<p>Bernie, i noticed you’re on the Georgia Tech forum a lot as well. How would you compare these two schools?</p>
<p>I got waitlisted at Columbia but that’s the only Ivy I applied to… I think I could’ve gotten into lower ivies. Btw, bernie you were totally wrong about my courseload. I have to work pretty much day and night. Taking three sciences with two labs is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. Don’t think I’m struggling though. I’m doing well but you made it seem like I was going to breeze through. That’s the farthest thing form the truth. Just saying.</p>
<p>Alam, what are you in again? Who are you taking? I thought you only had gen. chem. and bio. Your first round of exams went well? I kind of realize that many of you guys are really talented, it sometimes depends on the professor. I looked at Dr. Roth’s first exam (several friends in there), and noticed it was much harder than last years, but they had a high average. I’m proud of you folks. Weinschenk’s class also didn’t perform as badly on their first exam as they thought they would. Yeah, I forgot to tell you about bio lab. In general though, most labs are time-consuming moreso than straight up hard. I’ll admit that bio can get tough, but until orgo., that’s about all unless you get the harder grading Lab prof./TAs. </p>
<p>Oh, and this is me, I just had issues retrieving my password (process seems screwed up)</p>
<p>By the way, Dr. Roth is a physics prof. I don’t know if you are taking physics or not, so I want to clarify.</p>
<p>I’m in Bio 141 (Spell) with Lab. Chem 141 (Mulford) with Lab. Bio Evolution Freshman Seminar (lots of work usually) and Philosophy 115 (I have exam tmrw and 2000 word essay). Content wise, it isn’t extremely difficult. It’s just a LOT (and I do mean a LOT) of work. Each lab class is like taking its own subject. I took IB in high school and I’ve never had to pull all nighters and I pulled my first all nighter here at Emory already. Then again, maybe I’m just not very efficient. Regardless, I’m doing well but that’s because I’ve been working really hard. I would not tell others to take two science with labs and make it sound like it’s going to be really a breeze. At least for me, that hasn’t been true.</p>
<p>Well, for one you have Spell with lab. Good lecturer, but I don’t think bio will get any easier with her. I heard she had a relatively high 1st exam average again (78-80). Hope she doesn’t decide to surprise y’all with the 2nd exam, b/c she did that last year apparently and dropped the average to a 63 on that one. I would continue to study hard just in case, even if you got an A on the first exam. Would you agree that bio lab is perhaps more intense than chem. lab or can you even feel the difference? What about lecture? Which one seems to come easier, the bio or chem. Just curious, because normally bio here seems strangely comparable to chem. in difficulty and the lab makes it worse (wait until 142 where the profs. will probably get easier, but the lab just gets more time consuming to compensate. In chem. the lecture intensifies a bit from what I hear). Oh, I just told that to you because I assumed IB to be extremely hard (I mean the rigor is intrinsic to the program itself and hence I don’t expect it to vary as much as AP rigor across high schools). Heard that it had a very high workload associated with those courses, so I thought you would be used to it. I would not have been so quick to say it to a person who did AP. Perhaps it’s a highschool-college transition thing alam. Your time is naturally less structured, and this can be troublesome I suppose. I did well first semester, but had the same issues. You’ll figure out some tricks next semester. It still won’t be a breeze, but if successful, you’ll feel less stressed. It’ll simply feel easier to manage. I’d imagine the bio lab presentation prep has been a hellraiser lol. That’s always been fun. 
Having to sync the schedules of a bunch of science majors is hard.</p>
<p>I also had an intense seminar so I see where you are coming from in that arena too.</p>
<p>I heard she had a relatively high 1st exam average again (78-80).</p>
<p>It was 84. I have her.</p>
<p>Is the lab portion of the grade usually pretty easy? Or are the midterm and test jsut as hard as Spell’s?</p>
<p>Did you think Spell’s first exam was a tad hard even though you guys did well? Just wondering, because as said, it could very well get much tougher. The average on exam last year was 82-83, and she then proceeded to crush the class on the next one as said (however, she kind of warned them when she admitted that the average was a bit high. I doubt y’all got the warning so maybe it’ll be different). Again, I wouldn’t know what to expect. Just keep studying hard if you already are, or increase if not, just in case. Better safe than sorry.<br>
Anyway, I don’t think bio lab will compare to Spell’s tougher exams. The midterms and finals are standardized by Holzmann (I forgot spelling). 1st semester’s were not difficult at all. I think the thing that pushed grades down in lab were the final lab reports. 2nd semester’s final was harder (midterm was okay), and the quizzes were annoying. Also, the procedures done were a lot more involved. Bio lab has been redone and is much easier now. When it was run by Escobar, people were failing the lab and lecture left and right. Escobar’s test and quizzes (apparently labs were much more standardized so there was no curving up certain sections like now) had averages in the 50-60s consistently. Just be glad none of us had to go through that. Holzmann is nice. Very surprising given that he lectures now and is only moderate (perhaps easy to Emory students, but I reassess and admit he would still be harder than bio profs. many other institutions. Saw my friends exam, and the last 2 pages were kinda rough) and maybe hard towards the end.</p>
<p>Haha she specifically said the 84% was a bit high. IDK if anyone else in class caught it, but I was like “oh ****”.</p>
<p>Yea lab midterm is in two weeks. I need to study haha.</p>
<p>I thought there were maybe 4 hard questions on the test… There were 30 questions total so not much room for error. But I went over the back exam pretty thoroughly so I figured the test out pretty easily. People who didnt got screwed. I missed two (one I’m not sure how I didnt see it and one where I second guessed myself).</p>
<p>Good job aluminum. Yeah the woes of multiple choice lol. I imagine Eisen’s first exam was not pleasant, however. One better know what they are doing to do well on those. I also hear that Calabrese also gives very tough MC exams, perhaps harder than Spell’s. Once again, you guys have it rough in 141. Don’t know what they’ll do with 142 since Corces is teaching in the med. school now. If anything like last year, it will be more than doable. Only time will tell. If Spell teaches, I would stick with her. If not, and L’hernault teaches (tests are comparable to Spell’s harder exams, but the 142 material makes it easier for you. Solid lecturer, funny in a rude way lol), go with him, as he is most similar. If Orloff does it, people liked him a lot, but his exam averages were lower than the others (hovered around 72) including Spell (hers were unusually high) last year. I know that all three of these folks will prepare you best for the semi-standardized(about 1/3 standardization) cumulative, which is a good deal harder than the cumulative of 141.</p>
<p>From the numbers of Emory’s site, if you go to the school, and you have a 3.6+, 30+ MCAT, the placement is great. So to me, it seems like if you work hard, you’ll be fine.</p>