Did I mess up my first quarter schedule for UCD?

Hey! I just got back from my orientation and it was crazy. When registering for classes, I was told a million different things about what to do and what classes to take. I’m a wildlife, fish and conservation biology major. I had the opportunity to take CHE 2A because I was the first in line to sign up for classes, but i listened to my orientation leader… mistake… and didn’t sign up for CHE 2A. now I have a religious studies course, a social science course, calculus and intro to wildlife. Can someone help? am I going to be behind if I don’t take Chem first quarter? how does wait listing work?

No, you are fine. 1st quarter you want to take a fairly easy load to acclimate yourself to the campus and the rigor of the quarter system. For you major, you only need to take 2 quarters of Chemistry: CHE 2A and 2B. CHE 2A is a weed out class so all the majors such as Engineering/Biology that have to take 3 quarters of General Chem and will start in the Fall for the series. Starting Winter quarter with CHE 2A will help eliminate some competition and you will not be behind. I also suggest that you take CHE 2A and 2B with Professor Enderle (great professor/organized).

My older son is a ESM major at UCD and made the mistake of taking CHE 2A Fall quarter and really struggled. Also did not have a great professor (not Enderle) and really he wished he had listened to the advisor to wait a quarter.

Good Luck.

Well actually for my major I have to take CHE 2A, 2B, 8A, 8B. does that change your answer…?? or do you still think im fine xD

I still think you are fine. If you take CHE A and CHE B Winter/Spring quarter, then you will be ready for 8A and B for Fall/winter next year.

You’re fine. When sequences become an issue is when there’s either a long string of classes that you need to complete before getting to anything else in your major, or when each class in the sequence is only offered once each year. Neither of those is the case here.

Looking in-depth at your requirements, I see no 100% required classes that require chemistry to take them. Not even CHE 2A. The BIS 2 series seems more important to your major as a whole, being as most require that. And most freshmen don’t start BIS 2A until winter quarter at least anyway, so you’re fine there too.