Course Placement

Colleges and Universities A-Z Williams College
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<p>My daugther is a frosh. She was very concerned about the rigorness of courses at Williams.</p>

<p>She is planning on going to Med School so she planned ahead. She looked at the Williams Pre-med suggested course list <a href="http://www.williams.edu/go/careers/downloads/prehealth/course_selection.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.williams.edu/go/careers/downloads/prehealth/course_selection.pdf&lt;/a> and started to plan ahead</p>

<p>The courses are listed below</p>

<p>Requirements
The admission requirements of most medical schools are satisfied by the following Williams College
courses:
BIOL 101, 102 The Cell, The Organism
CHEM 151 (or 153 or 155), 156 Concepts of Chemistry, Introductory Organic Chemistry
CHEM 251 (or 255), 256 Intermediate Organic Chemistry, Foundations of Physical and
Inorganic Chemistry
PHYS 131, 132 Particles and Waves, Electromagnetism and the Physics of
Matter
OFFICE OF CAREER COUNSELING HEALTH PROFESSIONS OFFICE
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ENGL 1XX, XXX Courses with an emphasis on literature and composition; many
schools require two such courses; others permit other writing
intensive courses as substitutes (Note: These must be
designated at Williams with a 'W'.).
MATH 10X, XXX Calculus and another math or statistics course</p>

<p>She got 5 on AP Biology. This meant that she was qualified to take the placement test to take place out of Biology 101. She deliberately didn't take the test. Was this a good decision?</p>

<p>She got 3 on AP Calculus BC. This meant that she is supposed to take MATH 106. This is a where there is a problem. She didn't feel comfortable to take MATH 106 and wanted to drop back to MATH 104. Unfortunately she couldn't. She was told to take MATH 106 and "see how she does".</p>

<p>How much weight do AP scores and placement tests place in course selection?</p>

2

<p>How tough is CHEM 155? Is it a lot tougher than CHEM 153?</p>

3

<p>Chem 151 and 153 are similar to AP Chemistry, with 153 being the more advanced and smaller class. Chem 155 is very different from 151 and 153, and it involves more complex concepts, though the tests and problem sets are not hard. Chem 155 is basically a slightly harder version of Chem 256, which people taking Chem 151 or 153 have to take after orgo.</p>

<p>If your daughter took AP calc bc, she’ll have a very easy time in 104, and will probably be bored. 106 will be more of a challenge, but it is by no means impossible.</p>