Going to college without lab experience

[rosedarul]

Hello everyone. I'm Rose. My kids like science; but they don't want to do actual lab experiments. They don't mind doing hands on, homemade experiments, but not the kind that most colleges look for. So, can they still get into college if they have no lab experience? I know a lot of colleges require a certain number of years of actual lab experimentation; but my kids tell me that they want to go to college; just that they don't want to have to be required to do labs in college. Please let me know.

 

 

    Thanking you in advance,

 

       Rose

[Kendall]

Rose,

 

You mentioned 2 different things

1) doing labs in college

2) doing labs in high school

 

I think you can probably get out of college labs if you get a bachelor of arts degree.  For a bachelor of science degree you might have to take 1 lab course. 

 

My oldest did the kind of labs that are in the Apologia science books which probably fall more into the category that your kids say they don't mind.    He got into college (with a big scholarship) and got an EE degree and did great on labs with really no true lab experience.  

 

On the other hand, sometimes you just have to do something you don't enjoy.  I tell mine to just get over it already.  And sometimes you discover that against all odds, you actually like the thing you thought you would hate.  

 

Kendall 

 

 

[G5052]

As usual, "it depends." You don't get out of lab at the college-level at the vast majority of colleges.

 

One of mine is talking about business, the other enjoys writing and may go that way.  Both will have to have two semesters with lab of the same science at every college we're looking at for a B.B.A. or B.A.

 

I'm a STEM professor at two community colleges, and had to take two semesters with lab in biology, chemistry, and physics for my undergraduate work.  Yes, six science classes with lab.  It was an all-technical school, and that's what everybody did.  You could substitute geology for biology, but otherwise that's what you did even if you were doing technical writing or math.

 

Mine don't have my STEM interests, but they still will have four years of lab science.  Granted, we did some video labs where the equipment was beyond me, but we've dissected fetal pigs on the kitchen table and have done acceleration experiments in the garage.  I don't want to be the one that holds them back from their dream if they are late-bloomers and decide in their 20's that they want to go into a STEM field.  It happens.

[Luckymama]

Dd is an English-French major at a large (not super large) research university. She is required to take one science with lab as an undergraduate. (Her AP Bio score fulfilled this, yay!)

 

As for the high school labs----dd hates English, just despises lit analysis. She knows that she must study it for four years, so daily gets it done. In your situation, OP, I'd tell the kids that they just have to do it. Two sciences with lab seems to be a common admissions requirement at many colleges.

 

Dd will have four years of lab science. She isn't sure what she would like to study in college or where she'd like to go to school. I want to make sure all options remain open for her :)

[kiana]

It is pretty difficult to find a college that does not require at least one lab science; it is more common to require two.  You can definitely get into some colleges without labs, although this will seriously restrict the choice of where to apply. 

 

I did not find it difficult to jump into college labs without high school labs. 

 

One option you might consider is waiting until jr/sr year and dual enrolling for a few "sciences with lab". Some labs might be more interesting than others -- for example, my plant science lab at the university was much more interesting than the basic biology lab. Maybe geology would be interesting?

 

This way the sciences would count both for high school and hopefully transfer as general education credit to the intended university. 

[elegantlion]

You might look at some of the sticky threads at the top of the forum for bio and chem and the lab components at homeschool level. 

 

Echoing what others are saying, my state college requires at least two classes in science for general studies for BA or BS. All of them have a lab component. 

[Kendall]

I thought I was remembering one of my sons requirements as being for getting a bachelor of science, but it was the core curriculum for all students that I was remembering.  2 science classes were required and one class had to be a biology course with a lab.  One course could be physical science without a lab.

[foxbridgeacademy]

What about video labs?  I think there are some curriculum's that have there labs on disc.... I don't know who/which since we love experiments/labs here but I have seen them mentioned.  Most (?) schools will accept video labs for credit, there's a thread where one College in AZ (?) won't, so you should check with the Uni's you're considering to see what their particular policy is.