Very Tentative First Semester Schedule

bernie12
Sun, 18 May 2014 00:13:48 +0000

Chem and bio aren’t that hard in my opinion, at least not biology. The two hard components between them are biology lab and chemistry lecture. However, if one is too squeamish and has no real AP/IB/college science experience, perhaps a math (could be that stupid life sciences calculus course or QTM 100, whatever) and a science may make more sense (I just think you should make more progress than a single math or science. Things may pile up later or other things may be delayed, or you may end up feeling compelled to the take watered down summer versions as a part of your major or track. The two summer science classes remotely close to semester training are gen. chem and intro. physics. All others are far below par and students know it. Often summer ochem and biology are filled with what are generally weaker students. This especially goes for ochem. They will claim that it is because they don’t have time the next year, but it’s usually code for: “I’m scared I’ll have to take so and so” or “the new credit system will make me take another 4 courses with a major science class and I can’t handle it”- all weak crap. Science students, pre-med and non at many other top schools with the Carnegie Unit suck it up and take 5 courses. I suppose it takes a while for this reality to grow on our students). If you have AP/IB experience, it makes more sense to double up in the sciences. It makes for a more versatile schedule in the sophomore year because you can perhaps begin intermediate or advanced courses in whatever your major is as opposed to going through 2 full years of intro. training and becoming bored and then perhaps missing out on some of the rarer electives and courses (that may be taught every two years or something). I feel this threat is more intense if you are an NBB major or a more intense (maybe plans to take graduate level courses or the quantitative biology suite of courses) biology major though. I suppose for more average biology majors or pre-healths for whom the actual course content can matter less, whether or not a special topic course is offered does not matter because they won’t be taking it anyway (only exceptions are perhaps cancer biology and immunology. Those have a reasonable amount of popularity I suppose).