Questions about First year of University course load

[Neil45]

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Hi, everyone. As college is about to start in September, I am getting very nervous about my timetable schedule. I am taking four courses, all sciences from the following: Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. Since English is not my strong subject, I will enroll in it at a subsequent year of my BSc program. My question is, does this seem like a hectic and rigorous schedule for first year of university? Has anyone had a similar timetable like mine and still managed to do fine and get into pharmacy school? Is it wise and easier to take just 3 science courses plus two "easy" electives? What were your guys' course load like in first year of university?

Thanks for reading.

 

[aboveliquidice]

Hi, everyone. As college is about to start in September, I am getting very nervous about my timetable schedule. I am taking four courses, all sciences from the following: Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. Since English is not my strong subject, I will enroll in it at a subsequent year of my BSc program. My question is, does this seem like a hectic and rigorous schedule for first year of university? Has anyone had a similar timetable like mine and still managed to do fine and get into pharmacy school? Is it wise and easier to take just 3 science courses plus two "easy" electives? What were your guys' course load like in first year of university?

Thanks for reading.

If you are ready to do some serious work - go for it. As a word of caution - once you screw your GPA - its a lot harder to fix it. It wont hurt you to take a few science courses mixed in with some easier electives. I never took more than two science courses with labs at a time. This summer, I am taking A&P I and II along with Organic I - and I am stressing it a bit. I might get a B in Organic, and it is going to hurt my app to Pharm school - dont be afraid to take your time.

~above~

 

[FluoroQuinolone]

Hi, everyone. As college is about to start in September, I am getting very nervous about my timetable schedule. I am taking four courses, all sciences from the following: Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. Since English is not my strong subject, I will enroll in it at a subsequent year of my BSc program. My question is, does this seem like a hectic and rigorous schedule for first year of university? Has anyone had a similar timetable like mine and still managed to do fine and get into pharmacy school? Is it wise and easier to take just 3 science courses plus two "easy" electives? What were your guys' course load like in first year of university?

Thanks for reading.

Since you are asking for advise... Do not take Physics your 1st semester unless you did extremely well in that area in HS. Taking Chemistry & Bio concurrently is very interesting so you can go for that, plus the math. All science courses are time demanding, so packing them up the early may hurt you, if you are not an excellent student.

The way I see it, Physics as a pharm prereq is to develop our critical thinking skills. If you don't get it you can bruise your ego plus hurt your GPA. Take a look at some schools' websites; their Pre-Pharm curriculum schedules Physics for the sophomore year, by which time you can critically think through some stuff.

You can substitute the physics with a liberal arts core course to give you a little break.

Good luck.

 

[soul21]

Hi, everyone. As college is about to start in September, I am getting very nervous about my timetable schedule. I am taking four courses, all sciences from the following: Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. Since English is not my strong subject, I will enroll in it at a subsequent year of my BSc program. My question is, does this seem like a hectic and rigorous schedule for first year of university? Has anyone had a similar timetable like mine and still managed to do fine and get into pharmacy school? Is it wise and easier to take just 3 science courses plus two "easy" electives? What were your guys' course load like in first year of university?

Thanks for reading.

Science courses are very time intensive. Taking four science courses is possible to complete but its going to be a very heavy load. I agree with the above poster to not take physics at the same time as chemistry. Also you want to keep in mind that if you have different professors for your lecture and lab, that your professors will teach at a different pace, so its like taking two individual courses. Your G.P.A is very important so design your schedule wisely. What I did was take two science courses and two basic courses. This has allowed me to maintain a high G.P.A.

 

[elmoz]

That course load is a killer. Even if you enjoy those subjects, you are going to do a LOT of studying to make A's, which I assume is what you expect to make. You are already going to be adjusting to college and what is expected of you is a lot different than high school. So unless you went to a great college prep high school, I would suggest dropping one of those (calculus or physics are my suggestion because those aren't the beginning of a long sequence of courses like the bio and chem are) and choose a course that sounds really fun to you. History of rock music or whatever floats your boat. I'm not saying you can't do those, I don't know you and you may be fully capable. But what if you don't do well? Like the poster above said, it is much harder (and more depressing) to salvage a damaged GPA.

 

[Neil45]

Wow! Thanks for the helpful suggestions. Do you guys think replacing Physics with an elective, say Psychology, will be much easier than taking four science courses? So then I would be taking Math, Chemistry, Biology, and Psychology. I assume that this course load will be easier than my original because Psychology does not have any labs.

 

[aboveliquidice]

That is a better schedule I think. I dont know what math class you plan to take (was it Calc I or II???) - its best to stagger it with physics anyway. Take Calc I first - then take Physics I w/ calc II and Physics II with calc III. At some point you are going to have to fit it in... but having it later in education cycle will let you gear up to it.

Bio cycle is 4 semesters (Bio I, Bio II, A&P I, A&P II)
Chem is 4 semesters (Gen I, Gen II, Org I, Org II)
Physics is 2 semesters (Phy I, Phy II)
Math is however many it takes to get through Calc I

Like someone already siad - its good to start the Chem and Bio cycles ASAP - math and physics can wait until a bit later...

Required electives along the way include
Microbio
Speech
Macro or Micro economics
Biochemistry (either chem or bio emphasis)

I know this was way too much info - bored at work...

~above~