Critique my schedule

[Ladynerd]

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Do you have to take those courses all at once? Why not spread them out over your college career and replace two of those classes with required non-science courses? Last semester, I had three STEM classes (although one was intro-level), and the fourth was a philosophy class, which was a stress-reliever, but also interesting and thought-provoking. I would not have survived if all four of my classes were STEM courses.

 

[reluctantoptimism]

Do you have to take those courses all at once? Why not spread them out over your college career and replace two of those classes with required non-science courses? Last semester, I had three STEM classes (although one was intro-level), and the fourth was a philosophy class, which was a stress-reliever, but also interesting and thought-provoking. I would not have survived if all four of my classes were STEM courses.

I have no non-STEM courses left.

 

[md-2020]

I have no non-STEM courses left.

I'll just have to chalk that up to terrible scheduling then. Take some electives.

 

[efle]

I have no non-STEM courses left.

Wait what like you filled entire semesters before with just gen eds and now have to do nothing but science classes until you graduate?

 

[Akech]

I have no non-STEM courses left.

You can always take a course that's not required for any major. Just speaking for myself, I get burned out if I don't have at least one humanities course per semester to remind myself I'm still human.

 

[drmerbear]

Personally, I don't find it productive to plan the exact times of when and what to study. Like someone else posted... just study when you need to. Having set study blocks like this also screams inflexibility to me and to be honest doesn't seem very realistic. I voted No, but the schedule itself I think is more than doable, but not with those neurotically scheduled self study blocks. And don't forget to enjoy undergrad life and allocate time for ECs!! You only do college once.

 

[yeezuswest]

The problem you're going to face down the road is during finals week. Initially, you'll find a schedule like this to be rather manageable, but once finals come around and you've got back to back final exams within the space of one week, you're going to seriously regret taking this course load. Trust me.

 

[Conflagration]

What in the literal blue hell is this schedule, though?

Like, maybe I'm a weenie, and I'm willing to own it if I am indeed a weenie, but Organic Chem I with lab + 14 hours of gen-eds had me ready to rip my hair out and give it to those Bosley transplant clinics.

I mean, I had to write out all of my lab reports in pen with all their over-technical jargon and third-person passive voice and crap. I can't imagine having the time for that in your schedule, particularly not with four lab books to keep up. Maybe my school's just a stickler about labs, but I don't think that's the case.

How many courses do you have left to take, OP? If it's something like 6, I say part it out to 3 this semester, 3 next semester and take something lighthearted like an art class so you don't end up burned out.

 

[Gandyy]

What in the literal blue hell is this schedule, though?

Like, maybe I'm a weenie, and I'm willing to own it if I am indeed a weenie, but Organic Chem I with lab + 14 hours of gen-eds had me ready to rip my hair out and give it to those Bosley transplant clinics.

I mean, I had to write out all of my lab reports in pen with all their over-technical jargon and third-person passive voice and crap. I can't imagine having the time for that in your schedule, particularly not with four lab books to keep up. Maybe my school's just a stickler about labs, but I don't think that's the case.

How many courses do you have left to take, OP? If it's something like 6, I say part it out to 3 this semester, 3 next semester and take something lighthearted like an art class so you don't end up burned out.

Labs are nightmares.

-Tons of extremely irritating meticulous busy work.

-You don't get the appropriate number of credit hours when you take labs. Generally when I had 2 science classes with labs in 1 semester with 15 credit hours... it was more like I was taking 18-20 credit hours of class.

-If you don't do them, they destroy your grade... if you do them well, they only marginally help.

-Tons of extremely irritating meticulous busy work.

 

[You're My Boy Blue]

Labs are nightmares.

-Tons of extremely irritating meticulous busy work.

-You don't get the appropriate number of credit hours when you take labs. Generally when I had 2 science classes with labs in 1 semester with 15 credit hours... it was more like I was taking 18-20 credit hours of class.

-If you don't do them, they destroy your grade... if you do them well, they only marginally help.

-Tons of extremely irritating meticulous busy work.

I've never read a more true post

 

[efle]

Y'alls labs sound like they sucked. Like really, they focused on whether you wrote passively or used the right words?

All that was graded in our lab notebooks was that we had a pre-lab summary of what we were doing to show we had read the procedure, and had noted critical values down that would match our reports later (stuff like grams of product and melting point measures etc). Most of it was answering questions in the lab report like which of the 12 unknowns your product could be based on its NMR and your reasoning for each piece you identified, that kind of thing.

 

[md-2020]

Y'alls labs sound like they sucked. Like really, they focused on whether you wrote passively or used the right words?

All that was graded in our lab notebooks was that we had a pre-lab summary of what we were doing to show we had read the procedure, and had noted critical values down that would match our reports later (stuff like grams of product and melting point measures etc). Most of it was answering questions in the lab report like which of the 12 unknowns your product could be based on its NMR and your reasoning for each piece you identified, that kind of thing.

Luckyyyyyyyyy

 

[Akech]

Y'alls labs sound like they sucked. Like really, they focused on whether you wrote passively or used the right words?

All that was graded in our lab notebooks was that we had a pre-lab summary of what we were doing to show we had read the procedure, and had noted critical values down that would match our reports later (stuff like grams of product and melting point measures etc). Most of it was answering questions in the lab report like which of the 12 unknowns your product could be based on its NMR and your reasoning for each piece you identified, that kind of thing.

Hah, my orgo lab required that you write down everything to the smallest detail. Your solution started steaming? What was the temperature you set the hot plate to, how much time had passed before it started steaming, were there bubbles that formed, color change, alignment of the stars at that exact moment, etc...

 

[Gandyy]

Y'alls labs sound like they sucked. Like really, they focused on whether you wrote passively or used the right words?

All that was graded in our lab notebooks was that we had a pre-lab summary of what we were doing to show we had read the procedure, and had noted critical values down that would match our reports later (stuff like grams of product and melting point measures etc). Most of it was answering questions in the lab report like which of the 12 unknowns your product could be based on its NMR and your reasoning for each piece you identified, that kind of thing.

We had to write a PHD level paper for every Gen Chem and Orgo Lab.





Ok not really.. but you get the point

 

[Gandyy]

Hah, my orgo lab required that you write down everything to the smallest detail. Your solution started steaming? What was the temperature you set the hot plate to, how much time had passed before it started steaming, were there bubbles that formed, color change, alignment of the stars at that exact moment, etc...

Yea me too and guess what....

Most of my lab TA's docked points for not having a good "percent yield" of product.


.......😡

 

[efle]

Hah, my orgo lab required that you write down everything to the smallest detail. Your solution started steaming? What was the temperature you set the hot plate to, how much time had passed before it started steaming, were there bubbles that formed, color change, alignment of the stars at that exact moment, etc...

Why??? How do the people in charge of the teaching curriculum look at this kind of thing and go "yes mhmm this is exactly what we want the takeaway from our class to be - stupid minutiae tracking that would prevent someone from ever being productive in a real lab"

 

[efle]

Yea me too and guess what....

Most of my lab TA's docked points for not having a good "percent yield" of product.


.......😡

That's actually outrageous. They can't possibly show it was your error rather than something like bad starting materials or glassware left contaminated. Are these classes run by sadists or what

 

[Gandyy]

That's actually outrageous. They can't possibly show it was your error rather than something like bad starting materials or glassware left contaminated. Are these classes run by sadists or what

Yea... "70 percent yield or higher" or else you lose 10 points or something like that. Or you would have to come in later and repeat it.

I hated labs

 

[Conflagration]

I had to draw diagrams in mine for points for correct labeling and how closely it resembles the structure(s). Also, each write up needed to be at least three to five pages per lab, you needed to write a two-to-three paragraph introduction with some research on what you were doing, listing off the litany of things you needed, describe each step (in third-person passive voice), and charts had to be done in the notebook and on the pre-lab, and the good Lord help you if you didn't write some stupid conclusion that would take at least five sentences to do.

You can see where I got my distaste for labs.

 

[22031 Alum]

I took a writing-intensive analytical chem lab that required something like a 10-page paper for every lab. But it said so in the course description, there was a non-writing-intensive option, and you got a full 4 credit hours as opposed to 1. I was also a hardcore chemistry nerd well into my major by then. I can't imagine making everybody who took a pre-req like orgo go through that.

 

[reluctantoptimism]

I've changed my schedule: the analytical chemistry has been replaced with a Spanish course. In regards to MCAT 2015, how heavily emphasized are physics 2 concepts?

 

[cooldriver]

Looks very hectic but doable...you definitely need to take some more time off on weekends or you might burn out

 

[FutureBenCarson]

This schedule is really not bad at all if we're being honest... some people work full time and take 20+ credit hours. Just sayin

 

[Pusheen]

I'm jealous that you only have one analytical chem lab.I'm having it twice a week, 3-4 hours each time.

Also, anyone take biochem lab? It was freaking 8-9 hours long every week.

 

[Meeehai]

I'm jealous that you only have one analytical chem lab.I'm having it twice a week, 3-4 hours each time.

Also, anyone take biochem lab? It was freaking 8-9 hours long every week.

Strangely, biochem lab was my favorite out of all the labs I took, least amount of tedious work and it wasn't as boring as the others. My biochem lab sessions almost never took the entire time.

 

[Pusheen]

Strangely, biochem lab was my favorite out of all the labs I took, least amount of tedious work and it wasn't as boring as the others. My biochem lab sessions almost never took the entire time.

in retrospect, I learned a lot and it wasn't too bad, just the time and frustration involved in minute protein purification drove me nuts