Hey guys,
So I received the invitation to take s117. Could someone tell me the pros and cons of both classes for my future goals (med school)? I am really conflicted to as what to do because both have their perks and, it’s just a really difficult situation.
thanks
I think in regular chemistry you wash your own beakers but in the honors the lab assistants do it 
Seriously, I’ve pondered with the very question. It seems the best way is to look at the omnipotent grade distribution database and compare class sizes, profs, and grades. The honors course will likely be smaller and be taught full time by a prof, and attract higher caliber students. Whether that translates into better grades and why… That’s tougher. I would be reluctant to take an important class as honors only because it could be that everyone else that shows up is a chemistry genius and I can barely spell ‘molecule’. Back when I was in college I had a friend taking honors math courses and her tests were more red than black ink. She still got A’s tho.
yes. the interesting thing is the grade distribution. it truly is eye-opening. about 25-30 percent of people get A’s in c117, but in s117, 65 percent get A’s. I wish they gave us a demographic, how many are chem majors, how many are pre meds, how many had ap chem in high school, etc. the problem is that i didnt do ap chem in high school, but scored well on the placement test
@turbo93 ^^^
Here’s the thing. I don’t think S117 makes you any more prepared to take C341. I know kids that were Wells scholars and took S117 and then struggled to get a B in orgo (although C117/S117 and C341 aren’t all that similar). You also have to realize that grade distributions for honors classes are skewed. A 70% was considered an A+ in S117 according to one girl who took it compared to a 97% being an A+ in C117. Like turbo said expect a lot of red on your exams. Also, you do have to know some calculus for the class (S117). The discussion session the first week of the semester in S117 was a review of some things you would have learned from AP calculus. We went over basic integration and derivatives. If you don’t have much experience with physics then the first 8 weeks of S117 may be hard for you. The professor discussed somethings that I had learned in AP Physics C.
C117 isn’t really all that hard to get an A/A+ in and Professor Robinson offers extra credit. From the people I talked to, S117 was a pretty large time commitment which was one of the reasons why I dropped it because I had 20 credit hours that semester and didn’t really have that much extra time. Both of the professors that teach S117, also do research and have fairly thick accents. I’m not sure if Professor Robinson also does research or not. I did not have her for C117, but some of my friends did and loved her.
And I wouldn’t look too deeply into grade distributions and ratemyprofessor. I had some teachers my freshman year that I only chose because of their grade distributions and wished I chose the more difficult teachers because I probably would have learned more.