Thank you for your advice! At Chapel Hill, I can technically not take BIOL 101/101L due to my AP score, but because I have been away from the course since 2014-2015, I was planning to take it. Do you think that BIOL 101/101L and CHEM 101/101L will be too difficult? I have a decent background in Biology, but obviously, if I do major in the subject, or try to go into a career that requires biology knowledge, I want to be as prepared as I can be.
I skipped the intro courses in which I got credit in, they are useless and only for those that have no basis on the subject. Intro bio can be easily picked up from your MCAT books and what you end up learning in classes is often modified to the professor's tune which I've noted is not so helpful for standardized tests. This is why I do no particularly like top school professors for a reason because what you need to learn, they don't teach or teach briefly and instead go into theory or confusing questions that really have no point in being asked (but that's just n=1). Skip your intro courses and try to make a feasible courseload that comprises of only 4 courses per semester (even if that means you taking bare minimum courseload your first few semesters). There is no shame in taking it easy if your gpa remains good. On the other other hand, there is a slippery slope when you do poorly by overloading. Don't get into the hype of your classmates who are taking this and that coursework. Here is an example) I knew someone who took bare min courseload and she was able to get over a 3.7 gpa. She utilized her AP coursework that got transferred to allow her to not be binded by university recommended hours. All the while, she was able to have a very successful medical school admissions cycle. At the end of the day if you hold a good gpa with whatever mix of classes, you are going to be relieved. I would also strongly recommend that you pick a major that is interesting to you but also not too top heavy that it overwhelms you. Too much stress is not good for your health in times of recovery, so take it easy.
I'm hoping to get involved in volunteering. I've also been looking at professors on Rate My Professor in hopes of getting a new one. The 200+ person class thing is a concern for me as I generally like to get to know my professors and the idea of small class sizes, so I'm hoping that my transfer goes smoothly and that I am able to make UNC work out for me.
My first year, only the sciences and 1 humanities course was over 150 students for me. The next semester, I made it a plan to have a small class setting and it wasn't too hard to find. Don't feel frightened to sign up with upper level humanities courses if you get ratings of the professor willing to help you get the grades with a good amount of initiative in your studies. I highly enjoyed my [20 some student] humanities classes (you can't really help it with the science courses...but you need that curve in those courses so I was fine with have as many people for a bell curve as possible). Humanities courses have writing assignments so I always made it a priority to take a small class where the professor was a good person and you could have a chat with and get notes on how to improve. As you do your research, you will certainly find the right professors. As for signing up for classes, you can get into them if you are persistently checking for spots opening as many students change their schedule even one day before classes open.
I think there may also be more than just the generic Rate My Professor website. I meant more of a university student-made ranking website. For that, I would call on your FB uni group to help.
Do you think that it will be very difficult to do well in a 200+ person class?
Not at all, but I think that in a humanities 200+ person class, you have to really look at professor who is teaching. I had one humanities course where the prof was awesome and I wrote down every single word of his in my notes. That and reading his assigned work did the "A" for me. Then I had this other 200+ humanities course where clearly writing down her words was driving me cray cause it was just her mumbling through. The assigned reading she had made no sense to read as it was thick with trivial info (think reading foreign artifact words and dates as a whole paragraph without any transitions or things that connected with the public). The students that wanted an A dropped that class after the first midterm and the only people who did get an A were upper classmen who had taken enough of the related major coursework that they were comfortable with the class, even things the professor didn't explicitly teach.
As mentioned, the science courses are >200 people but unlike humanities, if you choose a straightforward professor that just focuses on the book, you know that you can get ahead and do well with the class if you just keep up with the assigned chapters. There's also a lot of support because a lot of premeds are stuffed in these classes and will make the professor feel ample stressed to provide the right direction.
I didn't find any of the professors in chem 1 and 2 hard because I had taken gen chem in high school so whatever the professor didn't teach well, I had some inkling that I could clarify the matter myself.
When you do go onto orgo 1 and 2 and beyond, you want to be really careful about the professor you take. Just pick a straightforward professor from there on in because you know there is a pattern with which he structures his teaching. One of the professors who was upper lvl science taught things really fast and had interesting test formats. I knew from the first day, that I would have to teach everything to myself at my own pace but that was a big mistake I made. I had no basis on the course unlike gen science and I never learned a clear pattern as to how the prof asked questions. I made a mistake because there was another professor I was signed up beforehand and that prof was much more fitting to my way of learning. That prof also had better responses from students. So in truth, go with student evals when choosing classes because while you will still work hard, you will have a better way at handling your course-life.
