Mine leaves in 9 days. Her brother left yesterday, but will be back on the 2nd. It was nice having them both home for a while.I like seeing them get along as much as they do now.
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Itâs the three-days-after-Christmas annual birthday party bash for D24! Thank goodness this year itâs not a true âbashââon her 18th, she had 40 people in our 1400 square-foot house. This year there will be eight people at dinnerâthree friends from high school, all now in their sophomore years at colleges out of state (Howard, a Boston school, a state school)âand five friends from college, all freshmen, all of whom luckily live in this general urban area. Six of them will be staying over. Iâm ready for my allotted pint of beer tonightâfirst, because itâs tasty, but second, as a sleep aid for around midnight. They will be right below us! 
But Iâm overjoyed to have them here. I know these days of freewheeling single young people in the house wonât last long.
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Thanks to all for the replies and feedback. Where is the premed forum? I couldnt find a generic one.
S24 discovered that now his Orgo professor (course starting next week) has reviews (0verwhelmingly) on Rate my Professor that point to her being a very harsh grader. Here we go again. He is wondering if he should change his major to Bio though he really likes chem. But two harsh graders in a row related to Chem may not be best for a med school application. He will have to figure this all out this week since we had to do an emergency travel last week (sick relatives).
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Here you go!
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I think you need your own thread about questions about your sonâŠbut Iâll answer this one. Organic Chemistry is a VERY difficult course for a LOT of students. Forget about whether the professor is a hard grader. The course is hard.
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Wonât he still need to take orgo as a biology major?
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If he is a premed major, he absolutely will need to take organic chemistry.
I donât think this is a required course for straight biology majors @WayOutWestMom probably knows.
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Yes, but perhaps he can take it another semester and with hopefully a less harsh grader.
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Agree. Thank you!
My daughter took orgo 1 and 2 as a biology major. I agree he will need it for med school.
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Forgive me for not remembering all of the details. Did he just finish chem 2 and is now starting orgo? Why couldnât he wait until next year and start it in the fall with the rest of the premeds
Orgo 1 & 2 (and often biochem) is definitely required for bio majors.
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Yes, he finished Chem2. The reason why he is taking Orgo next semester is that he simply wants to. It will be hard whether he takes it now or next year. Are there any benefits to taking it in the fall?
Sorry to hijack this thread. I can follow up on the premed forum/personal messages.
If he takes the Ochem 1 and 2 classes in Fall/spring, there less time for knowledge decay to happen between the 2 courses and heâll need less review before starting the second semester.
EDIT: I should add that starting fall semester, the class cohort is likely to be larger-so more competition for grades.
Also no guarantee that heâll end up with a different professor. Most Ochem profs have ratings/ reviews that indicate they are tough graders since itâs a major âweederâ class for pre meds.
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Is the professor a harsh grader or is it simply Orgo? Orgo is a pre med weeder class almost every where Iâve heard of.
What does harsh grading mean in a class with right or wrong answers? I get harsh grading on an English paper, but in STEM classes I think that is a little different.
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As a recovering chemist, itâs sad to see Orgo has become the weeder class. All undergraduate chemistry courses are similar to foreign languages/math - itâs beneficial to keep taking back to back.
Sure wish I knew way back when I was a pre-med bio major that O Chem was a âweeder class.â I thought that I just got really dumb all of the sudden. 
It was the only D I ever got. I did manage a B- on the second try.
So painful!
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Orgo had a similar reputation back at my college. Which was . . . letâs say a while ago.
I do agree a lot of it is just that it is a legitimately challenging topic. Also the first Chemistry that is usually past even advanced HS classes (outside of a few very advanced or STEM focused high schools).
So I personally see no problem timing it to make sense for you, like when you are properly prepared, you are not taking too many other intense classes, and so on.
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I remember O-Chem having test scores of like 8-22 (out of a 100) regularly. When I got a 41 on a test I was on a high that whole week (it was actually well above the mean, lol).
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