21 Credits Freshmen Fall Semester?

<p>Hello all, currently my schedule is very dense and runs from 9AM-7PM everyday with one or two hour long break(s) during the day. I was wondering if you all believed that this schedule would be too overwhelming for a student making the transition from a high school to a college experience. Also, I have a dilemma in terms of mathematics course placement. During high school, the only AP level calculus course offered was Calculus AB which I took, however, I chose to take the BC exam and received a 5. This was without any proper teaching in polar and parametric functions, and also sequences. I opted to skip Math 1910 and take 1920 for my first semester but now I am getting cold feet. Did I make the right decisions?</p>

<p>Below is my schedule:
Chem 2090 - Engineering General Chemistry
Class 1531 - FWS: Greek Myth
Engrg 1050 - Engineering Seminar
Engrg 1092 - Cooperative Workshop Math 1920
Engri 1170 - Intro to Mech Engr
Math 1920 - Multivariable Calculus Engrs
Phys 1112 - Physics 1: Mechanics & Heat
Obligatory PE Class</p>

<p>Whether or not that schedule will “overwhelm” a student really depends on that student so I will not comment. </p>

<p>However, the recommended freshmen fall/spring credits for engineers is 16-18 and the average being 16 credits per semester thereafter. In contrast, the credit limit for engineering students is 23 per semester (not including smaller classes such as PE) unless you petition to enroll in more. These recommendations are assuming the student does not have any AP credits available. </p>

<p>I personally did 16 credits first semester, and 20 the second semester. After that I was over the 23 credit limit every single semester with project team and/or research included in those credits. My motivations for doing this was based on three things:

  1. I had no AP credit at all
  2. I wanted to adjust to college life in freshman year
  3. There were too many interesting things to learn and do (business minor/project team/research) so I had to overload since I didn’t have AP credit.</p>

<p>In retrospect, taking a relatively light first 2 semesters was a good idea for me since there are plenty of things to do during the first few months of freshman year alone that I probably would’ve skipped had I had a larger workload. Just having time to hang out with other students was very beneficial. After graduating, my friends/network largely stem from those I met freshman year.
Overloading the other semesters was great for my curiosity but my academics definitely took a hit. Starting problem sets at 2 am after you just finished two others is not the way to go. Going to exams half-asleep is also not the way to go.</p>

<p>If you can’t decide at this moment, I suggest two things:
A. GO TO CLUB FEST. It’s a huge event within the first 2 weeks of the semester where active clubs signed up for a spot in one of the sports buildings to recruit new members.
B. Keep in mind you can try out your schedule for the couple of weeks. Keep an eye on the “drop” date without having a “withdrawn” appear on your transcript. Drop classes by then if you feel overwhelmed.</p>

<p>For the math track I think skipping 1910 is probably for the best since you managed a 5 on AP. There was quite a bit of material covered in 1910 that did not really translate into being a foundation for 1920. However, I think the “infinite series” was covered in 1910 and not in 1920 and it was a good concept to grasp for some upper level classes. Polar coordinates will be used often in 1920 but I don’t think it would be too difficult of a concept to grasp. It would definitely be self-study on your part though.</p>

<p>That’s too much, in my opinion. You need to leave time for making friends and joining clubs. Also, remember the “three hour rule.” You should plan on spending three hours studying outside of class for every hour spent in class.</p>

<p>I would say get rid of the 1920 workshop. It’s totally useless until the session before prelims where they hand out practice prelims not available to the students in the workshop, but you can just get that from a friend. 1920 is a good course, IMHO, and you made the right choice. I don’t like 1910 because I was forced to take it and I didn’t do as well in it as I did in 1920, so I have a thing or two against it. </p>

<p>I’d also recommend putting off Physics till the next semester because there’s no real point in rushing it. </p>

<p>Use this flow chart to HELP decide on coursework for a semester: <a href=“Cornell Engineering Majors | Cornell Engineering: A Virtual Visit”>Cornell Engineering Majors | Cornell Engineering: A Virtual Visit; </p>

<p>It’s not really a set-in-stone kind of thing, but I followed it for the first semester for Chemical Engineering. I took 1910, Honors Gen Chem (2150), Intro to OR, and my FWS, along with the PE and Engineering Seminar (this class sucks, you don’t do anything but you’re forced to show up for an hr a week). I loved having a relaxed 1st sem. It allowed me to go out often, always attend club meetings, barely stress about problem sets or prelims (I could get by studying the day before since the classes didn’t really have prelims in the same week), and I got to spend tons of time with my friends. </p>

<p>I’d recommend sticking to 5-6 classes a semester after freshman year, but for your 1st semester 4 is good. Personal feelings. For reference, in my second semester I took Honors Organic Chemistry, 1920, BioG 1440, BioG 1500, MatLab, and the obligatory PE class (racquetball). </p>

<p>Sorry for the late response everyone, my parents took me to the mall in order to purchase all of my essentials for the coming semester. Overall, it seems like everyone agrees that enrolling in Math 1920 was a good choice. Also, it seems like everyone feels like 21 semester credits is too much for the first semester due to the hectic nature of adapting to the college atmosphere (making friends, joining clubs, etc.). Since I received a 5 on Physics B and completed a college-level calculus course, I can technically skip Physics 1112 and take Chemistry as my lone-science course first semester and take Physics 2213 spring semester. This would make my schedule 17 credits which is much more manageable, however, I would have to learn the entire course material for Phys 1112 on my own since it’s calculus based and covers more material than Physics B. Of course I have winter vacation which is 3 months(?) so I may be able to do it. Any thoughts?</p>

<p>@fallenmerc:
I think it is a brilliant idea to start with an average semester load and then increase it each following semester until you reach a course load which you can handle but still explore the numerous classes here. I’m going to have to steal that plan from you. Also, since you mentioned being a part of project teams/research, how hard is it for a freshmen to earn a position on a project or research team?</p>

<p>@HopeWishCry:
I didn’t even know the workshop for 1920 was optional. I don’t know if I misinterpreted your sentence, but are you saying that only those “not” in the workshop get a practice preliminary? Also, I can skip Physics 1112 so I would only have Chemistry first semester but I don’t know how much material crosses over from AP Physics B.</p>

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>I read this thread and noticed that people are discussing 1920 here. I am in a similar situation (albeit with fewer credits preenrolled) but I only got a 4 on AP Calc BC. That being said, I do have some basic understanding of both polar/parametric functions and sequences. How easy would it be to catch up on the necessities at the beginning of the semester? I also heard that fall semester is much harder for 1920 than spring is, and that the mean scores are much higher in the fall which screws up the curve.</p>

<p>I’m considering either dropping 1920 and switching to 1910, or moving to the Arts and Sciences Math track (Yes, I’m A&S, but as an intended CS major I’d prefer to take engineering Calc for a stronger background).</p>

<p>Thoughts?</p>

<p>3 month Winter break!? <a href=“Academic Calendar 2022-2023 | Cornell University Registrar”>Academic Calendar 2022-2023 | Cornell University Registrar;
I think it’s closer to 4 weeks… see exam dates vs first day if spring semester.</p>

<p>Skip physics probably at your own discretion, depending on your major. Mechanics really isn’t all that necessary for most engineering majors. There isn’t much overlap onto 2213 (although some might argue the analogs between the some of the concepts are useful). The “calculus based” approach doesn’t mean you’re working through everything with calculus. It’s just a difference of notation, and a more engineering way of thinking about the equations.</p>

<p>My calculus background was pretty poor prior to Cornell but my non-calc based physics background was apparently taught really well since I learned next to nothing in Mechanics class and did well. To be perfectly honest I don’t even quite remember using calculus in Mechanics. Certainly in electromag (multivar) and then in waves (diffeq), but not so much in mechanics. </p>

<p>If you’re doing Mechanical engineering it might be worth your time just to take the 1112 class. If you’re really confident though, most of the 1112 concepts will be heavily covered in the Dynamics class later on.</p>

<p>Project teams are quite competitive. It’s a great resource and has lots of administrative/faculty support so plenty of students try for them. Some project teams are friendlier to freshmen than others and I’m not sure which ones are most welcoming to freshmen anymore. In my years CUAUV (the underwater one) actively encouraged freshmen to apply, while most other teams did not emphasize that. There are quite a few you can join, and there should be an Engineering Project Team Fair, as well as recruiting happening at ClubFest. All the teams have interview processes so it’s definitely not a 100% guarantee in. Aside from the usual personality questions most of the teams have somewhat of a technical interview as well to see how familiar you are with that particular field (electric car team: how does an engine work? Getting this type of question right really helps). I think some of them had short design questions too like “why are manhole covers round” (the point was to see how you communicate, not what the right answer was)</p>

<p>Not much I can really say to help you get into one since I don’t know you and I’m not sure what the teams are looking for this year. Just look for those two events and/or posters around the engineering quad, and sit in on their info sessions and they’ll let you know what they’re looking for, or at least you can ask. Update your resume etc. In general if you’ve had previous design experience, or hands-on building experience, it would be an advantage. If you have relevant exp. in the field already, it would be an advantage (ex. CUAIR/DesignBuildFly had a few actual pilots on the team, FSAE had people who built their own vehicles). For those individuals who had pretty much nothing relevant prior to the teams, I think showing your passion for the field/willingness to commit to something was the best thing you can do.</p>

<p>Research is pretty random for freshmen. To do research you pretty much look up faculty/lab postings (there are posters and websites everywhere) and see what interests you. Then you cold email the professor expressing your interest and see where it goes (some of the postings might be asking for minions to join the lab) or walk into their office hours. Freshmen getting a positive response like this is rarer than sophmore/junior requests for sure but it really depends on you and the professor. Aside from freshmen , I have not met a student who was really interested in doing research and got nothing. Just keep in mind these PhD’s and profs are really busy so being succinct and polite in emails is a plus. Typical response times would be ~1 week. I would not recommend prompting a response before 1 week. </p>

<p>That’s surprising. For some odd reason, I assumed that winter recess would have the same duration as your typical summer recess. I guess I was way off. But I plan to be either an Electrical Engineer with a focus on software or a Software engineer so I will probably skip Physics 1112. Can I ask what class you are talking about for the one which focuses on Dynamics? Is it Physics 3: Waves and Thermodynamics? Either way, I had a very instructive teacher for Physics B so my understanding of classical mechanics and thermodynamics are quite good. I’ll just have to learn the new topics like rotational mechanics as well as the new notation. Thanks for the help, especially the information about freshmen opportunities, this is ramping up to be one hell-of a year.</p>

<p>For Mechanical Engineers, there is a class titled “Dynamics”, independent of the 3 physics classes. Probably irrelevant to you.
Sounds like you’ll be doing ECE in which case skipping 1112 would be advantageous to you since you don’t really need to go into it that deeply later on. More time for upper level classes/extracurriculars later.</p>

<p>I’m not familiar at all on how you can apply AP credit and/or write a placement test to skip 1112. My suggestion here would be to look that up now since I recall the placement tests being written within the first few days in the fall semester or something like that. Or maybe that was only for math… Again, I’m really fuzzy on the details here but it would suck for you to self-study and miss the chance to actually skip the class. </p>

<p>Also, I see that you’ve selected a specific FWS. Are they still doing the lottery thing? In my year there was a portal where you selected your preferred FWS choices and then magic randomness happens and everyone is assigned an FWS class. Just a heads up in case that this is still how it happens since your 2nd/etc choice might conflict with other classes or give you a really crappy schedule.</p>

<p>If I recall correctly, Physics 1112 can be skipped with either a 4 or 5 on Physics C: Mechanics and Heat or a 5 on Physics B as well as participation in a Calculus class. Luckily, I fulfill the latter option. </p>

<p>About the FWS, they are still doing the lottery draw in terms of what class you will get but because there are so many options, you can choose classes that all fall in the same time slot. I’m 50% sure that I am in Greek Mythology because it showed up in my student center.</p>

<p>You don’t need to know anything about sequences for 1920, polar does help, but it’s nothing you can’t pick up quickly. In your situation I would get rid of either physics 1112 or chem 2090. If you’re not a chem engineer then save chem 2090 for next semester. Also…if you’re motivated enough you can self-study for a placement exam just to place out of chem 2090 any time before you have to actually graduate. I’d say it’d be a good week in terms of time investment, but much less time consuming than actually taking the class. </p>

<p>Edit: just skimmed through the rest, you have credit for 1112, then yeah take it. So you can take chemistry as a lone science. That will make life easier for you, even though 1112 shouldn’t be hard, problem sets might be time consuming. </p>