<p>I’ve found the science classes here to be pretty great overall, and pretty tough. But intro sequences can often be as tough as you want them to be. Most of the sciences offer multiple levels. I took AP5 Bio and am taking Honors Physics now, because I like the challenge and depth, and I am not overly concerned about my GPA. I am also taking a bio elective and geology.</p>
<p>The thing that I think is great about science here is the effort to make students really understand material on a higher level than just memorizing the textbook. Simply reading the textbook is not sufficient. Some classes don’t even require a text. Most bio classes here, even core topics courses, require a lot of primary source reading from scientific journals. There is often a heavy emphasis on “why we know what we know” over “what we know.” We learn about historic research and will recreate Nobel Prize winning experiments in lab or calculations in homework. Even my geoscience courses, which assume no knowledge of chem, calc, or physics, and are generally pretty easy, involve some tricky calculations and derivations.</p>
<p>Exams are never multiple choice, and often require some creative thought. We got a lot of “design an experiment” type questions in bio- and when those deal with complicated genetic screens, they are not easy. Physics exams are more straightfoward, but difficult. Averages on exams tend to be fairly low, but they are usually curved or scaled in some way, and final grades turn out okay.</p>
<p>Labs tend to be interesting, and are usually 3 or 4 hours long, once a week, though one of my classes had lab twice a week for 3 hours each time. Sometimes labs are short, other times they run long. I’ve enjoyed them, but they can be exhausting. In bio, lab reports were formal and were sometimes 15 pages or longer, from experiments that took many weeks. In physics, we turn our lab reports in immediately, before we leave lab, and they are very informal. Geology labs are short and fun.</p>
<p>The profs are mostly great and very approachable. They usually have office hours and then TAs run discussions and may also have office hours. My class sizes have ranged from 8 to 96.</p>
<p>But as I mentioned, many classes come in 2 or 3 levels, and I’ve opted for the hard ones. Premeds tend to opt for the easier ones, though some take on the challenge. I doubt that you would be disatisfied with the other levels, but I’ll leave it to someone else to comment on those.</p>
<p>As for free time and such, there’s can be a lot of work sometimes, but it’s really not that bad. I am involved in a bunch of activities, go to movies/concerts/hang out with friends, and spend a ridiculous amount of time on facebook, and I still do well. The classes themselves do take up a lot of time though when you add in all of the labs and discussions.</p>