelets they gave to us that lit up about half way through that video.

Right: And one last piece of memorabilia that I created with my graduation cap. I think it turned out pretty good and I can't wait to hang it in my new place :)

I hope all of you had a good week! Next week, I will be in Iowa visiting family and friends, but I will try to write another post next Friday (for anyone who wants to read it).

Until then, have a good next week :)