bad idea to take these classes together?

[s1lver]

Freshman year = Biology + Chemistry
Sophomore year = Physics + Organic Chemistry (I'll probably take these two separately)

I'm asking because I would like to take the MCAT during the spring/summer of my Senior year. Thoughts on this?

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[Nemethyst]

How well/hard do you study? If not well, I wouldn't suggest taking both of those courses frosh year.

I made that mistake in freshman year and am paying for it. Take the class you did better in in high school. It can be a big transition between HS and college.

 

[thatfrickekid]

Freshman year = Biology + Chemistry
Sophomore year = Physics + Organic Chemistry

I'm asking because I would like to take the MCAT during the spring/summer of my Junior year. Thoughts on this?

I'm a nontrad and I did that my first year back to school...It all depends on if you're willing to commit whatever amount of time is required for you to do well.

 

[Insulinshock]

I did bio and chem freshman year together and got A's in both classes both semesters.

I decided against taking physics and organic together though just cause I didn't need to and didn't want the added stress.

 

[Artimacia]

Thats actually how they set up the classes here. My freshman year I took bio and chem, got an A in bio, a B in chem. This summer I'm taking bio 2, so far an A, next fall is Chem 2 and physics, and next spring is Physics 2 and organic.

 

[eagle34]

I suggest not taking bio and chem your first semester freshman year, just so you can get acclimated to the college way of studying and the overall college life. I took chem my first semester freshman year, then bio+chem my second semester freshman year.

 

[Blade28]

It all depends on how comfortable you are with those subjects.

I took o-chem as a freshman and don't recommend it.

 

[s1lver]

I did bio and chem freshman year together and got A's in both classes both semesters.

I decided against taking physics and organic together though just cause I didn't need to and didn't want the added stress.

This sounds like a better idea. I don't know what I was thinking when I posted that I was planning on taking the MCAT on my Junior year when I should take it on my Senior year instead!

 

[VoiceofReason]

My advice would be to do it if you think you can handle it while still taking a typical semester courseload. It's common and thus considered very doable.

Science majors normally take two sciences with their respective labs and then three other additional courses per semester, so my reasoning is that you'd like to appear to handle the sciences as well as they do. It probably doesn't matter how you space it out in the grand scheme of things as long as you take a number of credits similar to science majors but this is the land of pre-allo and we're all obsessive about being competitive.

 

[BigRedder]

I don't see how you can avoid taking two difficult classes at the same time. You start running into problems when you take THREE difficult classes at the same time, like when I took Orgo (+lab), Neuro, and Hebrew at the same time. When you shift one difficult class from a pair, you are likely to encounter this scenario.

 

[GoldShadow]

Only you know what you can handle. I did that (bio/chem frosh year, orgo/physics soph year), and did fine. But I will say that orgo + physics was a handful and got extremely stressful at times.

 

[HumidBeing]

My greatest concern is your first semester of freshman year. That will probably be the biggest life adjustment period you've been through so far - new place, new people, new routine, faster moving courses, and the biggie - more independence and responsibility for yourself than you've ever had. Many students set a more rigorous schedule that semester than they wind up being able to handle during the adjustment, and then spend the next few years of their academic careers pulling their GPA's out of the hole.

If you wind up choosing just one science that first semester, I recommend that it be chemistry, because it is a pre-req for more classes than bio is. Second semester, you could complete your chem and start bio at the same time, and still be on track to do ochem the beginning of your sophomore year.

After that first semester, you'll have a better handle on how rigorous a course load you can manage to do, and do well in. In the long run, grades wind up being more important than speed.