Sam Lee

lol..this thread needs to be killed before we scare all the prospies away.

rommeltw

while i had it hard in orgo, i still managed to do well, so it is not impossible to do well. absolute scale has its share of merit of not getting screwed you over by the curve. i also have a lot of respect for my professor, he is definitely one of the best professors i've ever had in nu so far. it was a lot of work and cramming, but i really enjoyed orgo back then. in fact, i took it for fun.
i think at the end, if you survive, then you will develop this pride "our school does not even accept Harvard transfer credit for orgo." (people used to take it at Harvard during summer to make their lives easier) it is really something to be proud about, heck, you just survive/ace one of the hardest class in the nation.
to Sam Lee, i think people should have the right to know what they are getting themselves into. some people might actually be excited by the challenge.

picaro

Do any of you know if NU lets incoming freshman take courses summer quarter? I kinda want to take the 3 week each chem 102 and 103 before taking orgo in the fall.

asdf11

yeah I know someone who took orgo in the summer before freshman year. Summer school is super intense though, so be prepared.

And in general, science classes are a lot of work but it is like that anywhere.

dncrgrl102

rommeltw...who was your orgo professor?

saeraxD

I talked to a bunch of seniors who all dropped out of the pre-med track (one actually even took her mcats). This is basically what they told me

1) Orgo at NU is hard.
2) Many NU students take orgo at Harvard.
3) NU does not take credit for orgo at Harvard.
4) Med schools take orgo from Harvard - but they know you took it there because it's easier at Harvard.
5) Just take it at NU.

I talked to one of the pre-med advisors and she said generally a given class will start off with 400-500 students interested in pre-med, but she said only about 230 of those actually take the MCATs. And she said to not do bio/orgo at the same time.

Anyways. I'm not taking the ap chem exam and even if I place into a higher level class I am planning on taking chem 101. Is it impossible (or highly discouraged) for me to take that and physics 135 at once?

asdf11

I think chem 101 and physics 135 together is definitely doable. Plus if you start out in both and realize you are in over your head, you can always drop one of them with no real consequences.

Sam Lee

http://www.questscholars.org/oldstuf...2001-2-pdf.pdf Look at myth #10 and #11.

So saeraxD, according to this article, even if med schools know Harvard's orgo is easier, it's probably still better for some of the NU premeds to do it there.

Sam Lee

^unless you need the orgo credits for your major (e.g. chemistry or chemE).

picaro

Hmm, I can't tell if orgo is going to be really hard, or just really hard for english majors that want to go to med school...

atardecer0

No. I am a chemistry major and Orgo is really hard.

Sam Lee

picaro,
orgo is kinda different from other science classes; science/math/engg majors don't seem to have much of an edge over others.

dncrgrl102

when I talked to a student, she gave me this insight on nu orgo. If you are not a chem major, take the 210 orgo sequence. Yes it is longer, but she said the workload is very do-able. the 212 sequence, the one for chem majors, is shorter, but will be very difficult, and something you don't want your freshman year. so, if you got a 5 on the ap chem exam, don't retake gen chem...go for the orgo, but take the easier track

picaro

Which orgo professor for the 210 sequence would you recommend?

ncm85

how much more difficult is chemistry 171 than chem 101?