LlanelliStudent

Hello. I am a first year student at King's College, London. They run exchange program with several universities, including the University of California. Unfortunately, I do not know where to start looking for information about their courses. Believe me, I've tried!
I am doing a 3 year undergraduate degree in Biochemistry, but it has a biomedical slant at King's. The exchange program is for the entire second year. Does this mean that all my modules would be in the second year for American courses (since most of these courses seem to be 4 years long)? And I don't understand the 'major' system. Is it the same as choosing a subject in Britain or does one pick modules from 'minors' as well?
Perhaps I will ask about campuses later. Looking forward to hearing from any of you.

happymomof1

In the US, students have a certain number of university-wide graduation requirements as well as departmental requirements (courses required for the major subject). You need to look at the INDIVIDUAL courses at Kings' College, and the INDIVIDUAL courses at the place where you would do your exchange year in order to find out which ones are reasonably equivalent. The offices that coordinate the exchange year on the two campuses should be able to give you some help with this. When you read the course descriptions for the US university, pay careful attention to any prerequisites or co-requisites for those courses. You may qualify for a third or fourth year course in the US based on coursework you have already taken at King's, and you might not be eligible for a second year course because you are missing a particular prereq.

Futureholds

If you have choices with universities other then those in the UC system, I would check them out. The UC system is having lots of problems right now with cutbacks and students uable to get classes due to the financial crisis in California.

LlanelliStudent

By 'indivudual courses', do you mean the separate subjects which one chooses within the whole course e.g. 'Free Radicals and Human Disease' and 'Toxicology' within Biochemistry? Would the office abroad be able to confirm whether or not my first year modules would be suitable as prerequisites? And are they classed according to which year one studies them in or does it just depend on whether one has done the prerequisite courses (which would be impossible for many in the first year)? Thanks for responding so soon.

Damaris

I think that most of your courses will be third year courses, since many UK students get second year standing when the come to US colleges. Futureholds is right - avoid public universities in California if you can. You probably will not be able to register for the courses you want.

happymomof1

Usually you can take a course in any year of a US program, providing you have met any pre-requisites. Sometimes when a course has limited enrollment, further restrictions apply such as Junior or Senior year status, permission of the instructor, etc. All of this information should be in the course catalogue.

Since you intend to use the courses you take during your exchange year toward a degree at your home institution, you need to meet with the program coordinator there to find out which courses at the other university can be applied toward your degree. They should be able to help you sort this out.

Sam Lee

LlanelliStudent,

I wasn't a biochemistry major but I was in engineering. My guess is once your have a year of biology, a year of chemistry, and a year of organic chemistry (you probably already have quite a bit in A-level and my guess is you'll have all that and probably much more by the end of your your first year at Kings), you will have the foundations and pre-reqs for most other courses in the biochemistry department. most of them are separate and like what you just picked, "'Free Radicals and Human Disease" and "Toxicology" are not really that related; as long as you have courses in organic chemistry, chemistry, and biology, you can take either or both of them in any order.