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If you are trying to “pick up” a class or two in the Bay Area, this guide is for you.

I took a Human Physiology class this summer at College of Alameda to fullfill a prerequisite for the programs I’m applying for in the fall. “Shopping” for a professor can be a daunting task. Here is how I did it and it worked out very well, after a long road.

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Find the class

This can be a nice trick depending on the program.  Equivalent courses are subjective. There is no definitive guide to what classes are  equivalent  to another. Go to the  counseling  department of the school you are trying to get into and ask. Here is a chart from City College of San Francisco from Spring 2012. YMMV!

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Find a school

There are several college systems in the Bay Area. Find the you can actually travel to. For example, I visited Merritt College and realized the 1 1/2 hr door-to-door commute from San Francisco by bus was a bother.  Here’s a list of local Community Colleges:

City College of San Francisco

• Several San Francisco campuses

Peralta Colleges  East Bay

• Berkeley City College
• College of Alameda
• Laney College
• Merritt College

San Mateo Community College District

• Canada College
• College of San Mateo
• Skyline College

Contra Costa Community College District

• Contra Costa College
• Diablo Valley College
• Los Medanos College

Foothill College

College of Marin

Chabot College

There is also the University of California system (UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco) and the California State  (San Francisco, East Bay)  system. I looked into picking up some Chemistry courses at SF State but the summer Chemistry course was $3,000 and it looked like a bother to apply (I didn’t actually try) so I bagged it.

And there’s online courses. Some schools offer intensive classes… like 5-8 weeks long instead of 16 weeks.

• University of Phoenix – $585 per unit
• American Public University – $250 per unit
• Walden – $1500 per course online
• Argosy University – They don’t offer individual courses online

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Choose an actual class. This ended up being a multi-step, iterative process for me…

Apply for the school, Find an open class, Find a good professor.

Applying for any individual community college in California is easy. Every school system has their own registration system. For example, College of Alameda is part of the Peralta System. When you apply at Peralta, they give you an ID you can use at any of the Peralta Schools.  You will be automatically accepted at any of the community college systems in 1-48 hours.  I’m registered as a student at most of the Bay Area community colleges.

If you want to see if a class is open or wait-listed or whatnot, you should apply and use the school’s student registration system. For example, the “outward-facing” system at  Diablo Valley College told me that their Physiology class still had seats available but the student system told me more correctly that the class was full with 10 people on the wait-list.

Often you will find yourself trying to get into an already-full class. If you really want it, talk to the professor. When he says “no”, keep showing up anyway. As other students drop the class in the first 2 weeks, the “no” will turn to a “maybe”. By the 2nd or 3rd week of showing up and showing your true passion for the class, you’ll probably (hopefully!) get accepted into the class.

Finding a good professor is a good trick. The quality of professors in the community college system is a mixed bag. You are the only person that can decide if you like a professor. There are innumerable qualities a professor might have that make or break the experience for you. Here are some of the big ones for me:

Attitude. Clarity of expression. Easy to understand accent or tone – if you can’t hear them, you are sunk.  Cultural differences – if you can relate to a professor’s expressions, you will have an additional learning channel.  Appropriate amount of collateral material – some professors drown you in materials, some give none.  Ability to lecture well, ability to answer questions, ability to offer alternate explanations.  Is the professor watering down the material to make it easier? Does he push you hard? Do you like or resent how they are pushing you?

Ok, so how do you find a good professor? Here is what I do:

1. Read the comments they receive at  RateMyProfessors.com
2. Find the average grade they give at MyEDU.com
3. Ask my friends for teacher recommendations
4. Google them, see what else they teach, what their passions are.

Integrate all this info into a best guess.
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For the summer Human Physiology class I just took, it went like so:

1. My  counselor at City College said that “Bio 4” at Peralta Colleges would    be equivalent to Physio 1 at City College.
2. I found 4 acceptable summer Physio classes.
   1. Merritt College class had an OK rated (according to RateMyProfessors and MyEDU) teacher. But the campus was 1 1/2 hrs door-to-door.
   2. College of Alameda had a “Hybrid” class with Prof Reza Majlesi. Most of the lectures were online, he got poor marks at RateMyProfessors and on average gave a “C” according to MyEDU (both bad signs).
   3. College of Alameda had a course with Prof Peter Niloufari. He got good marks with RateMyProfessors and on average gave an “A”. But his class was apparently full.
   4. Diablo Valley College had a course with a well rated professor, but it was at the far end of the BART line and likely full.
3. I went with Professor Majlesi’s class. It was terrible. At the end of 2 weeks of summer school I felt that I hadn’t learned anything and was on track to fail… like get an “F”. Panic ensued.
4. I checked in with Professor Niloufari, explained my situation and he said he’d take me if the school would allow the transfer.
5. I went to the Dean’s Office who said, “Oh, you want to switch from the online class to the in-person class? I don’t blame you! Sure! Here are the forms.”
6. It was HARD catching up to the rest of the class but I did. I learned a boatload and I got an A!

Here are good snapshots comparing my two Physiology professors. I spent time in both classes. Guess which teacher I ended up liking better (hint: I believe Professor Niloufari is a great teacher)

When you are trying to pick up a lot of classes and you aren’t sure which ones you will get into, make a spreadsheet like this to help you. It might seem boring and redundant to copy all the classes from all the schools into a spreadsheet but it was super helpful for me to keep things clear.

I made sample plans and my daily schedules with this. With a printout of this in your pocket, you are unstoppable!

Good luck to you!

PS. You should also read my post  How to Get Your Classes

I’m taking prerequisite classes to get into a Radiography program, that’s an allied health profession doing things like taking diagnostic X-ray, MRI, CT scans and the like in hospitals. My first choice is CCSF (City College of San Francisco), they have one of the best reputations of any Radiography program in the country. I’ve been volunteering at CPMC Pacific Campus since December 2011 in the Radiology Department and it’s been going well. The biggest bother right now now is that the program gets like 120 applications for 30 spots each year and pretty much as long as you meet their 2.5 GPA requirement, they put your name in a hat and draw names randomly! So I’m preparing myself to apply elsewhere too!

I had been considering doing a Radiation Therapy program instead. A Radiation Therapist is the person who zaps somebody who is getting “radiation” when they have cancer. But I did some volunteering at CPMC and it’s not for me. I’m glad I found out!

Onward!

After a semester of hard work, (and an ‘A’ for my effort!) here is much of my study clan from Human Anatomy class, drinking at Zeitgeist May 30th!

Kyle, Melissa, Julie, Lauren, Jeremy, Anne-Marie, Pam, and I – Anatomy Study Clan!

Rock and roll! I aced my semester!

A * Human Anatomy
A * Medical Chemistry
A * Conceptual Physics
P * (Pass) Fitness Center

(don’t feel you need to read the rest of this post)

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Here is what I took this semester

 CRN, section, day of week, time                      Units,  Location, Professor
--------------------------------------------------
ANAT  25   General Human Anatomy                       4.0
Study of the gross and microscopic structure of the human body. UC/CSU
 30302 002 Lec  T R  09:30-11:00AM                          SCIE  100  Guthrie, M         
 31543 023 Lab    R  12:00-03:00PM                          SCIE  347  Guthrie, M
--------------------------------------------------
CHEM  32   Intro to Medical Chemistry                  4.0
Basic concepts of inorganic and organic chemistry, biochemistry, and physics as they apply
to the chemistry and physics of the human body. CSU
Open to all students. No previous chemistry or physics required. Satisfies the requirements
of nursing and related majors that require one semester of chemistry. Also satisfies the
recommended prerequisite for Physiology 12 and MB 12. Students taking a major that requires
two semesters of chemistry should enroll in CHEM 101A or 103A should enroll in CHEM 40.
 32533 353 L/L   W   11:00-02:00PM             1125 Valencia St.  364  Fong, L            
               M W   09:00-10:30AM             1125 Valencia St.  106  Fong, L
--------------------------------------------------
PE   200C  Fitness Center Super Circuit                2.0
 33367 001 Lab       HOURS ARR                              WELL  201
--------------------------------------------------
PHYC 10    Conceptual Physics                          3.0
A conceptual, almost non-mathematical, introduction to physics with demonstrations. Topics
 from mechanics, properties of matter, heat, sound, electricity, magnetism, light, nuclear
 physics, and relativity. Emphasis on topics that lead to a better understanding of our
technological society and physical environment. UC/CSU
 31746 551 Lec   W   06:30-09:30PM             1125 Valencia St.  106  Tesler, P          
--------------------------------------------------
PHYC 10L   Conceptual Physics (Lab)                    1.0
PREREQ.: Completion/concurrent enrollment in PHYC 10
Laboratory experiments involving basic physics concepts. Emphasis on concept development,
data handling, and laboratory skills. UC/CSU
Required for students enrolled in the curriculum in RADL
 31747 601 Lab  SAT  09:00-12:00PM                          SCIE  158  Yan, H

                                semester total units = 14

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Anatomy
Looking at the final grade sheet… 146 students started the class. Of those …
. . . 65% (96) passed (C or better)
. . . 34% (50) didn’t pass (D, F, drop, W)

. . . 21% (31) got an A, like me!

# of students in each category
A: 31 (90%+)
B: 30 (80%+)
C: 35 (67%+ or so)
D: 10 (48%+ or so)
F: 11
Drop or W: 29

September thru December 2011 I beefed up my body a lot working out at CCSF. This semester I didn’t make nearly as much progress. On a lot of fronts I just kept things even. Here are the highlights:

Everything I do is 2 sets of 10 reps. On most machines I stayed even from last semester. Here are the differences:

Chest Press: 75lbs to 110lbs. Excellent… except that I had left off in December at 120lbs. Feh!

Lateral Raise (still trying to build up my shoulder profile) I worked it every time I went to the gym and went from 70 to 85. Importantly, just a few weeks ago I realized I’ve been sitting on the machine such that I’m mostly just using my anterior deltoids instead of the correct posture that would use my anterior AND posterior deltoids. Ugh, it’s waay harder to do the exercise the right way!

Bicep Curl: Still I’m hovering around 95lbs, but I still like how my biceps look and feel compared to before working out.

Yoga ball crunches: I lean back on top of the yoga ball and do a sit-up, it works the abs better than a sit-up, and it burns like someone is stabbing me repeatedly with a knife (joy). The knives used to be unbearable at about 8 reps, 2 sets. Now it’s about 11 reps, 3 sets.

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What’s next? I’ve always noted that I don’t have enough cardio. I’ve just been running on the treadmill to warm up for the machines. Well, over the summer I’ll be visiting Megan a lot, she lives in Kensington at the top of the Berkeley Hills, about 800 feet of elevation… I now have a nice bike… Bring it on!

Saturday I aced my Physics lab final (95+)
I’m really psyched that today I did well (90?) On my Chem exam (update: I got an 84… I totally missed a question on glycophospholipids! But still, that is an A-/B+)
Now I want to take a nap but in the next week I’ve got a Chem final, Chem lab final, Anat test, Anat practical test, and Physics final.

My two girlfriends Kim-istry and aNatily take up an unending amount of time. There’s barely room for my human girlfriend! But we’ll find a way to work it out.

(this happened May 1st)

Today’s fantastic scholastic journey:

I’m trying to finish up my prereqs by taking a Human Physiology class this summer. Maybe at Merritt College, maybe College of Alameda. Both schools are part of the Peralta College System. I need to prove to them that I have passed the prereq for the class, a chemistry course, and talk to a counselor to verify I’m all set.

I spent 70 min on trains and buses getting to Merritt College. The Admissions Department lady immediately told me I had the wrong paperwork and I needed to hand deliver to her a letter from my chemistry professor, on CCSF letterhead, a note saying that I was going to pass his class. Phoey. I tried but wasn’t able to speak to a counselor because they were all booked up til closing (4:30pm) despite me getting there at 2:30pm.

Then I went to College of Alameda. The counselor saw me in 45 minutes. She immediately accepted my mid-term grade printout as proof of prerequisite completion. And she pushed all the magic buttons on the computer that let me attend school there. We chatted about some awesome school-type stuff and I was on my way.

Mission accomplished in just under 8 hours.

Moral of the story:
The Admissions Department’s job is to say “No, you don’t have the right paperwork.”
The Counselor’s job is to say, “Let’s get this done.”

Six weeks ago I was in Florida seeing my folks. Here we are with my aunt having dinner poolside at my aunt’s place!

And sunset just down the street

Three weeks ago there was a parade here in the Mission. Here’s a shot rounding from Mission to east on 24th st :-)

I love da machines!

Two weeks ago Ben Cowden and I went out to the Monk’s Kettle at 16th & Valencia. I was passing the torch of Crucible Kinetics and Electronics Department Head to Ben. Our bartender really knew her beer and poured me this Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge beer.

I had asked for a sour tasting beer and BAM she delivered. My best description for it is “strange adult candy“.
And thanks for the beer Ben!

Last weekend I was at an engagement party at Megan’s place. It was great fun!

I just like this photo of Megan :-)

A few weeks ago in chem class we made cheese. This week we ate some eggs in vitro… eg. we digested eggs with hydrochloric acid and pepsin in test tubes. And we also digested some oil – presumably from the chips. The science of salsa is next week. Here you see some yummy oil digestion!

Lastly and certainly not leastly, the Kinetics and Electronics department set up a great table at the Crucible Fireside Lounge last night!
Rich brought his milk crate bots, Ben was manning Corpse Reviver and had some work in the gallery show. Jon and I brought our winning personalities. Darn it was fun.

Today’s Chem 32 lab was delicious!

We’re extracting casein from aqueous bovine lactiferous nutrient products with glacial acetic acid at elevated temperatures. In other words, We made Queso Fresco!

A couple weeks ago we were doing acids and bases. Tell me that does not look like Science with a capital S!

:-)