2 bachelor degrees

[swest22]

Okay, I have a question for everyone out there. Here is my situation. I graduated from a College with a Bachelors in Pscyh. During my senior year, I realized I did not like my major, but figured I was graduating that year, so I just finished. Now, 2 years out of school and working at a bank (don't know how that came about), I have decided to go back and pursue my life long dream of being in Forensic Sciences. Now, I need either a Biology or Chemistry Degree or something along those lines. I never took a Bio or Chem class in college. Therefore, I need to go back to school. So, here is my question. Has anyone ever graduated and then gone back to get another Bachelor's degree? I am at a loss here as to what I should do. I am technically not a transfer student.....
Anyways, if anyone has any knowledge on this, it would be greatly appreciated!

[M4A1]

I'm planning to go back to school as well. As far as I know, you may go back to your college and take classes in Bio or Chem. This is if you are thinking about getting a Master's degree like me. First, you'll have to fulfill the pre-reqs for that grad program. Depending on your school requirement, best to check with a counselor, you maybe able to finish all pre-reqs in a year. (Including summer). Psychology is a science, I'm surprised that your curriculum didn't require any biology or chemistry classes.

Should you choose to goto another school. You can do that as well. I was accepted into a prominent school for its accounting program, but I end up turning it down. If you goto a different school, it's likely they'll have different set of rules, and it may take you 2 years to get that Bachelor's degree. If the subject that you want to pursue is completely different than what you studied.

You may want to look into a Master's program. Some Master program will allow you in with a unrelated Bachelor's degree as long as you can fulfill its pre-reqs. Fulfilling those pre-reqs should take no longer than a year.

Hope it helps.

[Phoenix]

Master's degree: From what I've found out on this, the school may have you enroll as a continuing ed student (or something to that effect) until you fulfill your pre-reqs. After you fulfill those, which may take 1-2 years, depending on how many classes you need to take and how many you enroll in per semester, they will let you into the grad program.

Different School: When I was looking to do another bachelor's degree at different schools in the same state, they told me I would need to apply as a TRANSFER student. Reason being, I already had a bunch of credits of which almost all would transfer over and fulfill my core classes. All I had left to take were major classes, unless I hadn't fulfilled certain core requirements for the second bachelors' (i.e. those science classes you may need to take). Applying as a transfer student or just applying fresh as an incoming student (where your credits will still apply) may vary from state to state. If you're looking to go in OR out of state, I'd suggest calling the schools you're interested in to find out or check out their web sites. That can be a valuable resource as well.

Same school: You should have to reapply to get in since it's been over a year since you've gone to school there. But being an alum, you will probably have an advantage over the other applicants. You will probably also only have to take major classes and a few core.

You may consider just looking into the master's program since you already have the bachelor's. It may be just as much work and it would be a higher degree. I'd compare the two to see. If you're willing to go whole hog and do the work, I'd think about going for the master's.

[swest22]

Thanks for all of the advice! I have been doing some research on the field, and most things that I find say a Master's degree is worthless, because they teach you everything on the job. Basically, they want you to have that physical science background, then they teach you the rest. They say it is harder to "unlearn" a scientist than it is to teach someone how to be a scientist.
Another thing is that I graduated from a great university, but my grades were just average and slightly below the minumum requirements for Graduate programs. I am hoping that if I apply as a transfer student in the undergrad program, I will be able to focus more on my studies, now that I am more mature and away from the "party" life of college. That way I will have a better GPA to put on my resume. At the same time, I can build stronger relationships with my professors, which was nearly impossible at my university that had a student body of over 30,000 people. That way I can get those letters of recommendations you need for grad school, if I decide to go back.
Also, I would like to go to the same school, but, it is over 3 hours away. And now that I have my life established here in the big city of Chicago, I am not ready to move back to the small town life. But there are a ton of colleges in Chicago, so I have a lot to choose from.
And as far as them not requiring me to take any science classes, they don't consider Psych a physical science. If I would have gone into more of the Neuro-Psych area, I would have been required to take bio and chem. But since my concentration was in Human Resources, I wasn't required to take science classes.
If only I could go back and change things now........