<p>Hey CC, I will be attending the University of Florida this fall, and am looking to transfer out, and I was already accepted to two options.</p>
<p>I could go to Emory Fall 2012 on Conditional Acceptance or go to University of Southern California this Spring.</p>
<p>I am interested in premed, but am worried it will be more difficult to coordinate the pre-reqs as a sophomore. I prefer to start my premed classes at the university I will graduate from.</p>
<p>any advice?</p>
<p>Your spring acceptance to USC was likely contingent on your NOT going to UF in the fall. Once you matriculate to UF, you might have to start over applying as a transfer to USC. Have you researched this? Given your conditional acceptance to Emory, was this based on your potential performance at UF?</p>
<p>Did you pay a deposit to hold a spot at USC for spring?</p>
<p>i did talk to an admissions counselor who told me that my enrollment at UF would not hinder my offer of admission at USC. I paid the deposit, but am in a position to withdraw still.</p>
<p>my conditional acceptance is contingent on me maintaing a 3.2 at UF.</p>
<p>Starting pre-reqs at w/e institution you transfer to is unnecessary. Get some done at UF and transfer them over to USC or Emory. It will make your life much easier, especially at Emory where delaying courses like organic chem (this and biochem are very tough little birdies, much more than even USC’s rendering), biochem, or physics until junior to senior year may make for a mess. I assure you that classes like general biology or general chemistry are similar across most schools. However, if you come to Emory, I recommend gen. chem and math (just get it done at UF. It’ll be easy here, but you may get a better teacher there, unless of course, you take life sciences calc. here) at UF as biology here is structured differently than that of UF or USC (I don’t know why, but USC’s curriculum and course designs in science tend to resemble top public schools as to other top private schools. It’s still challenging, but the focus is different) Emory’s general biology is: bio 1= Cell biology/biochem and chromosomal genetics while biology 2 is: Molecular and developmental genetics. USC’s focuses on: bio 1: evolution and organismal biology bio 2: cell biology and physiology. Emory’s intro. bio class is heavily slanted toward understanding genetics and molecular biology. And often upperlevel courses follow-up on this focus. UF’s is essentially designed the same as USC’s. </p>
<p>I can’t tell you which school to choose because I like them both (I guess I only prefer Emory because it is smaller and I guess focuses on teaching more, even in the sciences). I can just tell you that you should at least do or start get gen. chem out of the way at UF as it is the same at all schools and will transfer smoothly. Also, even if it is not as rigorous at UF, you won’t be at a huge disadvantage when doing gen. chem II at say, USC. I’ve seen USC’s gen. chem, and it can’t be much harder. Neither is ours. So, if you come here, you can take organic chem and biology sophomore year. I promise that Emory students in organic chem. will not have an advantage over you because you took gen. chem at UF. Organic chemistry is hard enough here so that everyone is on a level playing field (the class also doesn’t have much overlap w/gen. chem outside of lewis structures and energetics).</p>
<p>It also seems you may prefer USC over Emory (especially since Emory requires that you wait an additional semester) in which case I would just take gen. chem 1 and take gen. chem 2 at USC in spring. In fact, I would argue that you can perhaps double up in gen. chem and biology since the courses are so similar between the two. USC and UF seem too similar to me (at least pre-med course wise) to justify waiting till sophomore year to start pre-med courses.</p>
<p>I like Emory and USC, and they both have happy students. The campuses do have VERY different feels. I’d choose based on personal preference, not program paperwork.</p>