Hi, I’m a high school student who is planning to take some challenging classes at UW-Madison. I just finished AP Calculus and AP Chemistry at school and got 5’s on both of the AP exams. Now along with other senior classes, I am allowed to take either Chemistry 109 or Math 234 at UW madison. Which one would you recommend me to take?
BTW, I am thinking Chemical Engineering as my future major.
You can’t take both? If there is a schedule conflict could you take Chem 115 instead of 109? You will need a lot of chemistry for Chem E, plus math. Something to discuss with your SOAR advisor.
^^This is a local Madison high school senior who plans to take one class at UW this fall since his high school doesn’t offer math or science beyond the AP courses he took during his junior year of high school.
Horse a piece. Which one do you want to take?
http://www.engr.wisc.edu/cmsdocuments/cbe-undergraduate-handbook.pdf
I’d suggest looking at this and deciding if taking chemistry or math will benefit you with sequences required. If it were me, I would take chemistry as there are more chemistry courses required for that major that you will need to take once you get to Madison that you haven’t already satisfied vs. math courses so you should get a head start.
Take Chem 109 this fall and Math 234 in Spring because Chemisty 109 is only offered in fall semesters.
Regarding Chem 109 - one of the 3 lectures is honors. Just FYI. All of the Chem 109 lecture sections are accelerated. About 30% of students in Chem 109 earn an A.
Remember the lab hours involved with chemistry. Will it fit with your other HS classes? Even if you can walk to campus it may be easier to just have the lectures and not all of the lab and discussion hours along with your HS classes. Plenty of time once you are officially a college student to do all the necessary chemistry. Also, if you choose a college other than UW, it may be easier to do the entire chemistry sequence at the same institution so you will have the same background as the other students. If you do end up choosing UW be sure to live on campus instead of commuting so you do not miss out on the after hours life. A friend walked to campus and missed all of our late night casual getting together- we were serious chemistry majors. I stayed on campus instead of commuting from a suburb. Even with a car you would miss out on last minute hanging out with peers.
Thank you, everyone. I didn’t expect this many comments on my wall.
If you’re wondering, I’m just taking Chem 109H. 
Hope you’re enjoying it- UW has a fantastic Chemistry department (also likewise in math). Thanks for the update.