<p>D has a 4 on AP Bio from Jr year and wants to take BIO 121 instead of BIO 101 in the fall of freshman year. Anyone here have any insight how much more difficult the BIO 121 class is? Is it a GPA buster? She may apply to med school which is the only reason i am concerned about GPA. She could have easily got a 5 on the AP (she got a A in the class) but she had too many EC commitments the week of her APs and didn't study for the AP exam at all.</p>
<p>Thanks much.</p>
<p>I have friends who did well in AP bio and still took 101. I’d say one big challenge with 121 will be the competition. Instead of having a healthy number of freshmen bio majors, it has a large number of sophomore Bioengineering majors. Your daughter should try out the class during the first few lectures and see if it’s too fast for her. It’s a great option if she’s really serious about biology and would want to take upper levels second semester freshman year. However, for a premed and most bio majors it’s not necessary.</p>
<p>Venkat, could you share any intelligence on Biol 202 or 221? Thanks.</p>
<p>Sorry, but I don’t know much about those two classes.</p>
<p>Thanks for quick response, Mr. V :)</p>
<p>Thanks Venkat. D will not be a Bio major, so 101 looks better rather than risking the GPA. All of her high school classes were Honors or AP/IB and she felt she will be going backward by taking 101. I don’t know if her logic is right about this, 101 may still be hard compared to a high school AP Bio class. </p>
<p>When you drop and add a class, and you missed a quiz or test, how do you make it up? When is the last day to add a class?</p>
<p>Thanks for such a prompt response!</p>
<p>Depending on your daughter’s high school, Bio 101 could be a step back. For most high schools though, I would say Bio 101 should be a little more difficult than an AP Bio class. She should try it out and maybe talk to an advisor or other students who went to her high school and are now at Penn to get an idea of the differences in difficulty.</p>
<p>Playing with Add/Drop in Bio 101/121 is a bit tougher than the avereage class because there are labs every week. You probably need to make a decision early into the semester before you miss too many labs. For making up assignments it varies from professor to professor.</p>
<p>[Academic</a> Calendar Fall 2008 through Summer 2011](<a href=“http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/3yearcal.html]Academic”>University of Pennsylvania Academic Calendar | University of Pennsylvania Almanac)
The calendar has all of the important dates.</p>