would it be a bad idea to take micro econ and chem 1 at the same time at UVA? I have heard that econ is difficult and obviously chem is too. my other option is stat instead of econ, which also seems bad according to course forum. please help!!!
(I am currenty undecided between pre med and pre comm)
Have you gone to orientation yet?
Try to find out as much information as you can about both McIntire and med school, and then choose one–there are options for change if you decide you made the wrong choice (you can always take the science courses and apply to med school, and there is always the MS in commerce). It is difficult to do both premed and precomm. Each requires a high number of difficult weed-out courses with very low average GPAs (ECON 2010, STAT 2120, and CHEM 1410 all meet this definition), and you need a high GPA to get into med school and the comm school. The weed-outs for premed and comm school also don’t overlap. I think trying to do both at the same time would probably prevent you from doing either. I would start with the courses for precomm, because you have to apply to McIntire before you have to apply to med school.
McIntire recommends that you don’t take more than two quantitative prereqs in any one semester–econ and stats are both quantitative–so you could probably do those two together, but I definitely wouldn’t take either with chem.
Also, use vagrades.com for grade data, not course forum. A lot of more recent semesters are missing from course forum. It is also much harder to tell trends in grade data, like differences between professors, or if a professor has changed how they grade. Vagrades is much better in those regards. Typically, I read course forum for reviews and use vagrades.com for grade data.
Stats 2120 had a very bad and widespread reputation as of a few years ago when my son took it. It was probably the most unpopular class at UVa at the time - despite the fact that it was taught by various professors. My son really liked AP stats, but he said 2120 was completely different, for the worse. I’d save it for a later semester.
Re: STAT 2120 specifically, I haven’t taken it but the people I know who have are all pretty consistent. The course isn’t as bad as @Charliesch makes it out to be–not sure if it’s because of the new professor or the fact that it’s one of the five most taught courses and so the reputation gets around.
My understanding is that in the past, there would be that two or three profs would rotate teaching the course, and that all were pretty bad and the curve was at most a 3.0. The new prof (Yong Woo, who’s been teaching it the last two years and will teach the course in the fall) still isn’t great, but the course isn’t quite as bad any more. It is a lot of work, but the grades are much higher now (3.3 average, a lot fewer grades below B). That has a lot to do with the fact that 60% of your grade consists of homeworks, labs, and prequizzes, rather than tests.
Could you please elaborate on “the course forum”? the link thecourseforum.com doesn’t work, and searches only seem to turn up info on “The Forums” as in the general ed Forum info. I am looking for the site that has reviews of courses and profs at Uva. The VAgrades site is great for grade distributions. Thanx
The Course Forum link is working for me right now. 
You need a UVa email address to access it.
First you should consider your foundation in those subjects: if you have taken AP/IB Chem, AP Micro, or AP Stat then those classes may be less daunting. It is also important to take professor and class structure into account. Chem 1410 will have more online assignments in addition to exams, and the intro stat classes are a “flipped classroom” with weekly assignments. Econ 2010 would depend on your professor. Elzinga is a legend, and there is not as much work on a weekly basis besides reading the textbook (which is a must). That being said, his class is more conceptual and exams are weighted heavily look up the dutch knockout, it can be a lifesaver. Most other econ 2010 professors seem to be more application-based, so you will have more homework assignments with practice questions. I personally took econ 2010 with elzinga while i took chemistry (i did take ap chem) and it worked out fine for me.
PS if you want to add elzinga’s class but its full, show up the first day of lecture and talk to him afterward, he tends to let a lot of students in if they show interest