Freshman Schedule

[BeastfromthEast]

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hey, i have to register for classes in the beginning of june, so ive been thinking about what classes to take. i dont know whether my premed advisor will be helpful or not, so i want a general idea of what classes to take before i talk to him/her. does this schedule be too hard, especially since its my freshman year?
i already took calculus bc in high school (junior year), but i think ive forgotten most of the stuff i learned. also the 2 english classes below are core classes required to graduate. thanks!

Fall:

Cal 1
General Chem 1 w/Lab Honors
Introductory Bio 1 w/ Lab
English Composition
Research Program
Introductory Seminar (for science honors program)

Spring:

Cal 2
General Chem 2 w/Lab Honors
Introductory Bio 2 w/ Lab
English Composition 2
Research Program

 

[GoSpursGo]

That's what, 16-18 hours in the fall and 15 in the spring?

Only you know yourself and can gauge how much you can handle. But our pre-med advisor suggested starting off with a relatively light first semester (14-15 hours) and increasing from there as we felt we could handle it. I felt that worked out well for me.

I assume that for what you want to do, the research program and seminar are required? With that in mind, I would think long and hard about pushing either Cal 1 or English 1 off to the spring. But that's just me; there are certainly some pre-meds who could handle that courseload just fine.

 

[zeppelinpage4]

Seems reasonable I took about 15 credits both semesters freshman year.

How tough is the research program and introductory seminar?

If they're equivalent to another class or lab (1-3 credits) you may be in for a tough first semester but I imagine it should still be doable depending on how prepared you are. I guess know how much you can and are willing to handle.

My course load was pretty similar but I didn't have the research program and introductory seminar. It worked out well and I had time to do other things.
Also if you're unsure you could maybe push back one of those classes to second semester when you have a better feel of what you can do and how you should do them.

Also if most students at your school are taking that course load and your adviser says to take it, I'd probably go for it since it's probably the standard. That's how it was at my school, the kids who got bad advising, ended up being told to take easier or not enough classes.

 

[Hope0913]

hey, i have to register for classes in the beginning of june, so ive been thinking about what classes to take. i dont know whether my premed advisor will be helpful or not, so i want a general idea of what classes to take before i talk to him/her. does this schedule be too hard, especially since its my freshman year?
i already took calculus bc in high school (junior year), but i think ive forgotten most of the stuff i learned. also the 2 english classes below are core classes required to graduate. thanks!

Fall:

Cal 1
General Chem 1 w/Lab Honors
Introductory Bio 1 w/ Lab
English Composition
Research Program
Introductory Seminar (for science honors program)

Spring:

Cal 2
General Chem 2 w/Lab Honors
Introductory Bio 2 w/ Lab
English Composition 2
Research Program

looks good to me

 

[BeastfromthEast]

to tell you the truth, i dont know how hard the research program and seminar is. this is the first year my school will be doing this research program. the research class is 3 credit hours though. the seminar for the honors program is 2 credit hours. according to the description in the course catalog:

"Introductory Seminar. (Fall semester Freshman Year; 2 credit hours). Students work in team to analyze
current scientific problems (e.g., related to climate change), learning about how scientists approach
problems and present their findings to the scientific community."


i cant get out of either of those classes. the seminar is required for the honors program. maybe i should bump english 101 to the spring?

 

[Poliscidoc]

Looks good just don't get off on a bad foot with your pre med advisor, don't try and be the pushy pre med. Other than that good luck on the upcoming year!!

 

[MilkmanAl]

I assume that for what you want to do, the research program and seminar are required? With that in mind, I would think long and hard about pushing either Cal 1 or English 1 off to the spring. But that's just me; there are certainly some pre-meds who could handle that courseload just fine.

To me, it's not really an issue of your ability to handle the course load or not. The first semester of college is a pretty big adjustment for most people, and a lot of new freedoms open up, regardless of how liberal (note the small "L") your parents were during your high school years. You may be able to handle that work load fine, but chances are you're going to have to miss out on a lot of cool stuff and friend-making to keep up. I agree that pushing back one of your planned courses to the second semester would be better all around. Cut yourself some slack at the beginning for partying and hanging out and stuff - you know, being a college student. Moving a course also makes the possibility of being a bit too much of a college student that semester not hurt as bad.

 

[BeastfromthEast]

i think i could handle that courseload. im a hard worker. its just that i want to have the time to meet new people and make new friends my first semester.

 

[BeastfromthEast]

oh didnt see that post haha ^^^

ok so assuming i move english comp 101 to the spring semester, would you say that my schedule is a solid one though? not a cupcake one?

 

[GoSpursGo]

oh didnt see that post haha ^^^

ok so assuming i move english comp 101 to the spring semester, would you say that my schedule is a solid one though? not a cupcake one?

Sounds like that would put you at 16 hours for your first semester (assuming both bio and chem are 4 hours with the labs). I definitely don't think that would be a cupcake semester; I think doing 19 hours (with English Comp 1) would probably be a mistake and you would almost certainly have to sacrifice a lot of social opportunities to make that work.

Good luck!

 

[MilkmanAl]

Yeah, I'd keep it to 15 hours at most that first semester. Hell, take 12 if you have to. Just make sure you don't bury yourself in work when everyone else is going to be having fun. I made almost all of my enduring college friendships during my freshman year, and I think that's a pretty typical experience. Hey, worst case scenario for underloading on classes is that you have a whole crapload of free time.

 

[BeastfromthEast]

alright thanks for your help!

 

[BeastfromthEast]

Sorry to revive this thread, but I got an unexpected call from an advisor from the honors program and we worked out my schedule. I guess people in th honors program register first. Anyway nothing definite but here's my preliminary schedule

cal 1
chem 1 w/ Lab (no honors)
research program
some leadership class for honors program
English comp ( but is science based. Also for the honors program)

cal 2
chem 2 w/ lab
research
bio 1 w/ lab
????

I can't do honors chem because of the research or something. I forgot the reason she gave me. Also bio 1 had to be pushed to spring; you think that'd ok? Will having summer between bio 1&2 hinder me in bio 2?
I'm also going to try to get out of the science/english comp so I can just take english 101 & 102 to fulfill my 1 year English prerequisite.



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