Worried about Fall 06 Semester

[ComicBookDude]

So because of an error on my part (I signed up for a class I shouldnt have, and had to change my whole schedule AFTET EVERYONE already signed up), it turns out that I have to take an extremely loaded schedule this semester:

Organic Chemistry + Lab
Real Analysis
Advanced Linear Algebra
Intro to Writing
Issues in Healthcare (Philosophy)

Not to mention about 11 hrs a week of Ecs and a girlfriend. Was anyone in a similar situation (dreading the coming semester). Any tips that anyone learned from expierence regarding heavy schedules? Thanks in advance.

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[akademiks1989]

Dump the broad.. You'll get hotter girls with that M.D. plaque.

 

[mvenus929]

I don't think I got as loaded of a schedule as you:

Organic I + Lab
Cell Biology (I heard it's killer at my school)
Stats for Bio Majors (it includes Ethics...)
History of the Holocaust
Physics II Lab

Due to more people signing up for Orgo one than anticipated, and only one class offered, they changed it from a MWH course to a MWF course, and I was trying to hard to not have any classes on Friday. So, now I have a pretty loaded Monday, all of Orgo lab on Tuesday (lab and lecture), a packed wednesday (pretty much class straight from 8:40 to 3:00), a really late class on Thursday, and a class right in the middle of the day on Friday. I'll probably volunteer at the hospital on Thursday mornings, then have lunch with my mom once she moves into the area. Sundays I spend the entire morning with my boyfriend, who is studying abroad this year. Tuesday nights I got meetings for the housing student association. But I'm really looking forward to it, minus the whole boyfriend leaving for a year thing. It's better than staying with my grandparents' house and having NOTHING to do.

 

[Vox Animo]

So because of an error on my part (I signed up for a class I shouldnt have, and had to change my whole schedule AFTET EVERYONE already signed up), it turns out that I have to take an extremely loaded schedule this semester:

Organic Chemistry + Lab
Real Analysis
Advanced Linear Algebra
Intro to Writing
Issues in Healthcare (Philosophy)

Not to mention about 11 hrs a week of Ecs and a girlfriend. Was anyone in a similar situation (dreading the coming semester). Any tips that anyone learned from expierence regarding heavy schedules? Thanks in advance.

Junior year of college, fall semester:

Orgo II
Orgo II Lab
Genetics
Animal Physiology
Calculus

18 hrs.

Long-term Girl friend, was a chair an organziation and 20+ in ECs a week, plus in a fraternity, and MCAT prep.

The secret, have fun when you can, 4hrs sleep a nite, 32 ounces of coffee on a light day, and dating a women who also was very involved in organizations and busy so understood we couldn't spend time together like most couples.

It was hell, but its doable. Got a 3.5. Good luck!!!!

edit: i would suggest getting to the gym a few times a week. Even thoug it comes out of your sleep time, it will give you more engergy to get through the grueling days.

 

[Skaterbabe74]

I don't think I got as loaded of a schedule as you:

Organic I + Lab
Cell Biology (I heard it's killer at my school)
Stats for Bio Majors (it includes Ethics...)
History of the Holocaust
Physics II Lab

Due to more people signing up for Orgo one than anticipated, and only one class offered, they changed it from a MWH course to a MWF course, and I was trying to hard to not have any classes on Friday. So, now I have a pretty loaded Monday, all of Orgo lab on Tuesday (lab and lecture), a packed wednesday (pretty much class straight from 8:40 to 3:00), a really late class on Thursday, and a class right in the middle of the day on Friday. I'll probably volunteer at the hospital on Thursday mornings, then have lunch with my mom once she moves into the area. Sundays I spend the entire morning with my boyfriend, who is studying abroad this year. Tuesday nights I got meetings for the housing student association. But I'm really looking forward to it, minus the whole boyfriend leaving for a year thing. It's better than staying with my grandparents' house and having NOTHING to do.

Venus - Who did you end up with for Orgo? Anderson, Schoffstall, or Gaddis? Out of the 3 Anderson is the best just don't let his shyness come off as intimidating. He really does like to help with whatever he can. Gaddis is also awesome - brings in cookies or chocolate for exam days. Schoffstall is the weakest in teaching style (he tends to sound a bit monotonous - especially at 8am) but he's good too.

Cell does suck. There's no ifs ands or buts about it, but you'll do fine I'm sure. Just make sure you have every picture Wolkow ever draws memorized and be able to explain what's going on in it.

Stats is a breeze. Broker is awesome, but his exams are really really long. I'd be lucky to have an extra 10 minutes at the end to relook at stuff.

Physics II lab isn't too bad - especially if you ended up with Bill Bair or Diana. Bair gives you a template to follow for each lab report, and I really enjoyed Diana (although I know many people haven't cuz she can be a bit of a stickler when it comes to grading).

Finally you will absolutely love History of the Holocaust. It's an easy A as long as you do your research and footnote appropriately. The whole grade is based on 2 10 page papers, but you don't want to miss class because they get awesome speakers to come in. Brumlik is a bit demanding in some of his views (his style comes off a bit harsh at times) but he really does make you think and if you have a pretty conservative political skew you'll probably end up reconsidering some of those views by the end of the semester.

Have fun!

Oh and to the OP - I would hate your schedule lol. But I'm not a big fan of math. I can do it, just don't enjoy it. The key to a heavy schedule is to make a schedule for studying/homework and stick to it as much as you can. Make sure you take a night or two off each week to relax, hang with friends, party, whatever but don't let yourself get sucked into doing that every night. If it's a study night and your friends call and want you to do something you may have to say no - or make up the time another night instead. Stick to your schedule, don't get behind, and you'll be golden.

Good luck!

 

[ComicBookDude]

Thanks guys, I just needed a little reassurance that it HAS been done in the past without too much danger.

 

[mvenus929]

Venus - Who did you end up with for Orgo? Anderson, Schoffstall, or Gaddis? Out of the 3 Anderson is the best just don't let his shyness come off as intimidating. He really does like to help with whatever he can. Gaddis is also awesome - brings in cookies or chocolate for exam days. Schoffstall is the weakest in teaching style (he tends to sound a bit monotonous - especially at 8am) but he's good too.

Cell does suck. There's no ifs ands or buts about it, but you'll do fine I'm sure. Just make sure you have every picture Wolkow ever draws memorized and be able to explain what's going on in it.

Stats is a breeze. Broker is awesome, but his exams are really really long. I'd be lucky to have an extra 10 minutes at the end to relook at stuff.

Physics II lab isn't too bad - especially if you ended up with Bill Bair or Diana. Bair gives you a template to follow for each lab report, and I really enjoyed Diana (although I know many people haven't cuz she can be a bit of a stickler when it comes to grading).

Finally you will absolutely love History of the Holocaust. It's an easy A as long as you do your research and footnote appropriately. The whole grade is based on 2 10 page papers, but you don't want to miss class because they get awesome speakers to come in. Brumlik is a bit demanding in some of his views (his style comes off a bit harsh at times) but he really does make you think and if you have a pretty conservative political skew you'll probably end up reconsidering some of those views by the end of the semester.

Have fun!

Got Anderson. I had him for Gen Chem II too, and I absolutely loved him. Course, it might've helped that I saw him lecture in Fresh.Sem. too . I had Gaddis for Gen Chem I, and I didn't really like it. Maybe it was cause I knew most of the material already, or that I had a few people in my class that had no idea what they were doing. Meh.

I'll have to remember that. Probably won't help that I haven't had biology in over a year... Guess I'll learn some nice memorization skills

Well, on the bright side, Stats is my first class in the morning, so I can at least study right before the tests.

I got the same instructor I had for Physics I Lab... Chris Bjork. He's alright, I guess. Really easy grader, anyway. I think my lowest grade was like a 93, and it got dropped. He just didn't know how to use the computers very well.

The class sounds like really fun. I've only heard good things about it. Course, it's been over a year since I've written that long of a paper, and I've only done endnotes, but I'll adjust. I'm a moderate, and only get offended about extremely radical views, mostly relating to religion (like the guy that stood in front of the science building shouting about how everyone was doomed to go to hell cause we've turned away from God, or whatever. I tried to avoid him as much as possible).

Thanks for the advice .

 

[Skaterbabe74]

The class sounds like really fun. I've only heard good things about it. Course, it's been over a year since I've written that long of a paper, and I've only done endnotes, but I'll adjust. I'm a moderate, and only get offended about extremely radical views, mostly relating to religion (like the guy that stood in front of the science building shouting about how everyone was doomed to go to hell cause we've turned away from God, or whatever. I tried to avoid him as much as possible).

Thanks for the advice .

Yeah fundamentalist religion gets to me too lol. Brumlik is the opposite kind of radical. A bit of a hippie, but not as much as Chris Hill. The class isn't really "fun" in that it's such a dark part of history, but it is extremely interesting and you'll learn alot. I just loved not having any textbooks lol, not needing to take notes, and the footnotes thing isn't that big a deal (just a pain formatting). There's good resources in the history toolbox site for that stuff tho.

And the hardest part of physics II lab is the circuit boards. Try to get one geeky engineering dude in your group (or someone who can visualize circuit boards really well) and you'll be fine. You really don't do much with the computers in physics II anyway lol.

 

[RokChalkJayhawk]

I've always found the busier I am, the better I do. I won't try to one up anyone, but I think just knowing that you HAVE to be busy most of the time prevents you from passing out on the beach after 20 coronas.

 

[mvenus929]

Yeah fundamentalist religion gets to me too lol. Brumlik is the opposite kind of radical. A bit of a hippie, but not as much as Chris Hill. The class isn't really "fun" in that it's such a dark part of history, but it is extremely interesting and you'll learn alot. I just loved not having any textbooks lol, not needing to take notes, and the footnotes thing isn't that big a deal (just a pain formatting). There's good resources in the history toolbox site for that stuff tho.

And the hardest part of physics II lab is the circuit boards. Try to get one geeky engineering dude in your group (or someone who can visualize circuit boards really well) and you'll be fine. You really don't do much with the computers in physics II anyway lol.

That's good. I'm hoping he'll leave me with a good impression, anyway, since I'm 3 (?) classes away from a history minor and am wondering whether or not I should pursue it. And any type of foot/endnote just means lots of copies of the paper printed out to make sure all the numbers line up properly.

Well, circuits aren't horribly difficult, and I understood them a lot better than some of the other topics I learned in Physics, but I'll be on the lookout for a geeky engineering dude

 

[cerulean]

I'm feeling stressed about the semester as well.

I'm entering my senior year as a biomedical engineer.
Fall Schedule:
Bioinstrumentation senior design course
Quantitative Physiology
Organic Chemistry II (w/o lab)
Animal Physiology lab
2 filler science classes (Genetics and Society & intro astronomy)

10-15 hours of extracurriculars per week & debating whether I should volunteer at a hospital for 4 hrs/week (since i need clinical experience).

I'm worried because I was aiming to use this semester to boost my BCPM GPA and perhaps my overall GPA as well. I've taken 5+ courses every semester thus far (typically 3-4 engin/pre-med courses and 1-2 humanities) and managed to get a 3.5-3.8 so I think I can do alright...but I don't know if I'll do really well. Plus, physiology and organic aren't classes where cramming typically leads to success (and cramming is what I used to get through my past semesters). Blah. This fall will not be fun, whatsoever.

 

[Skaterbabe74]

Well, circuits aren't horribly difficult, and I understood them a lot better than some of the other topics I learned in Physics, but I'll be on the lookout for a geeky engineering dude

Circuit drawings aren't difficult at all. I had no trouble with that in lecture. I just had trouble translating that into actual working circuits in lab, and our lab instructor (forget who we had, but not Chris, Bill, or Diana) wasn't that great at explaining how to visualize them to translate from the drawings. I thought about doing a history minor too (and a philosophy double major) but then I started enjoying physics too much and realized that I better plan on doing a masters before med school (I have a long bad past to make up for and then ended up sucking at Organic and my first attempts at calculus) so I've ended up doing the biology/chemistry double with a minor in physics so I can do a biophysics masters.

 

[mvenus929]

Circuit drawings aren't difficult at all. I had no trouble with that in lecture. I just had trouble translating that into actual working circuits in lab, and our lab instructor (forget who we had, but not Chris, Bill, or Diana) wasn't that great at explaining how to visualize them to translate from the drawings. I thought about doing a history minor too (and a philosophy double major) but then I started enjoying physics too much and realized that I better plan on doing a masters before med school (I have a long bad past to make up for and then ended up sucking at Organic and my first attempts at calculus) so I've ended up doing the biology/chemistry double with a minor in physics so I can do a biophysics masters.

Yeah, I can't remember the labs we did with circuits. I'll just hope everything works out well. That's certainly an interesting switch. And you must've seriously liked philosophy to want to do a major in it. I really don't think I'd get past the intro class. Though, I also commend you for doing a minor in physics. I couldn't stand it for the year and a half I took it, and I'm sure I'll hate it even more when I start studying for the MCAT in the Spring. Good luck on that masters, too

 

[Skaterbabe74]

Yeah, I can't remember the labs we did with circuits. I'll just hope everything works out well. That's certainly an interesting switch. And you must've seriously liked philosophy to want to do a major in it. I really don't think I'd get past the intro class. Though, I also commend you for doing a minor in physics. I couldn't stand it for the year and a half I took it, and I'm sure I'll hate it even more when I start studying for the MCAT in the Spring. Good luck on that masters, too

LOL. Well I enjoyed my hs physics class (despised chemistry back then - awful teacher, even worse book). Then I lucked out in getting Milazzo for my alg based I and II, had added the chem double after Gen Chem with Weiss (I know most don't really like him but his style worked well for me), and was leaning more toward the chem side of science because I was starting to really dislike some of the bio courses (especially cell, A&P. and genetics cuz of Wolkow, Pigage, and Berry-Lowe) so decided to take the calc based (knowing Milazzo was teaching it - Yay!) so I could do a grad program in chem and take p chem for my double major. After taking the first two calc based I switched my focus to biophysics. If I'd been stuck with Lopusnik for calc-based I don't think I would have attempted the physics minor lol. I still have Physics III and all my upper-division to take - finishing up Calc III this summer, and then diff eq, and the comp sci prereqs over the fall/spring. The bio degree is all but finished (although there are still classes I want to take), chem I still have the 4 upper-division to take to get the degree, and most of the physics minor left.

I've always been a bit of a mutt when it comes to my academic interests though. Started college way back when as a music ed major (after basically being premed in hs til my sr year - I took 5 science classes in that time), sang and played saxophone, was a figure skater and dancer, did a lot of theater/dance classes, and always had major interests in lit, history, psych, and philosophy when reading stuff on my own. I wasn't really into my intro philosophy class, but I took the critical thinking class and really enjoyed that, and then saw a bunch of courses that sounded interesting to me so was planning on doing that. Started on my upper-division philo requirements, but ended up having to drop it because I needed the physics more that semester and couldn't afford both. My life has definitely taken the scenic route lol.

 

[mvenus929]

LOL. Well I enjoyed my hs physics class (despised chemistry back then - awful teacher, even worse book). Then I lucked out in getting Milazzo for my alg based I and II, had added the chem double after Gen Chem with Weiss (I know most don't really like him but his style worked well for me), and was leaning more toward the chem side of science because I was starting to really dislike some of the bio courses (especially cell, A&P. and genetics cuz of Wolkow, Pigage, and Berry-Lowe) so decided to take the calc based (knowing Milazzo was teaching it - Yay!) so I could do a grad program in chem and take p chem for my double major. After taking the first two calc based I switched my focus to biophysics. If I'd been stuck with Lopusnik for calc-based I don't think I would have attempted the physics minor lol. I still have Physics III and all my upper-division to take - finishing up Calc III this summer, and then diff eq, and the comp sci prereqs over the fall/spring. The bio degree is all but finished (although there are still classes I want to take), chem I still have the 4 upper-division to take to get the degree, and most of the physics minor left.

I've always been a bit of a mutt when it comes to my academic interests though. Started college way back when as a music ed major (after basically being premed in hs til my sr year - I took 5 science classes in that time), sang and played saxophone, was a figure skater and dancer, did a lot of theater/dance classes, and always had major interests in lit, history, psych, and philosophy when reading stuff on my own. I wasn't really into my intro philosophy class, but I took the critical thinking class and really enjoyed that, and then saw a bunch of courses that sounded interesting to me so was planning on doing that. Started on my upper-division philo requirements, but ended up having to drop it because I needed the physics more that semester and couldn't afford both. My life has definitely taken the scenic route lol.

Milazzo's awesome. I wish I could take another class with him, but I don't think I'll ever be able to fit it in, and I don't think I'd like Astronomy that much anyway. Certainly sounds like an interesting path, though. I had a friend that insisted all through high school that she was going to be a music major and that she'd be a music teacher (and she boasted about how more music majors got into med school than bio majors... I think she meant percentage). She started the program and hated it, and I haven't heard what she's doing now. Anyway, good luck on all those math and physics classes. Any idea where you're going for your master's?

 

[Skaterbabe74]

My plan right now is to stay here. Karen Newell and Bob Camley already do a ton of collaboration, and our masters is interdisciplinary anyway. It'll be another couple years at least before I get my bachelors so the new science building will be finished and they're working on getting science PhD's approved as well. I've lived here since Dec. '97 so it's really my home now - don't really want to go anywhere else if I can help it lol. If not here, maybe Texas or back to Illinois where my family is. Obviously med school will at minimum be in Denver (in which case I really want to keep residency), so if I can stay here for everything else it would be perfect.