what to do? (freshman schedule help)

[Kou]

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quick disclaimer; im not trying to get the best professors to just slack off. im going to put in serious work regardless of the professor its just that I want to get the highest gpa possible and the professors you have affect this.

the plan is to take bio and chem first year but all the good teachers are taken and cause im a freshman i couldn't sign up early to get them.

i did manage to get the good chem professor by a stroke of luck, but the only bio professor available is supposedly the harshest (waitlist for the others is 15/17 and only 5400 undergrads in my school so the classes aren't big but ill keep an eye on it of course)

i looked at the the second sem. bio and its the same thing (so i cant just try to switch the order). i considered switching it and taking physics 1st year and bio 2nd year but the physics teachers also are harsh so i dont gain benefit much from that.
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now i dont have too many options left. it seems like whats left is to just take the harsh bio teacher 1st sem and try and get a better professor next sem. or not take bio this sem. and take both bio 1/2 and chem2 next semester (so that'd be 3 sciences + one more class (probably japanese or something not too crazy))

could i manage the second option? or would it be too much? it seems like the only way to avoid the harsh teachers. any input would be appreciated. thanks

 

[CodeBlu]

Japanese isn't crazy? I took 5 science courses a semester for my junior and senior years. I managed...

 

[Kou]

Japanese isn't crazy? I took 5 science courses a semester for my junior and senior years. I managed...

really? what courses? how did your schedule look like? how well did you manage?

perhaps this is more feasible than i thought.. lol

 

[Calheesh]

Don't listen to ratemyprofessor or friends (I'm assuming). Just take the teacher that's "hard". If you are motivated enough, you will do good in any class. It might just take more work.

 

[Kou]

Don't listen to ratemyprofessor or friends (I'm assuming). Just take the teacher that's "hard". If you are motivated enough, you will do good in any class. It might just take a more work.

ya, those are what im basing it off of. its just that i dont like the idea of putting in my best effort and not getting an A while somebody else in a diff class could get the A with less effort. if i was in the other class i would have had the strong A. nomsayin?

 

[Calheesh]

ya, those are what im basing it off of. its just that i dont like the idea of putting in my best effort and not getting an A while somebody else in a diff class could get the A with less effort. if i was in the other class i would have had the strong A. nomsayin?

Yes ahha I understand. I mean I can't blame you, and I have done the same myself. However, don't always base it on what people say because sometimes the hard professors can be generous when it comes to grading. Especially if they see that you are giving it your all!

 

[Kou]

Yes ahha I understand. I mean I can't blame you, and I have done the same myself. However, don't always base it on what people say because sometimes the hard professors can be generous when it comes to grading. Especially if they see that you are giving it your all!

thanks man, haha glad im not the only one with this kind of thought process. what happened with you when you faced this kind of thing? how did it turn out? not sure what to do just yet, but i have time to think it through.

and thanks for the input man.

 

[911 Turbo]

Lol is it just me or does there seem to be many new C/O 2019ers on SDN lately?

 

[Calheesh]

thanks man, haha glad im not the only one with this kind of thought process. what happened with you when you faced this kind of thing? how did it turn out? not sure what to do just yet, but i have time to think it through.

and thanks for the input man.

When I was faced with the same situation, I ended up just taking the class with the hard professor. I still recieved a great grade, and I knew the material very well. The professors that drill the info into your head are good to have. Believe me, when you walk out of their class, you will be proud of your grade (even if it's not a 4.0) and knowledge attained. Plus, it will help you on the MCAT.

 

[sonia1177]

The time you need to start worrying about hard science profs is after your freshman year, when you actually have control over your sched. I'm surprised you can even choose your Intro profs. My intro bio + Chem classes are some of the hardest I have taken, believe it or not-- and I couldn't even choose the professors. One prof taught bio, but there was a choice for Chem profs. Intro classes are known for being difficult. So, my advice is If the "better" prof's class opens up, then go sign into it immediately. Or, sometimes if you take a form to a professor, he/she will sign it and let you into the class. Email the prof about this or just show up to his class the first day and ask for him to sign you in, he may be kind enough to do it. Go to the prof's class the first day, look at the syllabus, get a feel for the teaching style, if you're still freaking Out, then switch out into another class. Take ratemyprof with a grain of salt. If you're seeing mixed reviews, then don't worry too much. However, if all the comments are just terrible and everyone seems to be getting horrible grades, then I would recommend not taking the class with that prof and taking it another sem if possible. But then again, there is no guarantee you will get a good prof the following sem. In other words, you can't really ever be sure, the only way you'll know if you made the right choice is in the end, when you can see how you've done in the course. All you can do is make a decision, stick to it, and hope for the best. Welcome to one of the many dilemmas of a premed

 

[UnclePhil]

I never used pickaprof or rate my professor my first two years of college, straights A/A-, 3.95 gpa.

Junior year I discovered pickaprof, started picking profs selectively, my gpa tanked that year, stopped using pickaprof my senior year, straight As again.

Honestly, don't worry about what professor you get. There are other things that are more important to be focusing on than which one gives the easiest As.

 

[Kou]

Lol is it just me or does there seem to be many new C/O 2019ers on SDN lately?

whats the c/o mean? with freshman year about to start im sure more will come lol

When I was faced with the same situation, I ended up just taking the class with the hard professor. I still recieved a great grade, and I knew the material very well. The professors that drill the info into your head are good to have. Believe me, when you walk out of their class, you will be proud of your grade (even if it's not a 4.0) and knowledge attained. Plus, it will help you on the MCAT.

damn, good job man. unfortunately from what i read my professor doesnt seem like the drill into your head type. more like the doesnt care, rude, and laughs if you answer wrong(the review actually said this) type. then again people are saying dont listen to ratemyprofs so i dunno (but for this teacher every review is pretty damn negative so yeah, not mixed or anything).

The time you need to start worrying about hard science profs is after your freshman year, when you actually have control over your sched. I'm surprised you can even choose your Intro profs. My intro bio + Chem classes are some of the hardest I have taken, believe it or not-- and I couldn't even choose the professors. One prof taught bio, but there was a choice for Chem profs. Intro classes are known for being difficult. So, my advice is If the "better" prof's class opens up, then go sign into it immediately. Or, sometimes if you take a form to a professor, he/she will sign it and let you into the class. Email the prof about this or just show up to his class the first day and ask for him to sign you in, he may be kind enough to do it. Go to the prof's class the first day, look at the syllabus, get a feel for the teaching style, if you're still freaking Out, then switch out into another class. Take ratemyprof with a grain of salt. If you're seeing mixed reviews, then don't worry too much. However, if all the comments are just terrible and everyone seems to be getting horrible grades, then I would recommend not taking the class with that prof and taking it another sem if possible. But then again, there is no guarantee you will get a good prof the following sem. In other words, you can't really ever be sure, the only way you'll know if you made the right choice is in the end, when you can see how you've done in the course. All you can do is make a decision, stick to it, and hope for the best. Welcome to one of the many dilemmas of a premed

haha, thanks for the advice man. and lol, at first they just gave me a schedule but i emailed a ton of people to get it fixed. im kind of leaning towards the taking 2 bios second sem; its true that theres no guarantee, but i feel its better to take a chance towards getting better profs than just sticking to the hard one. at best i could get better profs and at worst id end up with what i started (the hard prof)

I never used pickaprof or rate my professor my first two years of college, straights A/A-, 3.95 gpa.

Junior year I discovered pickaprof, started picking profs selectively, my gpa tanked that year, stopped using pickaprof my senior year, straight As again.

Honestly, don't worry about what professor you get. There are other things that are more important to be focusing on than which one gives the easiest As.

damn man, you done good. im not sure what to think of this now. did you get lazier when you picked your profs selectively (b/c you felt it was gonna be easier?)? im gonna study intensely regardless its just that the profs can make a difference (but of course i will be main difference maker)

thanks for the input guys.

 

[NightGod]

Ratemyprof rated my chem teacher basically as very good but also very harsh. What I found was, since I was above-average intelligence ~and~ a serious student (which I believe is a pretty fair assumption to make about almost all pre-med students who know what they're getting into) that he was, indeed, difficult, but that by putting in the extra bit of effort most serious students do I was able to excel in his class. While much of the class was pleased to simply pass or get a C, my extra effort lead to a relatively easy A because of grading curves (don't get me wrong, I had an A grade anyway, but I found out after the fact that, on the curve, it was well above what I needed for the grade rather than just making it by a couple of points).

tl;dr Since many teachers grade on a curve, an above average student can excel in the harder classes because they do so much better than the other students who are drowning.

C/O = class of

 

[Kou]

Ratemyprof rated my chem teacher basically as very good but also very harsh. What I found was, since I was above-average intelligence ~and~ a serious student (which I believe is a pretty fair assumption to make about almost all pre-med students who know what they're getting into) that he was, indeed, difficult, but that by putting in the extra bit of effort most serious students do I was able to excel in his class. While much of the class was pleased to simply pass or get a C, my extra effort lead to a relatively easy A because of grading curves (don't get me wrong, I had an A grade anyway, but I found out after the fact that, on the curve, it was well above what I needed for the grade rather than just making it by a couple of points).

tl;dr Since many teachers grade on a curve, an above average student can excel in the harder classes because they do so much better than the other students who are drowning.

C/O = class of

wow, good work bro. i'll definitely keep this mind when picking profs. but unfortunately for mine right now, she's not considered good but harsh, just bad and harsh (and no curve) so thats making me hesitate.

i understand at some point ill have to end up taking the harsh ones but im just trying to avoid it if possible.

thanks man. and what do you guys think of taking 2 bios/ chem / and one more class for second sem.? reasonable?

 

[Mountaineer12]

Like a few other people in here, I've had numerous teachers that have bad ratings on ratemyprofessor, but were actually really good teachers. It's actually the "harsh" professors that can help you the most. You may work extra hard, but you'll actually know the material through and through, which will help with any bio classes after that as well as MCATs. If you take the easy teacher you may be lost in bio 2 or struggle through the BS section of the MCAT because the class was too easy. Sometimes it helps to challenge yourself!

About taking bio 1 and 2 at the same time, are you sure you can due that? I know you can't at my school because although they are fairly different subjects, they do build on each other and bio 1 is a prereq for bio 2. You may be a disadvantage in bio 2 not knowing the bio 1 material.

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

I'd research a little on the professors you sign up for. You can check RMP.com but only to see if they can actually teach and not just dismiss you after 15 mins of class.

 

[HH Holmes]

I've been contacting current students at the school I am attending who are the same major as me. I simply ask 'who are the best professors and why?' for each of my pre-req classes. Sometimes, the 'best' in one person's mind is not in another. Make sure to have people explain why, because sometimes it's just a personal vendetta for a bad grade (like most of the bad raters on RateMyProfessor.com).

 

[MeowMeowCAT]

RMP.com is good, especially when you learn to look for patterns. If you are taking first-year course, take the reviews with a huge grain of salt. You will most likely have a lot of reviews by "Oh ****, I thought premed was easy!" reviewers. Same applies for classes like Calc I and even II, since both do not appear to be "science/medicine related" and will just be bombarded by similar reviews.

From my experience the higher level classes you take, the more reliable the reviews become. Those are usually either few in numbers and generally have a positive tone.

Obviously you also have to look for stuff like any mention of powerpoints, while not always true I found that to be a negative/lazy quality for the professor, coincidentally those are often not rated so well. Often times any mention of the professor being "tough" and or "difficult" actually tend to mean that the class will be worth your time. Especially if you see them for classes like physics, ochem, etc. then it kind of makes sense.

Basically, when looking at the reviews look at what the actual class the person is reviewing the professor for. If it is some introductory class, those reviews usually are not helpful regardless if it is positive or not. If it is for more difficult classes, then those tend to be more reliable.