Any tips for incoming freshman at Amherst?

kid will be starting in the Fall. Pre-health (bio?) tilt but could change. School website says don’t take two lab classes first semester and not more than two STEM classes. So looking at required FY class and Chemistry as 2 classes. Considering psych or sociology or spanish or stats for the other 2. Any knowledge of these intro courses? (AP spanish and AP stats in HS but no exposure to the other classes)

I saw that they just started to increase the weighting of some bio and chem classes with labs to count as a 1.5 course. I really don’t understand in practice what that will mean? talking about this
https://amherststudent.com/article/science-labs-to-count-as-half-courses

Any particular tips in general for Amherst for a new student? As an example (not relevant to Amherst), at large state schools where summer school is not uncommon, kids that take a hard class in the summer (e.g. Organic chemistry for pre-meds or statics for engineers) and take a slightly lower Unit load the rest of the semesters do much better than those who max out and don’t target a weeder class for summer. I realize Amherst students typically take 4 classes each semester and there’s no summer school there.

Any thoughts from you or your kids?

Hi! D is about to graduate. Agree that 2 labs at once is rough, but maybe necessary at some point. D did it one semester and it nearly killed her but she made it. Not sure how the new lab policy will work, it wasn’t in place for her - if it had been, taking two at once wouldn’t have been so bad, I think.

If she is pre med she should make sure to schedule a meeting with Dr. Aronson asap. Orientation might even have one.

FY anything is writing intensive. The other two could be Calc, Stats? Honestly whatever she is interested in plus ticking some premed boxes is helpful. No need to declare a major until end of soph year and as you know, no gen eds, so I’d advise her to follow her interests.

D took Spanish first semester, found it very easy but ymmv on the level chosen. \chem on the other hand she found very hard, even though she had AP in HS. \less memorizing, more conceptual thinking.

If she wants to try to get summer research SURF at Amherst) have her look over the pre-reqs for various positions. \some require an advanced science/math/whatever course be taken.

@OHMomof2 thanks. did D continue with Spanish beyond first semester? any generalities on how time consuming that is? Anything heard about statistics?

I’ll pm you

Go to office hours. They are a wonderful opportunity to obtain additional help, as well as connect with professors as human beings. My daughter found this time to be helpful. I know that several of those conversations gave her added confidence and in one case she mentioned being given a book that the professor thought she would enjoy.

My girl also took Spanish this year. She is taking it again next year with the same professor. The class required outside activities as a substantial part of their grade, which for a kid who puts things off made it more demanding, but she still got an A.