<p>I copied a couple of threads from the pre med sight to get school specific on this topic. i hope that is OK? What do you think about Tulane as it pertains to these specific questions relating to high GPA for med school?</p>
<p>Hey. Should I use my AP tests in biology, chemistry, and physics to exempt out of intro classes and move to the next level or should I take the intro classes in college? because I heard the intro classes were harder than the upper level classes because the intro classes are weed out classes. I want to go premed and major in biology. Thanks</p>
<p>In general it's better to take the intro classes -- they give out worse grades but usually the upper-level classes are tougher anyway, maybe since they've "weeded" out some kids already. But this varies by school. The best place to ask is around the student body.</p>
<p>If a student really knows the material of the AP course and is trying to earn the highest GPA possible for med school, why shouldn't the student discard all AP's and take all courses for a grade? The student would likely learn even more from the college course too.</p>
<p>It varies greatly from school to school and actually from subject to subject at the same school. You should ask current students at your school and your pre-med adviser. For, example, at D's school the first Bio was incredibly challenging "weed" out and that was very well known. Despite using the same textbook as D. has used in HS, the class covered so much more than her AP Bio, that she did not think that taking next Bio classes would be such a great idea after skipping the first Bio. At the same time her Gen. Chem was incredibly easy (she did not have AP Chem at her HS), so she did not have an option of skipping it. However, it was great that she did not skip it, because it landed her a job as Gen. Chem prof assistant for the next 3 years.
So, you better evaluate at your school. There are no general rules.</p>
<p>while i’ve only taken/am taking calculus I, gen chem I/II, & cell bio/ebio, I’d say hands down that general chemistry is the biggest weed-out, at least at Tulane. it is possible to do fine in orgo because there is one super easy professor, but that isn’t really the case with general chemistry. a lot of people realize that they don’t want to put in the work required by chemistry and begin to question if pre-medicine/pre-science is really right for them.</p>
<p>the problem is that a lot of the time, people all look up who the best teacher is, and all the smartest students register for their class, which can end up negating the curve. that is what happened this semester because most of the kids with AP credit got to register early, and all went for the same teacher. i hope that makes sense. the class average for our first test was like an 85, which is unheard of for chemistry (averages are usually in the 60s, and i think another class had a 40 average on their first test).</p>
<p>for first semester, we had the choice between jacobsen, rubstov, & fink. jacobsen’s tests were wacko and he didn’t teach, although as a person he is really cool. i would go for rubstov. i heard his quizzes were really hard (but only a very small % of your grade), but that his tests were super super easy. it was the opposite in jacobsen. fink was terrible, at least from what i’ve heard.</p>
<p>for second semester, the choice was between donahue, kopelitz, and herman. i am currently in kopelitz’s class, and while he is an AMAZING teacher, the curve is literally non-existent. i wish i had taken donahue. herman is supposed to be a really bad teacher, so i wouldn’t take him.</p>
<p>so basically, i’d aim for the “middle” teacher in terms of who the best vs. worst (i.e. rubstov 1st semester, donahue 2nd semester, in our case) because you won’t have the competition against the smartest pre-meds, but you will still learn. feel free to PM me with more questions about this, or advice once the schedule for next year has been released and you know who all is teaching (it changes from year to year).</p>
<p>If your child is in the Honors Program and attending Honors Weekend, they can register then. I think if they are in the Honors Program but cannot attend, they can still get their passcodes or whatever it is they need and register early. Otherwise they can indeed register at Orientation.</p>
<p>my child is not in Honors but has registered for the first orientation session. is that as soon as my child can register? If so are those scheduled for later orientations allowed to register the same day or do the students register on their specific orientation dates? my child enrolled early to make sure he was in the first scheduled orientation in hopes of scheduling classes ahead of those who enrolled later. if that is not the way it works, that is fine. i would just like to know how it does work.</p>
<p>Smile-your child has the right idea. You may be told that spaces are held in every class so that those who register later are not closed out of classes. This may be true to some extent, but my child registered in one of the later orientations and was closed out of every section she wanted–not every course, but every section.</p>
<p>my child is not in Honors but has registered for the first orientation session. is that as soon as my child can register? how soon will the schedules for next years teachers be released?</p>
<p>i found out the answers to my own questions and just thought i would pass it on to everyone. for the students not in honors, the first possible date to register for 2011 fall classes is the orientation date that you choose. the orientation dates (9 of them) are first come first served. most teachers (but not all) for the fall classes will be announced and posted on line (somewhere) by the first honors weekend</p>
Orgo is probably the class most would agree is a med school weed out.</p>