<p>How much more difficult is Emory coursework? I go to Walton High School of Marietta, GA, if any of you are familiar with it. Truthfully, my rigor of courses here are pretty tough (14 AP classes by the end of senior year, not bragging or anything).</p>
<p>Feel free to discuss your experiences at Emory</p>
<p>That rigor comes from you taking a lot of classes, not necessarily high intensity classes (I find that AP classes are often challenging, but they don’t actually have the same “environmental” factor that actually college courses have. For example, since time is less structured in college, a class w/similar or harder rigor exams and HW at Emory could end up being significantly harder than at HS because there is often less guidance to your studies. Often graded HW is not even associated w/tough classes and you are left to do optional problem sets and, in some cases, go find your own problems in addition to these. The reminders to “study up” or do HW are much less frequent). As for the rigor of a single course, depending on the teacher, can be easier, harder, or on par. There is no set pattern. Needless to say, coursework more challenging than your HS curriculum is often the best way to learn, however, I must admit that you tend to learn more than in high school even when courses are easy (that is, if you do the work and actually engage) do to the context in which material is conveyed. With this said, handling any rigors of Emory w/your background (similar to many students who attend here) should be okay, but don’t necessarily expect perfection because you took 14APs. Classes are larger, and the professor is often less involved at college, so it could be tough, especially if you get a bad professor that writes exams beyond what can be handled based upon their teaching ability. In addition, many of the better teachers design exams that aren’t meant to be aced by simply studying a lot. You may sometimes have to be able to think creatively on the spot about a topic or issue never actually emphasized in lecture or in a problem-set. You’ll have to go based upon intuition or a spontaneous ability to link it to something that seems dissimilar. Basically, college tests can be less “fair” than your actual AP exams (which can be prepped for in almost formulaic fashion) and your prof’s. exams. A student w/all 5s on AP or 7s on IB courses can still struggle to ace (even if they choose to forfeit the credit) a gen. chem course for example. This pattern definitely goes for the best organic chem. profs (where getting an A in gen. chem or a 5/7 on AP/IB) means little if you are used to “fair” (ones that don’t require extrapolation, or leaps of faith) tests and heavily structured learning and perhaps being told exactly what will be on the test and how it will be presented (this happens a lot in HS AP/IB classes where many teachers teach to the exam). Sometimes, the difference between Emory rigor vs. your HS won’t be an issue of rigor more so than it merely being “different” and requiring an unfamiliar style of learning or testing.</p>
<p>Oh okay, but I have just another question. Usually at high school, if you have a really good teacher who teaches really well and you take notes on everything he/she says and study those, then you are set for the tests (plus reading a bit out of text books). In college, however, does everything on the tests come from the lectures, or do you need to do some extensive research online?</p>
<p>Depends on the professor and area of interest. Tell me your area of interest and I can tell you more. On a side note: Many Emory classes may stress you out more, but it isn’t hard to maintain a solid GPA because of the inflation and curves. Gauging what you’ll end up stressing over will require me to know your intended interests/pursuits.</p>
<p>I plan on majoring in biology. Do you mind telling me how many weekly credit hours are required for the biology classes, and how many I have when I take AP bio?</p>
<p>Everything at Emory is on a 4 hour system (now, but if/when you enter, I believe it is going to a 3 hour system), so you get 4 hrs for using 141 credit. Yeah, the better professors aren’t going to be like high school. Getting a good grade will certainly be very doable, but it will be different if you want the best experience. Note that none of them (including the best profs.) have high workloads, but the exams and perhaps the few assignments they give can be challenging. The best professor you can get for Biology 142 is Passalaucqua and she employs case method which is most certainly not what is done in AP biology. In addition, 142 may be different from AP (though not necessarily harder) in that heavy emphasis is put on the experimentation aspect of biology (heavy emphasis on molecular genetic techniques). Most of the exams (at least the multiple choice part) is spent predicting or explaining the results of an experimental procedure meaning that you have to kind of know things more conceptually or you’re screwed. Needless to say, they’ll get you ready for this. The better upper level professors don’t even do multiple choice and studying their notes/book will not really suffice. You’ll have to practice using in class or out of class problem sets and develop skills to think on your feet. Dr. Beck, who teaches organismal form and function and Ecology does his class based on data. You have to interpret what is going on in a physiological or ecological system based upon data that he gives you and render a written answer. Dr. Gerardo in evolutionary requires the same. Not only this, but many classes have discussion sections where you read the scientific primary research literature each week and present or respond to presentations (normally you have to do a small write-up on each paper). In Dr. Eisen’s (he actually trained passalaucqua in the case method. When he taught 141 w/the method, his approach was far more rigorous than the current passalaucqua approach. His biology class would put your AP class to shame. The final was a series of research papers and students had to answer questions about them. It was apparently brutal) Cell biology class, everything is inquiry driven and you will be asked to design experiments to explain phenomenon described on the test. The whole class is based upon reading scientific literature, student talks, and case study problems that are very open ended (as in questions currently under investigation by scientists that are not close to being resolved). His test are very open ended, so if you don’t participate in discussion of problems or read primary literature on your own time, the exams can be very tough, and no amount of reading the book or notes will get you around it. The exams present somewhat random abstracts from research papers having to do w/molecular cell biology and you must use your knowledge base or any previous knowledge to explain it and make a test to prove your claim. Sometimes he’ll ask you to perform a test appropriate for the lab and sometimes it’ll be on the population level. You must be creative to do well in his class, but this is good for you. You will also have to take organic chemistry and Soria and Weinschenk are the best lecturers for it and require that “leap of faith” problem solving ability (like Eisen, they pull their more difficult problems from seemingly random research papers that are slightly related to what was shown in class. These problems always require you to perform a reaction or task you were never explicitly shown either in lecture, the book, or a problem set) I described in another post. Regurgitating notes and books don’t help you. The best teachers at Emory try to build problem solving skills and some hints of creativity and not obedience so unfortunately the magic formula you used in HS will not always work. So the answer to your question is that, if you want the best science education from Emory, it will likely be a bit tougher than HS courses intellectually (though not workload wise. workload should be easier), and in classes graded on curves, you’ll be against students like yourself or perhaps better. Outside of the courses that you should choose to get a solid foundation (most that I mentioned), your HS formula pretty much applies. It’s just that if you intend to build skills for a career in science or skills to get a solid MCAT score, you will deal with the professors I mentioned and those will be challenging, but for the sake of your GPA, they won’t be the bulk of your classes, so again, you should be fine.</p>
<p>By the way, you will need to choose about 8 of those AP courses to essentially forfeit upon enrollment, as only 6 are allowed to be transferred in.</p>
<p>Dang, that’s a mouthful. Thanks dude.
Based on what you said, I might have to switch gears once I get into college. My high school is the sort of opposite: the tests in our biology class are sorta easy (yes, they do require lots of application but also alot of reading) but the courseload is, well, let’s say that I usually never finish the textbook readings before the tests.</p>
<p>Only 6 APs? oh well, I guess it’s a good thing I failed lang. I heard Emory doesn’t take AP Human. What state did you come from, btw?</p>
<p>Also, do you know anything about Oxford College, and how life there is compared to Emory?</p>
<p>I from Ga (Savannah). Oxford College is much smaller and is located outside of the city/more urbanized areas so could be boring sometimes. However, often students there are more creative in making fun activities. In addition, science teaching their may be a little better overall (more consistency across depts. and teachers). I know for a fact that the labs are better because their labs actually make you engage in a research project and are run by the professor teaching the lecture. Because of the school’s nature, student-teacher interaction is higher and students are moreso transformed by the Oxford experience than main campus students are by the Emory experience. This is expected as Oxford is much more liberal arts intensive and really, really focuses on good teaching strategies (often ones that will make some classes more rigorous than those on main).</p>
<p>Why not call Admissions and arrange to sit in on a class or two? They’re very accomodating and you live nearby.</p>
<p>A top college is a much “richer” environment, and comparing college to high school is not going to show that depth.</p>