Freshman Schedule Dillema

[LinearBrown]

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Hi, I’d appreciate any thoughts on my current schedule and whether adding an English class on too would be too much.

I’m currently taking Gen chem/bio (with both labs), intro psych, and a remote/asynch intro BBH course.

The English class has no tests or final, just writing assignments and homework. 2 books, literary analyses, and a research project. The rest of the points for the semester are easy to get, according to what I’m told.

Freshman Year Seminar (FYS) is a requirement at my school, but I’m worried I won’t be able to get it next semester or have enough time for it with chem 2 + bio 2 (and possibly stat or calc). Should I take it now and get it out of the way? Or do I risk less time for my science classes/labs next semester and/or have to take it remotely?

I’ve attached the work requirement for the English class for reference. The professor has great reviews on RMP saying she’s lax and flexible, but I know that the course load also matters.

Any thoughts, even brief, would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.

What do your academic advisors say?

 

[LinearBrown]

Welcome to the forums.

What do your academic advisors say?

Thank you!

My advisor doesn’t respond to my emails and the advising department in general isn’t very helpful, unfortunately.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you!

My advisor doesn’t respond to my emails and the advising department in general isn’t very helpful, unfortunately.

I don't completely understand that... their jobs are to help prevent you from overscheduling yourself into a bad GPA, particularly as a new student.

What English class are we talking about? How is it different from your FYS?

 

[LinearBrown]

I don't completely understand that... their jobs are to help prevent you from overscheduling yourself into a bad GPA, particularly as a new student.

What English class are we talking about? How is it different from your FYS?

I agree; I figured I’d just do my best with the resources that’re available to me.

It’s “Rhetoric and Composition”, the course structure is more transparent in the attached image up top. It fulfills the FYS requirement since it’s designed for freshmen — I should’ve clarified, sorry.

 

[eigen]

These are all questions you need to be asking your advisors because they are at your school and we are not. what you're asking are questions specific to your school.

If they don't answer email, then go to their office in person.

Did you not have an advising meeting with someone over the summer or during orientation that discussed class selection?

 

[LinearBrown]

These are all questions you need to be asking your advisors because they are at your school and we are not. what you're asking are questions specific to your school.

If they don't answer email, then go to their office in person.

Did you not have an advising meeting with someone over the summer or during orientation that discussed class selection?

Understood, thank you for the input. I tried giving a basic overview in my post with the information I did have, and was hoping to get some general thoughts about how the course load is seen.

I’ve gone to the advising center every day since the semester started last week, but they’re never in and the dept won’t let me change advisors. I haven’t been in contact with my advisor since June, which is when they were scheduling classes for freshmen after orientation.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Understood, thank you for the input. I tried giving a basic overview in my post with the information I did have, and was hoping to get some general thoughts about how the course load is seen.

I’ve gone to the advising center every day since the semester started last week, but they’re never in and the dept won’t let me change advisors. I haven’t been in contact with my advisor since June, which is when they were scheduling classes for freshmen after orientation.

And you have gone to your prehealth advising office? Have you gone to the dean's office of your college? For example, if you are going to major in biochemistry, who in the College of Science is in charge of the biochemistry major? If worse comes to worse, you may want to go to the Dean's Office. You need answers from your college advisors; we can't answer these nuanced questions about your ability to study.

You don't get bonus points for a "heavier" courseload. The stories of premed dreams crushed because they added that one extra class they thought was a light lift can fill the ocean.

 

[LinearBrown]

And you have gone to your prehealth advising office? Have you gone to the dean's office of your college? For example, if you are going to major in biochemistry, who in the College of Science is in charge of the biochemistry major? If worse comes to worse, you may want to go to the Dean's Office.

You don't get bonus points for a "heavier" courseload.

There’s no prehealth advising office at my school, but I wasn’t aware I could reach out to the dean’s office for my college. I’ll definitely look into that asap.

The issue is that the course-add deadline is tomorrow, and I don’t know if I can get a hold of them. It only occurred to me today that I could ask for some thoughts here.

“You don't get bonus points for a "heavier" courseload.”- I’ll keep this in mind, thank you. It’s not a heavier course load I want — actually, I’m only considering adding engl because it may be an easy-ish credit to get out of the way.

 

[eigen]

Honestly, the success rate of students who add classes late (i.e., towards the end of add-drop) is generally really bad.

Unless there's a strongly compelling reason for you to change your schedule now (and I'm not seeing one), don't do it.

Also, Penn State absolutely has a Pre-Health Advising Office. Prehealth Advising | Eberly College of Science

 

[polymerization]

In my opinion, it's too much. If this is your first exposure to the lab, you're going to have a rough go.

This might not at all resonate with you, but for me, the expectation I had when I was registering was that lab was going to be easy. I mean how hard could it be, it's one credit. Even my freshman seminar was three credits, and there wasn't supposed to be any "real work" being done in that class.

You'll learn as you go through your sciences that often, the labs are the harder component to the course. In chemistry in particular, if you aren't able to pull results while you're there, you just fail the lab. That means you always need to know what you're doing, and that's hard to do when you're reading methods you have no frame of reference for. If you're anything like me, you haven't even had demonstrations in high school chemistry so you have absolutely zero clue what a Bunsen burner is, or what "taking an aliquot" of something means.

All of that, on top of what seems like pointless busy work. For example, is it really necessary for me to keep a lab journal on carbon paper if you're just going to make me typeset the entire thing later anyway? Why are they asking questions about what I suspect will happen throughout the experiment if I haven't performed it yet and have no clue what is within the realm of possibility here?

If you're anything like me, it's going to take a few semesters before you start realizing "oh, THAT'S why we do [x,y,z]." But it's a bumpy ride until then. Take a breath and just dip a toe before jumping into a bunch of classes at once. Better to take it slow and ramp up with a good GPA vs destroying it freshman year and spending the next 10 years rebuilding it.

That last part was from experience, too. Good luck! (And congratulations on making it to college! That's already a really big accomplishment.)

 

[LinearBrown]

In my opinion, it's too much. If this is your first exposure to the lab, you're going to have a rough go.

This might not at all resonate with you, but for me, the expectation I had when I was registering was that lab was going to be easy. I mean how hard could it be, it's one credit. Even my freshman seminar was three credits, and there wasn't supposed to be any "real work" being done in that class.

You'll learn as you go through your sciences that often, the labs are the harder component to the course. In chemistry in particular, if you aren't able to pull results while you're there, you just fail the lab. That means you always need to know what you're doing, and that's hard to do when you're reading methods you have no frame of reference for. If you're anything like me, you haven't even had demonstrations in high school chemistry so you have absolutely zero clue what a Bunsen burner is, or what "taking an aliquot" of something means.

All of that, on top of what seems like pointless busy work. For example, is it really necessary for me to keep a lab journal on carbon paper if you're just going to make me typeset the entire thing later anyway? Why are they asking questions about what I suspect will happen throughout the experiment if I haven't performed it yet and have no clue what is within the realm of possibility here?

If you're anything like me, it's going to take a few semesters before you start realizing "oh, THAT'S why we do [x,y,z]." But it's a bumpy ride until then. Take a breath and just dip a toe before jumping into a bunch of classes at once. Better to take it slow and ramp up with a good GPA vs destroying it freshman year and spending the next 10 years rebuilding it.

That last part was from experience, too. Good luck! (And congratulations on making it to college! That's already a really big accomplishment.)

Thank you so much! I never thought a one credit class could be so time consuming, so I’ll definitely heed your advice.

Makes me feel better about not getting the requirement immediately out of the way. Even if it’s tougher to have writing assignments alongside gen chem/bio 2 (and their labs), I’ll probably be more equipped to manage my time efficiently and not risk my GPA. Thanks again!