<p>Language classes tend to be pretty intense, but that is what learning a language requires. They are very interactive, kept pretty small, and based on immersion. You’ll learn alot, and the grading usually doesn’t end up being that bad.</p>
<p>Hey!</p>
<p>Thought of another question: if I were to place out of Math 1b, would I have to take another math course in order to fulfill the Med School requirements? Or would placing out of it mean that I would have fulfilled the requirements?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m sure it depends on the medical school, but for HMS scoring a 4/5 on the AP Calc. AB exam fulfills 1 semester of math; additionally, scoring a 4/5 on AP Calc. BC fulfills a year of math. </p>
<p>I’m not sure how harvard’s placement exams factor into med school requirements though. Did you take any calc. AP exams?</p>
<p>You’ll see, yes, I did. I took Calculus AB and got a 5.</p>
<p>But I have already taken up to Calculus III at my local college. Do you think that Harvard will take them as credit, just like for AP exams? I took AP Calculus AB without having taken the formal AP class, after all, and still got a 5… .</p>
<p>I think I’m going to talk to my proctor or whoever I’m supposed to talk to about it, but the placement exams just brought that question to mind.</p>
<p>So I was wondering what you guys think about the following classes. Any information would be greatly appreciated of course.</p>
<p>Math 21a, I’ve seen the stuff above, but was just wondering if it’s truly soul-crushing or not.
LSa, como es?
Comp Sci 50
Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding 26</p>
<p>^ fineline, thats 3 pset courses you have; CS50 in particular is time
intensive. Though none of the 3 courses are ‘difficult’ you will
find yourelf in hindsight regreting the choice of 3 pset courses
in a semster- especially freshman fall when you could be trying to
find the right ec groups and explore Harvard and its surrounding
environment.</p>
<p>Your time commitment for an A- grade for Fall '09 is ~ 50 hrs+ (lecture+
section+assignments+prep) would be my opinion. Given the shortened
semester sans 1 week of reading period it may become somewhat stressful
in December.</p>
<p>Thanks. Yeah that’s not my schedule I was just wondering about the classes. So diversify is what I’m guessing we should all do?</p>
<p>I was a foolish freshman and took 3 pset classes my fall. Avoid it if you can. I am not saying that you should not challenge yourself, but you should look into courses that are interesting to you. My spring semester was soooo much better both grade wise and social wise because I took my pre-med required classes but I also took really interesting courses in race and health policy.</p>
<p>boyhood - what specific classes did you take freshman fall v. spring as an example?</p>
<p>I’m thinking about taking:
LS1
Math 21
German / EC10 (depends on placement test scores for German)
Expos / Freshman seminar</p>
<p>Would that be too problem set heavy / would that be a very difficult Freshman fall?</p>
<p>Fall semester:
Ls1a
Math 1b
Expos
Foreign Language</p>
<p>Spring semester
Ls1b
Math 21a
Foreign languages
Physical sciences 1
Sociology 190</p>
<p>Spring will probably suck.</p>
<p>Boyhood, your schedule is almost exactly what I was just considering before I read your post. O.o. I’ve taken up to Calculus III up at my community college, so I’m hoping that I won’t have to take Math1b…but I don’t know how that’ll work out. And maybe I’ll place out of LS1a/b?</p>
<p>^place out of LS1a and LS1b, he, he :D</p>
<p>Both Math 1a/1b and Math 19a/19b satisfy the pre-med requirement of Calculus right?
Is there any pro/con of taking either? Math 1a/1b is easier right?</p>
<p>Alicimoo, I believe that Math 1a/1b is easier. It’s equivalent to Calculus AB/BC, I’ve heard. And yeah, I think they do satisfy the requirement. I’m going pre-med, too ;D.</p>
<p>Synth, is it not possible to place out of LS1a/b? O.o</p>
<p>You can place out of Ls1a but I haven’t heard of anyone placing out of Ls1b. I believe the latter is due to the fact that people who place out of the course end up taking it anyway because of concentration requirements, ( if you are going to be concentrating in a life science you HAVE to take life science 1b with the exception of one concentration) , pre-med requirements, or because all their other pre-med friends are taking it as well. </p>
<p>Math 1a and 1b are easier. However, my Math 1b teacher was AMAZING compared to my 21a teacher.</p>
<p>Boyhood, did I misunderstand something? You mentioned that in your fall you took 3 pset classes but then you listed </p>
<p>Fall semester:
Ls1a
Math 1b
Expos
Foreign Language</p>
<p>as your fall schedule. Which three were the psets? Can you tell me what was particularly difficult? It is basically what my daughter is expecting her schedule to be, barring her finding our her expo semester assignment. I’d love to pass on advice to her.</p>
<p>Also, if any of you wouldn’t mind giving your opinion on a spring semester with Ls1b, Foreign language, Math 19a, PS1. If she took a fifth, it would either be a freshman seminar or Science of living systems 20 (formerly Psych 1).</p>
<p>For her language she is contemplating continuing spanish, if her placement seems logical, or starting Latin.</p>
<p>I meant my spring semester I took three pset classes. The difficult part of having three pset classes is the fact that I had science midterms back to back for practically 7 weeks. In addition I was turining in 5 psets a week and science psets, at least from my study group experience, are not sit down for two hours and do them psets. Its doable as long as you foccus on your academics above all else ( I was / still am really involved in a few ecs that made that difficult). </p>
<p>Here is a course by course run down:
Life Science 1a- In retrospect, you will look back and see all that you have learned. I feel that Prof. Dan was underrated. He to me was the best lecturer in the sense that he didn’t just speak to you, he taight you things. Sure some of it was really review but I learned mostly at the beggining of the class. Prof. Erin was ok. She wasn’t bad but she sometimes got flustered when we didn’t uderstand what she was saying as a class. Now there is the famed Prof. Robert Lue. His voice is the perfect lecturing voice and he has these awesome animations but I found that I was teaching myself the material more so than learning it from lecture. The material at the end of Ls1a is really, really cool though ( HIV/AIDS bac regulation).</p>
<p>MAth 1b- Success in this class lies in doing one thing… figure out when Robin Gottlieb is teaching ( she was the department head last year ) and take her section. Doing so will make you love calculus, or find love for calculus. She is by far probably the best TEACHER at Harvard hands down. She is just epic. And go to her office hours, she loves seeing students at her office hours. She was the first math teacher that told me that I could do math and I went from doing what I consider ok to poorly based on what the first test would suggest ( B-/C+) range, to getting an A in the class fall semester.</p>
<p>My fifth class was not only chill but I was really interested in it. I would suggest that your daughter looked into doing the same. I shopped and took Psych 1 for about three weeks before switching to my health policy class. It was the best academic decision I have made other than having Robin Gottlieb as a teacher. I had Prof. Gilbert as my teacher. He is a really good lecturer, funny, interesting, engaging. But his lectures were like audio versions of the textbook and that wasn’t appealing to me.</p>
<p>If you or your daughter have any questions, feel free to send me a message.</p>
<p>How is this schedule for freshman fall?</p>
<p>Math 23a
LS 1a
Ec 10
foreign language</p>
<p>I know that this makes 3 pset classes, but I dunno…is SA/Ec 10 very time consuming?</p>
<p>Ec 10 is dreaded by many … liked by those who are diehard economic lovers. I would suggest that you may shop one class that is something very interesting to you that you aren’t taking to meet a requirement. Are you taking Social Analysis 10 to meet a concentration requirement? If you are or if you like it then by all means take it. But if you are doing SA10 for a graduation requirement I would suggest something else. Freshman fall should be more so about pursuing new academic venues… and believe me, I wish I had listened to that when my upperclassmen friends told me this last year.</p>