@ilovemath987 Thank you for taking questions! I will be a Freshman engineer this fall. Im an OOS student from Indiana and I was able to win one of the Nelson Scholarships for Petroleum Engineering. Now I must keep a 3.0 or above to continue receiving the scholly all four years. I would like to graduate in 4 years because I would have to pay OOS tuition for my fifth year and I’d like to avoid that. Because of an AP score I tested out of Freshman English. I’m looking to take these classes this fall:
Math 151
Phys 218
Engr 111 (Foundations in Eng)
Pols 207 (State and Local Gov)
Hist 226 (History of Texas)
Eng Hnrs seminar (1 Credit Hr)
Total: 17 hours
Will this schedule allow me to keep a 3.0 and on track to graduate in 4 years or should I drop a Core Cirriculum elective (Pols/Hist) and only take 14 hours?
Any other tips would be much appreciated and valued!
Looks good to me. It’ll keep you on track and you should be able to stay above a 3.0 without dropping anything. The 3.0 is really up to you but it’s definitely manageable.
In my opinion, with the right mindset, it shouln’t be too hard to get the GPA you want. I graduated highs school in the 33% of my class, yet I managed my time properly and pulled of a 4.00 cumulative for my entire first year of engineering here, now starting my sophmore year in Mechanical engienering. I think people go in with expectations much higher than it really is. It’s really not that bad if you plan for every test and make sure you understand all the material. Never procrasinate!
First off, congrats! I think that schedule looks very doable. If you are concerned about making sure you get out in 4 years then taking the history and government classes at a local CC over the summers is also an option if you dont want to spend the time of them and or dont care about them boosting your gpa. Just spend most of your time on physics and engr 111 and you should be fine.
@zwardeh Congratulations on achieving a 4.0. I will strive to emulate that! Did you take Phys 218, Math 151, or Engr 111 and if so, what can you tell me about how to navigate those classes?
I’ve heard that Phys 218 is treacherous.
@micgeaux The Nelson Scholarship is for 4 years (as long as I continue pursuing Petroleum Eng) and it is $3000/ year. It also allows out of state students like myself to pay in-state tuition. The OOS tuition waiver is a little over $20k/year in value. In total the value for my situation is about $23k/year.
I would push chem back to the spring and consider holding off on the 270 course until the following semester. The 1st year is really critical so that you can get into a major. Even though the 270 course is only 1 hour, often times its still a lot of work and time consuming.
I took 18 hours of upperlevel engr course last year with 2 of them having labs and it was a mistake. All of the exams usually ended up being within a week of each other and it was like damage control just trying to pass all of the exams. I try to plan out my schedules where I have about 2 harder classes, 2-3 average classes with labs and 1-2 classes that are on the easier end to help stabilize my gpa. I know though that some semesters you have to take certain classes but in an ideal world this is what I like.
The physics classes are rough because they are weed out classes, maths aren’t too bad because so many people do usually do worse than you will and the intro to engr classes just require a ton of time and stress.
@Ptownrunner Math 151 and 152 are both not that bad. All past exams are available and the tests are the very similar to old ones. Past exams are your best friends. Engr 111 highly depends on preofessor. Take Lara ruiz if you are looking for a laid back professor. Physics 218 is hell. I managed to pull off an A after spending atleast 3-4 hours on physics on school days. Make study groups and practice a lot. Do all the in chapter problems, and also do many book problems at the end of the chapters. Most importantly, never cheat your homework. Even for math, they mirror test questions. Dont get worried if physics takes up 60-70% of your time.
Ok, I get not taking EPICS freshman year now, but I’m still concerned about Chem.
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I hear PHYS 218 is easier then PHYS 208. So doesn’t that mean it would be easier to manage taking Chem 107 with the easier of the 2 physics, so I can have more time to study for PHYS 208?
That schedule looks great. Though I’m not sure about KINE 199. You may have a hard time getting what you want for that class since they fill up pretty fast. Even without KINE it’s still a pretty ideal looking schedule for a freshman though.
@lessonwitch2 Chem 107 is hard. If you have prior experience with AP Physics take 218 in fall and take Chem 107 in the spring. If not take 218 in the spring and 107 in the fall. Take Physics 208 over the summer at a community college. Lots of people do that and it tends to be easier than at A&M. The rest of your schedule looks fine.
People on this forum always make 218 and 107 out to be some monster. They’re really not that bad. You’ll be taking harder classes once you get to upper level, so 218 and 107 should not be an issue in the same semester.
@AuntieMame You don’t need to have prior programming experience for ENGR 111, but they “teach” you (i.e. you self learn) MATLAB and Labview in the course
@ilovemath987, are you familiar with IB credit? It looks like my son will earn credit for a good portion of the UCC courses from taking IB, have you heard of this? Our NSC is 6/30 so we will find out soon enough but I was just wondering.
I’m not ilovemath987, but we attended NSC was a few weeks ago. I recall that IB was lumped in with AP a great deal. It seems they are treated the same. Your son can go into Howdy, My Record, then look in the middle column, “Grades and Transcripts” to see what has been credited. It might be under “Unofficial Transcript”; not sure for IB.
@AuntieMame, thank you! We will have a look. We do not get the score from the IB exams until July 6 so I’m not sure what information will be under My Record for us but I’ll certainly have a look.