Sara Warzecka Columnist

Some degrees require that students know from the moment they fill out their college applications that they plan on pursuing such-and-such degree.

Programs requiring admission like architecture or pharmacy have everything laid out on a specific timetable ÷ in which case taking the wrong courses could mean taking longer to graduate and waiting longer to streak across the Mall on the final day of classes. Granted, pharmacy actually means two years of a pre-pharmacy major and four years in pharmacy school after completing a strenuous and highly selective admissions process ÷ which is a total of six years, for those who can't add.

While all bachelor's degrees must be laid out for four years, not all can be completed in that time without causing a brain hemorrhage for the prospective graduate. Falling into this category is The bachelor's of science in medical technology falls into that category.

As reported in Friday's Wildcat, the medical technology program is currently on the chopping block. Since last fall, it has not been allowed to accept new majors, leaving the program 21 students short of its 30-student capacity. According to the interim director Deborah Wyckoff, the program is set to lose funding in June but has not yet been taken off the majors list. She still receives calls from prospective students interested in the program who are now being denied entry.

There is due cause for student interest. The medical technology degree program is valuable and Wyckoff says it will provide students with a substantial lab background. However, it appears unlikely that any student could finish the degree in four years without taking every available summer and winter session and maybe staying on an extra semester to boot.

The program is described as a 2 1/2- plus 1 1/2-year program. The first 2 1/2 years are spent completing the pre-major requirements. Admission requires completion of 56 units of pre-major courses. However, that does not account for general education requirements ÷ most of which are still required, with the exception of NATS and either humanities or arts. Students still have about 18 general education credits to take. The remaining year and a half is devoted to 13 lectures and four labs, a fairly hefty amount.

But the problem is not necessarily the number of classes. It's the quality of work, i.e. the hundreds of frustrating hours of homework or thousands of equations to memorize. The pre-major consists of mostly science plus a couple of math classes, which are amply difficult without the burden of tiers. Included in the pre-major are three 400-level courses. Some students are ready to take these classes all at once in the first semester of junior year, but it takes a special type of masochist to choose to deal with a load like that.

There is also the consideration that the major only really leads to one profession. Just like a dozen other programs, it is a good way to pad a resume for entrance to medical school, but anyone sticking to just an undergraduate degree is stuck. Other sciences can lead to dozens of careers. But a specialized degree such as one in medical technology really only leads to one job.

Most people don't want to stay in the same job forever. Most people won't even stay in the same field forever. If that were true, maybe I would go from having worked the drive-thru at McDonald's at age 16 to spitting in your soup at the Olive Garden when I'm 50.

There really is great student interest in the program. At the time the program was cut, there were around 150 pre-majors. However, just 30 can be in the program at once, and that's just not enough financial fuel.

While the bachelor's degree program does not seem compatible with undergraduate life or the UA budget, an extension of the program provides medical technician certification after graduation. The medical technology classes are offered as graduate credits in an 18-month program that, with a B.S., provides certification comparable to the medical technology bachelor's degree.

After completing a science undergraduate degree, more students have an interest in an area like medical technology; rather than have undergraduate programs, genetics and biomedical engineering exist at the UA only as graduate programs. Perhaps some fields are just better-suited to the graduate school experience.

Sara Warzecka was disappointed to find out there is no undergraduate degree in genetics. She will have to wait a few more years to engineer talking bananas. She can be reached at letter@wildcat.arizona.edu.