Vanderbilt first semeseter course load too hard?

Senior2016M
Wed, 04 Jul 2018 15:18:21 +0000

I can’t speak to this specific course load in great detail because it’s not my area - although it looks reasonable to me as you’re not overloading your credits too soon, which it a good thing from an adjustment standpoint. But your frame of mind coming to campus may need a slight tweak:
You describe Math 1300 as “easy.” Wrong attitude. You describe CS 1101 as manageable. Better attitude.

I’m not insulting your intelligence - really, I’m not, because I’m sure, nay certain, that you’re incredibly smart. But so is everyone here. Who knows, you may be the wunderkind that blasts through Math 1300 as though it were the simplest material in the world without the same stress and worrying of your colleagues and peers. OR, much more realistically, you’ll see that its reputation as “tough,” as reported by the many hundreds of weed-outs who have come before you, was assigned fittingly. Again, I’m not a Math/CS double, but even if Math 1300 is one of the easiER options for some people when it comes to Math offerings, it’s certainly not easy. So spare yourself the angst and frustration of becoming average for the first time NOW, and instead nip it in the bud by preparing to come to Vanderbilt as an average student. You’ll either have your expectations met, which is great and less psychologically upsetting, or you’ll exceed them, which is great. But too many people think “I got an A+ in Calc BC in high school, I was top of my class, seriously how hard could this be?”
You’ll soon see how hard, so just pace yourself.

But, regarding class selection, essentially I think your course load looks very manageable from what I know of my engineering friends. If you’d added gen chem or an extra STEM course on top of that and were at 17-18hrs, I’d probably be recommending you cut back a little just initially, but four solid courses for a 14-hour total looks like a very well researched and well chosen set of options for your first semester, which means you can also have a social life and just figure this whole ‘college’ thing out. So good job there!

@fdgjfg probably has some more concrete and detailed thoughts on this given area of expertise. I wouldn’t wish to lead you astray.