babylevi

Looking for suggestions for courses. It is listed as follows:

A term -
HU/SS/GPS
Math
CH1010

B term -

CHE1011 or GPS/SS/HU
Math
CH1020

What are good options for HU/SS/GPS? Any advice from someone who attends? Son wants to do CHE1011 for term B, so it seems like he will need an HU or SS for A term. GPS runs for the two terms, correct?

CBBBlinker

Yes, GPS runs for both A Term and B Term. S (just finished sophomore year) did "Power the World," which he enjoyed. He's an ECE major, so I can't offer any advice about Chemistry type stuff.

dynamitekicker

A few questions before I offer any advice:

1. Has he taken AP chemistry is high school? Any AP history or language credits?
2. What are his thoughts on team projects?
3. Does he really know what ChE is?
4. Would he be looking to minor or double major?

babylevi

thanks for helping. He has taken AP Chem, AP Physics and AP Calculus as a senior and did well - don't know AP scores yet but his grades were always B/A-. Really likes his chemistry and physics classes, math he has to work harder for grades. I think he likes team projects, currently working on one that seniors do for graduation. Does not like history or languages at all and none were at AP level. I am not sure how much he knows about ch engineering -- he went to several info sessions at various colleges before choosing WPI and he has received a lot of advice from teachers/engineers. He was thinking of just studying chemistry or physics at one point, and then decided chemical engineering might be a better choice. I don't think he wants to minor/double. He will be doing a sport too, so he will be busy.

dynamitekicker

Anyone who has taken AP Chemistry in high school should be easily able to test out of CH1010 and even possibly CH1020. Same thing applies to physics. Also, based on what you said it sounds like he might not know exactly what chemical engineering is, so I'd recommend taking the intro class. Feed the World and the Grand Challenges seminar work best for ChE students, but they are by no means required. I wouldn't rush on fitting in humanities classes, because you will want to save some "easy" classes for sophomore and junior years. Here's what I put together:

A Term
MA 1022
GPS
CH 1010 or PH 111X (if needed)

B Term
CH 1020
GPS
CHE 1011

C Term
CH 1030 (some people skip this and double count an advanced chemistry class)
MA 1023
HU

D Term
CH 1040
PH 1120
MA 1024

babylevi

Thank you very much, Dynamitekicker. When is testing out of certain classes done? I know he has to take a math placement test online, I don't recall seeing other options. I am hoping WPI also offers good guidance on course selection once he is there. Do you find that to be the case?

4getit

It looks like students can get credit out of Mechanics and Electricity/Magnetism if they get a 4 or 5 on AP Physics C. Otherwise AP Physics B only counts toward an elective (not toward major requirements).

Dynamitekicker -- you asked about foreign language (above) so hoping you can shed some light on WPI's policy on foreign language study/credits. S asked about credits earned in two Spanish classes he took for college credit. The reply is copied below and isn't very clear.

"WPI has a policy about transfer credit regarding languages. If students here wish to complete their 6 required humanities courses in a language, they must use all 6 in that language (to reach fluency). For transfer credit, the policy is that we do not award introductory-level language credit unless the incoming student is following those same guidelines. "

Seems to imply that unless you take 6 courses in a language you can't use your AP or transfer credit in languages toward Arts & Humanities requirements. Is that the way it works?

dynamitekicker

I believe you can get 1 language class written off based on AP scores. I'll check with some people I know and update this post though..