<p>How hard is the chemistry major here at Cornell? I'm currently a bio major (but I guess not officially) and I'm taking intro bio, gen chem, french, and FWS. I'm not really enjoying bio like I thought I would, but I'm absolutely loving chemistry. Like, I do the homework the day it comes out, enjoy figuring it out on my own before the professor even lecture about it, and get good grades on everything. </p>
<p>So I'm kind of debating whether I wanna switch to chemistry as my major or not... </p>
<p>I really like calculus (and math in general) but there's not much of that in biology, but lots of it in Chemistry. </p>
<p>If anyone here is (or knows) a chem major, what's it like? Would it be substantially harder than bio? Just trying to get a feel for everything and see where I may be going.</p>
<p>I am a bio and soc major and seem to be enjoying my chem course more than my bio course. However, I had the same feeling back in high school, but once my hs chem course got harder, i started to lean towards bio. </p>
<p>My advice to you is to wait it out a little bit and see how the first year goes. As the content gets harder, you may find yourself liking the higher level bio stuff more than the higher level chem.</p>
<p>I get what you’re saying. The reason I’m fairly certain I’ll switch to chem is because although I didn’t like it in high school, it’s because I didn’t like the analytical/critical thinking it requires. I was more of a know facts and stuff. Then I took calculus and loved it because it was more of a you’re taught a concept and then you have to figure out how to apply it to solve a problem. </p>
<p>I guess I just feel like chemistry is more applied science than biology is. I like the whole problem solving aspect of it, and the fact that it’s got a lot of math involved, something biology has little to none of. I was almost a math major… Haha.</p>
<p>I guess I’ll wait it out and see. What I decide determines whether I go and take Cal 2 next semester, or evolution.</p>
<p>The problem solving and mathematical aspects are also found in a physics major. Have you thought about that? It sounds like either would fit your interests as you’ve describe them.</p>
<p>See how you feel about chem lab. There is a difficult lab sequence for chem majors, which is definitely harder than intro to chem lab, but if you really enjoy lab time, then I would say go for it. If you really hate lab then I would continue to rethink.</p>
<p>Also, do you like the class now because you know all of the answers because you’ve taken chemistry before? Or do you actually like learning and applying the material?</p>
<p>I’m enjoying the lab right now for sure. I also do enjoy the lab setting, I spent 7 months doing bench research and never got bored, so I certainly work well in the lab setting.</p>
<p>And it’s not that I know the answers, I do like learning it. Sure I know a lot of stuff, but I never learned redox reactions in high school, which is what we’re doing now. Spent the time to learn it on my own and I just like that kind of stuff. It’s logical and makes sense. So while I do know a good amount of chemistry, it’s certainly not as in depth as what we’re doing here, I’d say I just have a good foundation. </p>
<p>I guess I’ve always been a person that wants to know “why” things happen the way they do. I also like problem solving and math type stuff. Bio just lacks those things, whereas chemistry seems to have a lot of it. I prefer to learn a concept and then apply it to solve physical problems, like in calculus. It’s essentially the problem solving, math, and science combined that interests me, which AFAIK leaves chem and physics. But I’m not a huge fan of physics anyway.</p>
<p>P chem is the class I’m scared of. But there are bio classes I’m not at all looking forward to either… Like anything related to plants or ecology. haha</p>
<p>But my plan is to take it senior year and hopefully have all my med school stuff done ASAP so maybe I can dodge them seeing my grade in that class. haha</p>
<p>a) You won’t know if you need to take a year off. Around 30-50% of med school applicants take at least one year off. If you take any time off, they’ll see the p-chem grades.</p>
<p>b) Even if you don’t take a year off, you’ll need to send update letters during the application cycle, especially your senior year grades. Of course, you’re under no obligation to do so but most applicants will send their grades anyway in order to increase their chances of getting off a waitlist. And you will inevitable get on waitlists because med schools rarely reject post-interview. I interviewed at approx. 12 schools, accepted at 5, waitlisted at all the rest (so around 7-8 waitlists).</p>
<p>I guess I also should’ve mentioned it’s the only time I can take it, haha. Likely going abroad fall of junior year, so kinda only leaves senior year to take it.</p>
<p>I guess I’ll have to take it anyway, so it won’t really matter when.</p>
<p>Question: Why do chem majors have to take honors p-chem?</p>
<p>Honors is for chemistry and chemical engineering majors. They go into more depth and focus on different things than non-honors like a big focus on quantum mechanics</p>
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