Course Scheduling

[Reve3]

Hi, I'm wondering if any of you could share your own experiences with scheduling courses -- what worked, what didn't, etc. For example, would it be completely crazy to take Organic Chemistry second semester of freshman year? The college I intend on attending seems to have it organized that way. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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[Cuteasaurus]

Is organic chem only a semester then? Most of the time you need two semesters and in that case I'd say it makes more sense for organic chem semesters to be sequential. If you're skipping the first semester of gen chem and starting with the second semester, then take another chem course (analytical is often like the third semester of gen chem) to fill in the time.

 

[Syranope2]

my college had a weird chem sequence. if you'd taken ap chem, then you passed out of the first semester of gen chem and took the second semester in the fall of your freshman year. then you took the two organic semesters in your freshman spring and sophomore fall. if you hadn't taken ap chem, you'd have to wait to take the first semester of gen chem in your freshman spring, then do the next chem classes during your sophomore and junior years. overall, i didn't have a problem with taking organic 1 as a freshman. it was kind of annoying to forget everything during the summer before the second semester, but it was also nice to have a good long break from the material for a while. if that's what your school wants you to do, they've probably got a good reason, and i'd tend to trust them

 

[Reve3]

Well, at Williams College, I think freshmen take one semester of gen chem, one of organic chem. Then sophomore year, one of organic chem, and lastly one of gen. chem. For those who've taken organic chem, does one semester of gen chem sound like enough preparation? The scheduling seems rather rigid, and the distribution requirements are a bit of a hassle. Less than two weeks left.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

G chem is very mathy and doesn't have much to do with Ochem. Our school only requires one semester of g chem anyhow, and everyone does fine.

 

[WyldeWolf1]

I went into college with 46 hours of AP credit, compulsively squeezing in every class I could my first year. I got good grades, etc, but I would not advise it under any circumstances for several reasons.

1) You need to have fun. If you don't want to have "fun" per se, at least have a balanced life. Don't go killing yourself over academics (ie, get good grades, but don't try to get them in graduate level courses).

2) You don't want to frontload your schedule with the most relevant courses. Think of it this way, OChem, Physics, GenChem, Genetics, etc will all matter for a) your AMCAS transcript and b) your MCAT. You want to spread them out sufficiently prevent overloading. It's also VERY handy to be taking one or two of these courses going into the MCAT your third year. For example, I had Biochem and Physics my third year, so I didn't have to do much extra preparation for those portions of the MCAT.

3) You're a freshman. Odds are, you're still not 100% sure this is your path. You may be 99% sure now and fall in love with another area later. I'd emphasize things like doctor shadowing, ER volunteering, etc first. That way, you'll know you love it and be more motivated academically or know it's not for you and spare yourself the agony of premed courses.

 

[mikeyboy]

I took all the prereqs the first two years. I had AP credit for biology and chemistry, but took the classes anyway, so they were easy. So I had 4 semesters of chem, physics first year and bio second year (2 semesters each). I also took 2 semesters of math first year. Turned out pretty well, since I was still in the mood to study and I was able to take the MCAT right after completing all those classes, while they were fresh in my memory.

 

[DMBFan]

I have friends who went to William and Mary and Wake and they also had a similar sequence to yours. I think the reason they do this is because gen chem II is not really related to Gen Chem I or Organic. The last chapter that you learn in Gen Chem I is a lot of the basis for intro organic. My friends from high school took it and they seemed to do fine. I found Gen Chem II actually to be slightly harder because there were a lot of ways to "twist" the material.

 

[Reve3]

Thanks guys for your input. That eases my mind a little.