Packed or balanced schedule?

[Sean1218]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'm trying to pick a schedule for first year, but I'm having troubles deciding on when to take each class. I'm taking chemistry, biology, physics, calculus, with labs for chem, bio, phys, and tutorials for chem and calc.

I have tons of miniscule variations, but most of them can be separated into one of two categories.

1. I can pack all my lectures into tuesday and thursday (from 8:35am to 2:25pm with a 40 minute break after the first class), and have the three labs, 2-3 hours each, on mon/wed/fri. With this, I'm concerned that I'll get burned out with all my lectures on the same day; that means all assignments, quizzes, tests, readings etc. will be due on one of two days, so a ton of overlapping due dates right?

2. I can have the same schedule as #1, except move chem to mon/wed/fri. On tues/thurs, this leaves the following: Calc; 40 min break; Biol; 1h40min break; Phys. I still have 3 classes in a day, but breaks in between each class (compared to no breaks in #1). There would also be 2 hour breaks between lecture and lab on mon/fri if I split the labs up, or just friday if I take two labs on friday. I'm concerned all the breaks in this schedule will just be big wastes of time for me.

3. I figure I should mention this one too. It would be the same as #1 except I could move calc to mon/wed/fri. The thing is, if I do this, I'll have a pretty awful teacher for calculus, compared to the excellent teacher I get with the other schedule. Calculus is the only course I'm concerned about not getting an A in, and it's known to be a hard class at my school already. This schedule (both lectures and labs) seems to be the best for me, but again, the calculus teacher ruins it. All other professors are the same regardless of schedule by the way.

Lastly, I need to decide how to order labs. I could put 2 labs in one day (either wed or fri), which would leave me with just a single 50 minute lecture on monday. Two labs in one day would be lab; lecture; 2 hour break; lab. It's either that or just having one lab per day on mon/wed/fri.

Thanks for any suggestions you have.

 

[CodeBlu]

There's a thread for this.

 

[NickNaylor]

I did #1 a couple of semesters and it sucked. I would highly not recommend it. Try and split up lectures between MWF and TTh so that you don't spend all day (or multiple days) in classes. Of your choices, I would go with #3.

Also, you might want to seriously consider taking it easy on the classes. That's a pretty extreme course load for a first semester freshman.

 

[NickNaylor]

There's a thread for this.

😍

 

[Forca Barca]

# 1 priority should be the teacher ...

but for me .... its sleeping in

 

[Whatyousay]

Don't do number 1.

Those days when you have class will be the longest days of your life.

 

[NewYorker9]

at least your first semester balance your schedule and then later on try stacking it if you still want to. my first year i was balanced and it worked fine, and then my sophomore i stacked my MWF and it bit me in the butt

 

[iFLo]

I also like #1. It really relies on your preference. Do you want breaks in between your classes? or don't you? If you decide to have these breaks you'll get more time to have lunch, relax, study. But it's up to you to utilize the time and not waste it like you're worried.

I had schedule 1 a few times as well, except my lectures were packed on M/W/F, and labs on T/TH. Personally, I like compact schedules as opposed to spread schedules because I get all the obligations out of the way, and use the rest of the time miscellaneous things: studying, food, sleep, ECs, etc. I would recommend doing what you have to in order to have the good calc teacher; I've made the mistake of having a bad math teacher, and trust me it's no fun.

 

[godless]

Don't do number 1.

Those days when you have class will be the longest days of your life.

And the days you don't have class it will be hard to get up early and focus on school....

 

[wololololololo]

I personally prefer #1 and always try to lump all my classes on T/Th, otherwise I get those weird awkward breaks like you describe in #2 and 3. Some people don't like sitting in lecture halls for 6 hour stretches, but four day weekends 👍

 

[kexy]

I'm trying to pick a schedule for first year, but I'm having troubles deciding on when to take each class. I'm taking chemistry, biology, physics, calculus, with labs for chem, bio, phys, and tutorials for chem and calc.

That is quite the courseload. You might want to consider taking out one lab class and throwing in an easy GE instead. Just saying... I know people can handle it but I don't think your first semester is the time to try!

 

[theseeker4]

I'm trying to pick a schedule for first year, but I'm having troubles deciding on when to take each class. I'm taking chemistry, biology, physics, calculus, with labs for chem, bio, phys, and tutorials for chem and calc.

I have tons of miniscule variations, but most of them can be separated into one of two categories.

1. I can pack all my lectures into tuesday and thursday (from 8:35am to 2:25pm with a 40 minute break after the first class), and have the three labs, 2-3 hours each, on mon/wed/fri. With this, I'm concerned that I'll get burned out with all my lectures on the same day; that means all assignments, quizzes, tests, readings etc. will be due on one of two days, so a ton of overlapping due dates right?

2. I can have the same schedule as #1, except move chem to mon/wed/fri. On tues/thurs, this leaves the following: Calc; 40 min break; Biol; 1h40min break; Phys. I still have 3 classes in a day, but breaks in between each class (compared to no breaks in #1). There would also be 2 hour breaks between lecture and lab on mon/fri if I split the labs up, or just friday if I take two labs on friday. I'm concerned all the breaks in this schedule will just be big wastes of time for me.

3. I figure I should mention this one too. It would be the same as #1 except I could move calc to mon/wed/fri. The thing is, if I do this, I'll have a pretty awful teacher for calculus, compared to the excellent teacher I get with the other schedule. Calculus is the only course I'm concerned about not getting an A in, and it's known to be a hard class at my school already. This schedule (both lectures and labs) seems to be the best for me, but again, the calculus teacher ruins it. All other professors are the same regardless of schedule by the way.

Lastly, I need to decide how to order labs. I could put 2 labs in one day (either wed or fri), which would leave me with just a single 50 minute lecture on monday. Two labs in one day would be lab; lecture; 2 hour break; lab. It's either that or just having one lab per day on mon/wed/fri.

Thanks for any suggestions you have.

Don't overload yourself. I don't care how well you did in high school, you don't KNOW you can get good grades in these classes until you try, and by that time you have already hurt your GPA. There is no need to get all of these classes in this quickly. Get rid of two of these classes and put in 1-2 easy general education requirements to fill out your schedule. There is no rush in getting these classes in, you will have plenty of time to get them all done and still take your MCAT in time to apply before senior year, so don't risk your GPA so soon by loading too many classes on. Once you are eased into college and know what you can handle and how much you need to study, you can load more difficult classes into the semester. There is no rush, so take a breath, relax, make your schedule a lot lighter and enjoy college.

 

[wololololololo]

Yea bro, do not take all your pre-reqs first year and lighten up on the labs. Lab reports are time-consumig and suck.

 

[Sean1218]

I appreciate the concern, but I'm doing a BSc in Canada, and I have no general education requirements. I can't take the lectures without labs, and all of them, except physics, must be taken first year.

I could postpone physics until second year I guess, but I'd have to take two 3 credit courses bringing me to 16 credits in first semester, and one 3 credit course bringing me to 14 credits second semester; I'd probably do PSYC 100 (intro psych), PSYT 199 (first year seminar on mental illness and the brain), and either an earth/planetary science course or a beginner's language course. Arts students get priority on arts courses so most of the good ones are full.

Second year first semester has to be ochem with lab, molecular biology, (intro to) neuroscience + 2 electives. Second semester is Calc 3, Cognition, neuroscience II, ochem II with lab + elective. I'd have to replace two of those electives with physics + lab. Is that really so much better?

I also want to write the MCAT after sophomore year.