<p>"familiar" would be an understatement ;)</p>
<p>But yeah I'm probably gonna send out a few emails.</p>
<p>Awesome, if you can do problems with all of the above and the other common-fodder stuff for intro classes you'd have a very good case for skipping the intro semester.</p>
<p>After reading this thread I think that the gist of what many posters are trying to say is that you might be moving a tad too fast and overestimating your ability.</p>
<p>Now I'm not trying to say you don't know your chemistry - organic chemistry for that matter - but the fact is that you will have a lot of time in college and it doesn't make sense to rush and possibly skip some necessary, pertinent information in the "introductory" organic chemistry courses.</p>
<p>By reading what you said it seems that you did indeed take an introductory organic chemistry course and are possibly quite proficient at the "basic" level. But when you say you've finished Carey's "Organic Chemistry" and have moved on to his "Advance Organic Chemistry" does this mean it was an autodidactic endeavor or did you have assistance from a professor.</p>
<p>While you are most likely very intelligent, (hey you're going to Harvard, right?) and you might have an innate ability for chemistry, it is still impossible to grasp, absorb, and truly develop the best understanding of organic chemistry without the help from a teacher or professor.</p>
<p>Hey, if it was really that easy people would not need to spend 8+ years of higher education studying and mastering chemical theories, concepts, and application.</p>
<p>Why you might be the next Linus Pauling, I still think that at this stage (only coming out of high school) you might not have the best appreciation for how truly difficult chemistry can be. You're only going to be a freshman, take the advise of many of the posters - don't rush it. If you really feel that you are still "a cut above" basic orgo, then take Chem 20 as suggested.</p>
<p>Either way, good luck.</p>
<p>Lol you make it sound like I want to start out at chem 60.</p>
<p>Actually, Chem 60 is generally considered easier than Chem 30, and then Chem 20. It's just a different topic- physical chemistry as opposed to organic chemistry. (You can't judge the difficulty of a course by its number). </p>
<p>It would be completely possible to take Chem 60 your freshman spring term, if you'd either already taken Math 21a or were taken it concurrently. Pay attention to the prerequisites, not to the number.</p>
<p>Isn't physical chemistry supposedly harder than orgo? Meh, oh well</p>
<p>Where did you get that impression? O-chem is generally considered more difficult.</p>
<p>More importantly, there's no good reason to skip Chem 20. If you really think the class will be too easy for you, then great- it'll be an easy class. Skipping it wouldn't put you in any special situation, though.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that if you're pre-med you need to have two semesters of college orgo with lab so skipping twenty could make that difficult to schedule.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Where did you get that impression? O-chem is generally considered more difficult.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>According to the three different Chemistry teachers at my school they all agreed that PChem was harder. One was trained as an organic chemist, the other as a biochemist, and the third was trained as an organic chemist but got a job as a physical chemist. </p>
<p>Granted, they were all non-physical chem majors, but still to have all three of them say PChem was the hardest says something. They all pointed to the fact that there is ALOT of math involved. Maybe if you're really good at math PChem will be easier. </p>
<p>I think it is sort of like comparing apples and oranges, though. Orgo is more spatial and thinking about reactions that happen in 3D. PChem deals more with the physics at the microscopic scale and involves a lot of math. I haven't taken either but that was the gist of what I got when my teacher explained the two courses.</p>
<p>A lot of people in Chem 20 are pretty impressive. One has gold medals at IMO and serves as teaching fellow for physics 153. There are a few who made it to the Chemistry Olympiad summer camp, who are familiar with doing organic reactions in the lab. There is one girl who made it to the Physics Olympiad summer camps twice. There is also a people who have taken orgo before. One guy, who was a silver medalist at the IChO and who had taken the full undergrad chem courseload as a high school student, has chosen to pursue grad level chem courses instead. Chem 20 is a hard class. Very few choose to jump into 30 and follow up with 27 for a full year of orgo.</p>
<p>P-chem at the undergrad level is generally one term of thermodynamics and another term of quantum mechanics. Usually thermodynamics is first. There's no special reason why you can't take it as a 1st semester freshman.</p>
<p>Hate to bump up an old thread, but I was curious: how many people ever take chemistry 201? I just saw the reqs and omg*** it demands an A in chem 30.</p>
<p>oh piccolojunior...you are relentless in your quest to take every chemistry class our freshman year.</p>
<p>;-)</p>
<p>I'm just curious. ;)</p>
<p>Overall though, I don't like how asking about a certain course automatically implies that you want to take it ASAP...</p>
<p>T___T</p>
<p>why can't I take grad lvl qm freshman year?</p>
<p>^do you want to fulfill the gen chem prereq or not lolz (I still haven't gotten a complete answer to how this would work out if starting off on the 17/27 or 20/30 series)</p>
<p>Bump (10char)</p>
<p>I know of one freshman who's taking Chem 30 this semester, another who's auditing it. Whether the OP is one of them, I don't know...but the problem sets look brutal.</p>
<p>HAHAH... oo man shalashaka u should know who the 1 freshman taking it.. it isnt justin the auditing... LOL... the other dude happens to be my good friend lol... what a beast at chem...</p>
<p>^troll...</p>
<p>Anyway, I have a friend who's going to be a freshman next year (deferring to 2013) and he's pretty set on starting out at 206. Some people are just on a whole 'nother level.</p>