<p>My daughter plans to be a chemistry major and eventually either a research or Medical doctor. </p>
<p>She has lots of other options and we're hopeful that she'll be accepted at RPI. She very much enjoyed her visit and she has Excellent scores, grades, etc., etc.</p>
<p>Does anyone know anything about the chemistry program...are the classes small, are their research opportunities for undergrads, do the students get to really know their professors?</p>
<p>When I visited RPI, I was told the intro class to chemistry you would take in your freshman year is huge (over a hundred people?). I'd try to test out of if I were her.</p>
<p>I'm not a student, I will be in the fall.</p>
<p>Thanks JoshuaGuit -- She will place out of chemistry, biology and calculus with AP credits. (She'll have 8 AP courses done by the end of the year.) Did they say anything about the class size of non-intro courses?</p>
<p>The web site implies small classes & lots of research opportunity:
RPI</a> Chemistry & Chemical Biology: Undergraduate Education</p>
<p>My daughter is a freshman at RPI this year. Her Chemistry class (and the other entry science classes) work something like this. The actual lectures are BIG- like the 100 plus students. They meet maybe 2 x week. Then they have what they call a recitation class that meets once or twice a week. That is a small group- 20 or 30 kids - they meet with a TA (teaching assistant). According to my daughter she's had some TA's that she learns from better than the Professors so it's not such a bad thing. Then once a week they a really long lab - another small group but the labs can be 2 or 3 hours long.</p>
<p>Does that help some? Now that my daughter is almost done with her 1st year I'm sort of understanding it now. :)
kgrmom</p>
<p>Thanks! That does help...and I'll bet the classes get smaller and smaller.</p>
<p>Exactly- since so many students are required to take the entry level science classes they end up filled will a lot of kids that don’t particularly “want” to be in there.</p>
<p>It definitely improves.</p>
<p>oh and if your daughter plans on being an md doctor, i would advise her not to just test out of the intro to chem courses since a lot of med schools don’t like that (i.e. the reason why i took chem I and II even though I could’ve just tested out :p)</p>
<p>Aikomidori: Compared to your AP Chem class in high school, how much more difficult is RPI’s curriculum? Was the chem class considered difficult at your high school?</p>
<p>well I got a 5 on the AP chem exam 
but I know other people who have gotten 5s too but they didn’t get an A in chem I like I did 
so I think the chemistry at RPI is harder since the grading is just ridiculous</p>
<p>aikomidori – How about biology did you start with freshman biology? My daughter had a 5 in AP Bio, is currently taking AP Chem in High school but already has 4 credits from a summer college course. Did you at least accept AP Bio credits?</p>
<p>I am glad to hear someone else comment about the grading. The grading is VERY hard at RPI. Insanely hard! My daughter has a classmate that overestimated completely because of the A/P credits he came in with and he just about failed out of the first semester. She had a 4 on the A/P Chem Exam and ended up with a B in Chem at RPI. And Chem is a strong subject for her. (She has a lot test anxiety for those standardized tests so she doesn’t tend to test well).</p>
<p>no I didn’t take AP bio since i found out that medical schools really don’t advice it or look favorably on it but the intro to bio course here is really not worth it…the tests are hard but the course itself is useless since it teaches you nothing…I think last semester when i took it me + 4 other people out of a class of 98 students got an A :eek: so the grading is ridiculous…for a really worthless class :(</p>
<p>Really using those college credits, adviceplease, for subjects outside of her major should be useful for her…before i joined as a freshman i had 48 credits total (yes right now i am a junior despite really being a freshman 
)…however, i do know some students who have tested out of intro to bio, but they weren’t pre-med students…they were biomed engineering or just biology for research</p>
<p>My daughter is a freshman bio major who took AP and IB bio in HS. 1st semester bio was easy, 2nd semester, cell bio, is a lot harder but she loves it. Chemistry has been her hardest courses but there is a lot of help available (my favorite part of this school). Her experience agrees with Kgrmom’s. She’s working really hard but loves it.</p>
<p>Kgrmom and Krismom - Sounds like our daughters have a lot in common. I am so happen that the decision has been made…it’s RPI for my daughter and she’s very excited…Where do your daughters live. My daughter has to fill out the dorm form and she needs some direction. Should she request Barton or the Freshman hill?</p>
<p>My daughter ended up in Quad and I think she had it listed at least halfway down on her preferences. But- I will say that she has been really happy about for the main reason that it is so close to everything. She is right across from the Union and not more than 5 min. from everything else. The shuttle stop is right out her door. Another plus with Quad- the rooms share a bathroom with one other room (no hallway bathrooms) and they are air conditioned. </p>
<p>Barton is actually part of Freshman Hill. Barton is the newest dorm there. Very hard to get into. Some of the kids refer to it as a “hotel”. Not sure if you maybe you meant to ask about BarH instead? BarH is really far away compared to the rest of them so in the winter- Ugh! But- I hear that the kids that live there really like it. It has its own dining hall and the school does run shuttles all the time so…</p>
<p>Feel free to send a PM if you have any specific questions I might be able to answer. Good Luck- and congratulations to your daughter !</p>
<p>kgrmom</p>
<p>Thanks kgrmom! We put down the deposit but my daughter still needs to complete the dorm form. She was going to request Barton but … I suppose it doesn’t matter that much. She would really like air-conditioning though and it’s good to know that Barton is not the only dorm that has air-conditioning.</p>