<p>With a schedule like this 1st semester:
Biology 1101 (w/ lab)
French 2090
Chem 2070 (w/ lab)
Math 1120
FWS</p>
<p>I don’t know, are you? It all depends on you.</p>
<p>As a bio major (I assume) you may end up wanting to drop one of those courses to adjust to the lab courses. I would definitely keep Bio w/lab, chem w/lab… These labs are 3 hours in addition to MWF bio classes, and TR chem classes (really 6 hours of class time).</p>
<p>I took FWS, MATH, BIO, CHEM my first semester (as CALS bio I did not have a language requirement). </p>
<p>Many kids start with one extra class, and keep it if they can handle the work load, or drop it if they cannot. I always signed up for one more class than I needed every semester, and I would usually drop the one that conflicted the most with other finals. </p>
<p>You have plenty of time to fulfill core requirements, so don’t feel like you need Math or language right away. </p>
<p>If you are premed, keep in mind that you will have Biochem and Orgo starting sophomore year, so talk to an advisor or other science majors in CAS when you get to campus to help set a map for your four years of when you should take the core requirements. I found that to be helpful.</p>
<p>Please don’t. And if you do, make sure you are not messy about it.</p>
<p>Grr pre-frosh…</p>
<p>Trust me, nothing you’ll take now is going to be harder than the ones you’ll take in the future.</p>
<p>jcas323: Thanks so far for the advice </p>
<p>Just curious, which math course did you take and how long did you spend a week on doing problem sets etc. for it?</p>
<p>if you’re worried i might put the french209 on hold…and take a french related FWS…</p>
<p>Any language will take up a lot of your time. But at first glance, your first semester schedule doesn’t seem like something that would drive most people to kill themselves.</p>
<p>i think its over for a freshman. bio lab is time consuming</p>
<p>yes fren209 is writing intensive…so it’d be like taking two FWS IMO</p>
<p>definitetly drop one of them - probably the language</p>
<p>Hrmph, I’m just worried that I’ll forget some french by sophomore year…</p>
<p>Are you serious? I was really hoping to take French or something while I’m at Cornell. Can it be managed while still under the MechE workload?</p>
<p>"Hrmph, I’m just worried that I’ll forget some french by sophomore year… "
I was in the same situation and was going to take fren 2090 in fall of freshman year but decided not to. I’m taking it this fall as a sophomore but i dont feel like i’ve really forgotten anything.</p>
<p>i say 19 credits is too much and would recommend postponing french.</p>
<p>keep the classes for now and see if you can manage, but I would postpone french… FWS are generally easy to get good grades in, but you may have a weekly writing assignment of 2 pages plus reading a novel per week and 4 papers. And then you will likely have a lab write up for chem every week, and problem sets for chem and math throughout the semester, plus problems for math. </p>
<p>Those intro math and science courses have a lot of work that doesnt take a ton of time individually, but can certainly add up. </p>
<p>French will meet every day and some languages have assignments due every class. </p>
<p>In general 5 classes is not a lot because the majority of classes do not have assignments due each class period, but rather are graded based on 3 exams or papers. but the classes you have listed all have work due weekly that count toward the grade, and are more intensive on a weekly basis. I think the math, fws and science classes are most important to complete early on to make sure you are on track to fulfill bio requirements, whereas french can wait until sophomore year.</p>
<p>I took Calc 1 first semester and Statistics second semester.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks for the info!</p>
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<p>It would take quite a bit of dedication, but I’m sure it’s possible. A lot of engineers do crazy things like get involved in project teams or take lots of unnecessary (but meaningful) classes. I had to make a similar decision for my fall sophomore semester. I elected to stick with just MechE classes and a different liberal arts course, and I’m sort of glad I did.</p>
<p>Haha jcas, that’s exactly the schedule I have.</p>
<p>OP I was gonna have the same schedule as you, but decided to leave the language for later on. I don’t wanna overload myself.</p>
<p>I might note that I had AP credit for Calc AB, Chem and Bio going in, but decided to retake the courses (the science courses were still difficult, math was easy). If you are applying to medical school (which I did not, so I regret not using AP credit!), the medical school advisors suggest you retake those three classes so that admissions committees can evaluate your grades. </p>
<p>I started off taking Calc 2, but realized that it is pretty tough, and in terms of medical school, you only need two math classes. I thought I would get a better grade retaking Calc 1 and taking statistics as my second math class. Even if you have passed BC, it doesnt matter if you retake calc to get a good grade, you just may be bored if you aren’t learning new material.</p>
<p>Personally, I’d stick with 5 courses. I wish someone had advised me to take more courses as I was starting (maybe even up to 6).</p>