Typical Freshmen Schedule.

[Mr.Patel]

Whats the typical Schedule for a upcoming Freshmen. I will be attending Rutgers this fall. How classes Should I take?

NOTE: I am only a SENIOR in High school and I know I shouldn't be visiting "hardcore" forums like SDN. However I need to get serious about life (Throughout High school I have been a lazy slacker who hasn't done one thing--Maybe this should effect my FIRST year classes--Transition will be harder for a slacker).

Thank you.

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[EBI831]

at my school if you are premed and not an engineer you usually take chemistry, biology, calculus, chem lab, bio lab, which is about 11 hours so then you try to fulfill liberal arts requirements with one more class to round out to 14 hours (you don't want to take too many hours in the first semester you can always do 16 in the 2nd semester etc but its best IMO to get used to college first and start off well). note: if you are a physics major it's usually physics, chem, phys lab, chem lab, calc, and then the humanities/etc liberal arts class.

 

[aliendancer84]

It totally depends on your school and their requirements. First semester freshman year I took:

Chem
Chem Lab
Calculus
Intro to Psyc
Hebrew

 

[Mayday]

It also depends on what classes you took in high school, and how you do on the placement tests (I'm assuming all schools have placement tests - I could be wrong)

This is my freshman year. We are on the quarter system, so my classes are arranged a bit differently.

Quarter 1
Into to Chem (Includes lab)
Intermediate Algebra
English 101

Quarter 2
Chem 101 (Includes lab)
Pre-calc 1
Into to Soc

Quarter 3
Pre-calc 2
Intro to Bio (Includes lab)
Some other English class - haven't decided which one (Incidentally, what would be a good choice for a second English class? Lit or English 102 which is a continuation of 101?)

I won't get to start the "core" classes for my degree until my second year because I have to get all of the pre-reqs out of the way first.


(Edited cause I'm a dumb-ass and forgot to spell check)

 

[Tired]

I did something similar:

Gen Chem
Intro Physics
Language
Calc I
Some random humanities course

HOWEVER: Do not make the typical premed mistake and overload yourself in your freshman year. Better to take an extra semester to finish your prereqs than get a low GPA in your freshman year. If you come from a weak high school background, take it slow your first semester until you figure out what the hell you're doing.

Read in this forum about the people who don't get in, especially the threads about low GPA. Almost every one of the people who post those threads had crappy GPAs their first year, probably because they tried to do too much too fast. Even a 3.0 as a freshman can be difficult to make up.

 

[Stray]

Different things work for different people, but if school hasn't been your strong point in the past, I would take it easy your first semester. Also, if science isn't your best subject, you might want to think about starting off with just one science class. You can always take mulitple ones in later semesters once you know you can handle it. People always told me to take the minimum ammount of credit you can take to be a full-time student until you transition into college life. College isn't like high school, it can take some getting used to. I would say this is even more true if you are going to school away from home. My best friend (pre-med) learned that the hard way. She is a junior and is now picking up the pieces of her demolished gpa from the first 2.5 years because she was sheltered in high school, then moved to a huge city and went f*cking crazy (she graduated top of her high school class by the way).... good luck

The classes I took my first semester:
Spanish 1
Comp. 1
Bio 1
Algebra
---------
14 credits

 

[baylormed]

My freshman year schedule looked like this:

Fall:
English composition
Pre-Calc
Chem 1
Intro to Art
Tennis
Christian Heritage (univ requirement)

Spring:
English Technical Writing
Calc 1
Chem 2
Christian Scriptures (univ requirement)
Health class
Intro to Psychology

 

[inside_edition]

My freshman year schedule looked like this:

Fall:
English composition
Pre-Calc
Chem 1
Intro to Art
Tennis
Christian Heritage (univ requirement)

Spring:
English Technical Writing
Calc 1
Chem 2
Christian Scriptures (univ requirement)
Health class
Intro to Psychology

no wonder you have such a high gpa...

based on what i've been doing and taking at my school, i have a feeling that medschool might be easier than undergrad.

 

[baylormed]

no wonder you have such a high gpa...

based on what i've been doing and taking at my school, i have a feeling that medschool might be easier than undergrad.

Um...that was just fresman year. I have actually taken up to 5 sciences at a time, plus labs, and my gpa has only gotten better. I also worked all throughout undergrad.

Next time please refrain from making judgements until you have all the facts.

 

[brbsb]

The school I went to my freshman year had a horrendous pre-med advisor, so I'm playing catch up now at my new school. But here's what my first semester was like, for what it's worth:

BIO 160/180 Intro to Ecology/Evolution (it's a BIO class w/o a lab...but the advisor told me it was required for med school. He was a liar)
PSYC 100 Intro to Psychology
ENG 150 Literature and Interpretation
And all freshmen were required to take a randomly assigned freshmen seminar. Mine was in writing creative nonfiction (a slightly watered-down version of a 300-level creative writing class).

At this school we also weren't allowed to take more than four courses a semester. I am very glad I left lol.

 

[Vvandenn]

I got 18 credit hours before college started via dual credit in high school, the classes were:
English comp 1
English comp 1
Political Science 1
Political Science 2
Macroeconomics
College algebra

First semester of freshman year:
Bio 1
Bio 1 lab
Gen chem 1
Gen chem 1 lab
History from 1875 or something
Understanding Music
Freshman seminar
Total = 15 hours

Second semester of freshman year:
Bio 2 Honors
Bio 2 Honors lab
Gen chem 2 honors
Gen chem 2 honors lab
Speech
Psychology
Freshman seminar honors
Total = 15 hours

 

[Neelesh]

Semester 1
Gen. Chem I
Gen. Bio I
English I
Calc I
Extra Class - if you want

Semester 2
Gen. Chem II
Gen. Bio II
English II
Calc II
Extra Class - if you want

 

[AnEyeLikeMars]

It depends on your school and your intended major (if you have one). You'll likely have general ed requirements, so I would take some of those. If you undecided about majors, take a couple intro courses from various departments that might interest you. In terms of pre-med, I would start the chem sequence because it's the longest (2 yrs gen chem + orgo).

Other than that, take a full, but relatively light load if you feel like it's going to be a tough transition. I remember a lot of people my freshman year taking some ridiculous course loads (like, the maximum or they appealed to take an overload....needless to say, most of them crashed and burned). You're going to find that you'll have a lot of free time, the key to success is using that time well.

 

[singh12]

fall semester:
calc I
eng comp I
psychology of gender
freshman seminar

spring semester
bio I
chem I
eng comp II
spanish I

 

[LincolnTwins]

Wow this is like talking to myself from the past.

Anyways at my school it goes

1st Q
English
Calc
Chem
Class on College Ethics/Management/Survival

2nd Q
English
Calc
Chem
Bio

3rd Q
English
Chem
Calc
Bio

 

[ryouland]

You sound like me. I slacked off completely in HS and barely got into my current University. That being said, I'm doing very well school-wise so don't worry about it hurting you too much and after you get through your first premed classes Phsyics/Bio/Chem I... not as much II. The playing field will be more even as you progress.

Unfortunately for me most the people in my classes had AP everything so I had to work extra hard to make up for that initially in Physics/Chem/Bio I... and you may also but after that it gets much more bearable. The first semester is kind of a shock and you have to get used to the college life, but after that you figure out how things work and how to study most effectively and you will end up doing just fine.

Don't worry about anything but your classes and getting acquainted with your school and college in general first semester. Keep your grades up and don't be that typical kid with the "upward trend that screwed up freshman year", you don't have to go out 5 nights a week like everyone else. EC's and stuff can wait until 2nd semester (I didnt start doing any till summer after 2nd sem).


Fall sem:
Accel Rhetoric (english class everyone has to take)
Principles of Chem I
Engineering Math I: Single Variable Calculus ( Calc 1 and 1/2 of Calc 2)
Engineering Problem Solving I (random engineering calculations)
-- 15 credits --

Spring sem:
Principles of Chem II
Introductory Physics I (Engineering physics with calc as prereq)
Engineering Math II: Multi Variable Calc (1/2 of Calc 2 and Calc 3)
Engineering Math III: Matrix Algebra
Engineering Problem Solving II (programming)
-- 17 credits --

 

[etsuprinthead]

i think your 1st and last semesters should be your easiest. i knew my chem background from high school wasn't great, so i put it off until sophomore year (which worked out great for me because i was finishing orgo when i took the MCAT spring of junior year). of course, i busted my a-- to pick up the sciences i put off later, but i'm soooo very glad i took it "easy" freshman year.

1st semester:
bio 1 w/ lab and honors "discussion" (5 hours)
calc 1 (4 hours)
honors philosophy (req'd) (3 hours)
strength conditioning (PE req'd) (1 hour)
intro psych (3 hours)
"honors colloquium" (req'd) (1 hour)
total: 17 hours


2nd semester:
bio 3 w/ lab (4 hours)
calc 2 (4 hours)
honors philosophy 2 (3 hours)
service learning (3 hours)
honors colloquium (1 hour)
total: 15 hours

even though i took it a lot easier than most of my classmates and thus felt behind... well, most of the time... i came out ahead in the end -- to the point that my premed advisor told me i was "the best student to come through in the past few years" -- even though he never liked me or my take-it-easy-at-first plan. so, yeah -- don't take more than you can handle, but work hard at what you do take.

 

[LincolnTwins]

Also, you have an entire summer to intro yourself with college level courses. If you are really serious about this medicine thing, Berkeley and tons of other top universities offer their various lectures/hw/tests from their courses for free. If you have the willpower/determination/focus to do those then by all means do it.

 

[Pose]

Bio 1
Bio 1 lab
World history 1
Arabic 1
Macroeconomics

I think.

 

[el aye]

Fall Semester:

General Bio Lab
General Chemistry I for Majors
General Chemistry Lab
Analytical Physics I
Analytical Physics Lab
Calc 2
Total: 13 credits (I came in with 42)

Spring Semester:

General Bio Lab
General Chemistry II for Majors
General Chemistry Lab
Analytical Physics II
Analytical Physics Lab
Required freshman writing course
Internship credit: EMT-B certification class
Total: 15 credits

This semester has been pretty busy. Three ~3 hour labs and two 4 hour EMT-B classes a week... bleh

 

[hoganwan]

How about Calculus?
If I already earned a 5 on Calc BC which is equivalent to Calc I and Calc II, should I take Calc III or Diff Equation, or retake Calc I and II, or just take a statistic class?

P.S. I'm not a math person. I truly think that Calc BC is already my limit...

 

[AnEyeLikeMars]

How about Calculus?
If I already earned a 5 on Calc BC which is equivalent to Calc I and Calc II, should I take Calc III or Diff Equation, or retake Calc, or just take a statistic class?
Math is killing me. I am not a math person.

I think your 5 on the BC exam would say otherwise.

I wouldn't retake Calc, I think most med schools will accept AP credit if your ugrad gives you credit. Statistics is important, so you might want to take that anyway.

EDIT: Calc III might vary school to school, but at my school it was multivariable calc. This class was actually not as difficult as I thought it would be. It just takes the principles of Calc I and II and applies it to cases of two or more variables. There's really no new concepts to learn, just different applications (like double integrals)

 

[mvenus929]

Well, I went into school with 46 credits, including English Comp 1 and 2, Calculus 1 and 2, Gen Bio 1 and 2 (with lab), Gen Physics 1 and 2 (without lab), 12 hours of history credits, and 3 general credits. I think that covers them all.

I also registered really late my first term, so by the time I registered, most of the classes were already filled. But, here's my schedule:

1st semester:
Gen Chem I + Lab (5)
Intro to Human Geography (4)
Freshman Seminar (3)
Total: 12

2nd semester:
Gen Chem II + Lab (5)
Intro to Psych (4)
World Regional Geography (4)
Intro to Lit (3)
Physics I Lab (1)
Total: 17