I’m going to U of M next year! Yay! But my biggest worry is due to the supposed difficulty of the freshman engineering chem course… and… the indisputable fact that my high school chem experience was profoundly – perhaps beyond – pathetic.
What should I do? Nothing? Would I be alright as a freshman (in the wildly time-consuming marching band) who basically doesn’t know what chemistry is? Perhaps I should save up for a community college course over the summer? Would that be a waste of time in the summer of my senior year? Should I study chem on my own? Can I attain the preparation my peers from non-hood-schools will have?
I have friends from my school who are at U of M and had similarly dismal high school chem experiences, and as engineering students they placed in the bottom 5-10% of all university freshman (probably? Maybe it was just engineers but I’m pretty sure it was all freshman) for the chem placement exams.
Taking a summer class is a good idea. You do get a good grade, you can transfer the credit. If not, just forget about it and take it again at UMich and will have some background already. The Organic Chem 1 & 2 would be much more difficult.