Taking Ochem I, Genetics, and Physics I in one semester?

[thepossibilities]

Is this a bad idea?

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[Aerus]

Highly school dependent and also highly person dependent. Only you can tell whether you can handle it or not.

 

[NoDakDok]

This is a very common schedule and many (most?) premeds take 3 lab-based courses at the same time at some point during their undergraduate education. I think about half of my semesters had 3 lab-based courses and I did fine even with ECs on top of that.

Whether you can handle it personally is entirely on you. I would suggest always setting yourself up for success.

 

[K1NG]

I've done the same.. but are you taking other classes or will that be all? If the latter then it's very doable. I had a similar schedule and was TAing and volunteering as well. It all depends on how your management skills and your commitments. Make sure you can keep up with the lab reports.

 

[HinduHammer]

Its certainly not a great idea...

 

[Aerus]

Its certainly not a great idea...

This seems to be the typical schedule (and more) of every second year premed at my school. While it's certainly up to OP whether this is manageable or not, it's certainly not an irregularity.

 

[thepossibilities]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I am working 15 hours a week as well, which is not too bad. These would be the only classes I would be taking. Today is the last day to drop without a W and I was beginning to feel a little anxious since when people asked about my schedule and I answered, I got a lot of gasps and "are you serious?! good luck with that!" type of responses.

I am going to do it though. Hopefully I will do well with hard work and good time management.

 

[NoDakDok]

I got a lot of gasps and "are you serious?! good luck with that!" type of responses.

You get that average response from any non-science individual just by uttering the words "Organic Chemistry." It's not a big deal.

I am going to do it though. Hopefully I will do well with hard work and good time management.

You will be fine, just learn to be an efficient (efficient, not excessive), studious individual. With only 3 lab-based courses and nothing but a 15hr/wk job on your plate you shouldn't be too overwhelmed to compensate with good time management. AdComs (some more than others) are particularly fond of seeing difficult schedules.

This schedule is honestly expected (+ an extra course) at my undergraduate institution. And yes, it sucked, but so does medical school, and it's totally doable.

 

[popopopop]

It also depends on how much homework is mandatory. Some of the computer based homework I've had in these classes are a bear and did nothing to help me on exams.

 

[optimistic3]

It won't be easy but it's definitely doable! Glad you decided not to drop any.

 

[qxyfgelredal]

I would suggest always setting yourself up for success.

 

[tmazz235]

Hey man, I am starting my semester in a few days with those exact same classes. I'm a little anxious about it also, but it seems that if you make school work your priority then there`s no reason not to succeed. Good luck!

 

[HinduHammer]

This seems to be the typical schedule (and more) of every second year premed at my school. While it's certainly up to OP whether this is manageable or not, it's certainly not an irregularity.

I agree it seems to be typical. However, in my experience, about 50% of pre-meds start dropping out around this time. If OP can handle it, great. It may otherwise be a recipe for burnout, low grades, or a combination of both. As with all of these threads asking for SDN's opinions on what to do, YMMV.

 

[rangoon1984]

IMO it's dependent on the difficulty of your school and how well you can handle those three specific classes.

I've seen people do this schedule and do it well, and I've also seen people burn out with this schedule and do significantly worse in the classes than they would have if they had spread the classes out more.

 

[medicalmnt]

I did something like this schedule and it wasn't TOO bad... but depends on you and your school.

ochem2 +lab (B+, could have gotten an A- or higher), physics 2 +lab (A, its not as hard as you think because its college physics), and genetics+lab (B, could have done ALOT better if I took it separately. kind of regretted it right after the semester ended).

Now my schedule is all cleared up and I can take classes that I want to take like viro, immuno, art history, etc. and actually spend time on it instead of just going from assignment to assignment. I highly recommend you put a strong 3-4science course year and if you do well you'll feel so much better knowing that you can understand the material and now your GPA will increase tremendously from there. If you keep delaying it it'll only get worse and you might be stuck taking micro,biochem,p-chem your senior year..

 

[ems2doc]

Depends on the individual. I took organic chemistry, physics, genetics, stats, and Chinese II in one semester and did well in all of them. Of course that was before I was premed and I didn't care about extracurriculars and such.

 

[itsthat1guy]

That doesn't seem like a very hard semester to be completely honest

 

[pezzoil]

i took calculus w/ lab, microbio w/ lab, physics w/ lab, and biochem w/o lab along with ECs and sort of panicked on the last day to withdraw because people kept gasping at my schedule. let em gasp, youll be fine, it's actually surprisingly manageable if you stop wasting time on the interwebs and whatnot

 

[optimistic3]

i took calculus w/ lab, microbio w/ lab, physics w/ lab, and biochem w/o lab along with ECs and sort of panicked on the last day to withdraw because people kept gasping at my schedule. let em gasp, youll be fine, it's actually surprisingly manageable if you stop wasting time on the interwebs and whatnot

What kind of calculus has a lab?

 

[pezzoil]

It was dumb, we learned how to use maple, which you could teach a monkey in an afternoon with enough bananas