college classes confusion

<p>ok so today i registered for my first semester of college classes, but im kind of confused on why im taking these classes, the advisor told me i needed to take them before i can take classes in my major, and i would also need to take a couple of the colleges general education classes, so here are the classes she gave me, also keep in mind my major is chemistry, or pharmaceutical chemistry, or chemical engineering.</p>

<p>math 119, which is algebra (COMP ALGEBRA SYSTEM)
math 120, pre cal (PRECALCULUS) </p>

<p>anthropology 101 (INTRO CULT ANTHRO)
history 100 (MOD WRLD SINCE 1815) </p>

<p>english 125 (INTRO COLLEGE WRTNG)</p>

<p>the stuff in parenthesis is how its written on the program website</p>

<p>these are the only 5 classes she gave me and they add up to 15 credits for the semester</p>

<p>i dont have a single chemistry class and it kind of feels like im wasting my money paying for regular classes, someone please explain to me if this is right or if she made a mistake or if this is just how it has to go</p>

<p>sorry she didnt really do a great job of explaining, please help</p>

<p>Well if you haven’t taken that level of math yet, then you might not be able to take the intro level Chem. </p>

<p>If the math isn’t a prerequisite, then they might just be advising that you get the general requirements done first, and you probably don’t have to go with what they said exactly. You can probably ask another advisor or student for more accurate information regarding if you have to take only breadth classes before your major. </p>

<p>I agree that it would make more sense to take a Chem course, than to only take breadth, so I would check what the policies at your particular college are.</p>

<p>Schools have a University Core Curriculum that everyone has to fulfill (things like intro english, history, poli sci, math, art, etc.). Then each individual College has another set of extra courses that all majors within its departments must take in addition to the core classes. Most times you can take the College-specific courses mixed with major-related courses. However, advisors tend to prefer for students to finish all the core (except maybe the art and humanities requirements) courses before they get into the major courses. </p>

<p>Math, english and history are predictable, but anthro seems a little strange unless your advisor wants you to finish your humanities requirement this semester. You probably need the maths as pre-reqs to chemistry so your advisor scheduled your humanity courses in order to get you to 15hrs. Two maths concurrently is also a little strange.</p>

<p>It’s not unusual for chemistry classes to have math prerequistes, so maybe you aren’t allowed to take any chemistry until you take those math classes. What math did you take in high school? Do you have any AP credits? Chemistry involves a lot of math, so they want to make sure that students understand math well before they apply it to chemistry.</p>

<p>I’ll echo rattler about the general education classes: most, if not all colleges have basic classes that everyone must take, even if they have nothing to do with your major. These gen-ed requirements often include, among other things, history and writing. So that is probably why you have to take those courses. It may seem like you’re “wasting your money” taking classes that have nothing to do with your major, but everyone has to do it. You should start taking classes for your major soon enough, don’t worry.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>well i got a ged because i dropped out, but i have very good scores on sat, 2150 and 2200 second time, and i got 98% on the college assessment test, that this college gave me before accepting me, so i dont understand why im taking so many of these classes, i know they have core requirements like enligh, history… but they are mixed in with at least 1 class from your major, and also, all these classes i have right now are from my colleges list of core requirements, other then the 2 maths, and she told me i needed to take math 120 to take chem classes, and that to take math 120 i gotta take 119</p>

<p>She’s right, you need to take the math classes before you take the chem classes. That’s just how it is.</p>

<p>Odd that your school lets you take Algebra and Pre-Calc at the same time. Usually College Algebra is a pre-req for Pre-Calc.</p>

<p>Usually they let you take College Trigonometry and Pre Calculus together, but I don’t think it’s wise to take Pre Calc and Algebra together. </p>

<p>Of course if you are good at math most schools have a math placement test, and you can test out of Algebra, Trig, Pre-Calc, etc.</p>