Emory Freshman Scheduling Questions!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Emory University
1

<p>I plan on being an NBB major going the pre-med track, but when planning my freshman schedule here at Emory I came across a couple of questions. While discussing our upcoming schedules with some of my peers who will be attending various colleges (many top tier colleges), I realized that 18 credits may be a lot (which is what is recommended at emory) compared to the 14 credits that most of my friends are taking on average. Before I continue, I will post my anticipated schedule:</p>

<p>Bio 141 w/ lab (4 credits)
Chem 141 w/ lab (4)
English 101 or 181 (4)
Freshman Seminar (4)
Pace 101 (1)
Health 100 (1)</p>

<p>I have been advised not to overwhelm myself, especially the first semester of college, so I was just wondering if this would be a lot on my plate. I realize that PACE and Health will most likely be blow off classes, but still will probably take up a good amount of time.</p>

<p>Also, I have AP Stats and was wondering if I am supposed to take any additional math courses throughout my college career in order to satiate my NBB major or the pre-med track.</p>

2

<p>That schedule isn’t hard at all and is the standard track. Also, your peers are on a 3 credit system and Emory is on a 4 credit system. Your peers at other top tiers who are taking 14 are basically taking the same amount as you (Probably about 4 classes if taking 2 sciences, as science classes with labs at such schools total 4 credits. However, if they are not science, they are in 4 classes plus about 2 courses counting for one credit hour a piece). As for math, take calc. if you don’t have credit (you may or may not choose to take life-sciences calc. They say you have to, but they are lying and will allow you to take regular calc). In addition, for the sake of maximizing the NBB major and pre-med experience, a legit stats/data analysis. class (DO NOT TAKE MATH 107, it’s useless and stupid. You will learn nothing if you have AP credit) could help. I will suggest NBB Stats (not the same as a regular stats. class where you merely learn the formulas and patterns. You actually have to analyze data and do case write-ups using a data crunching program. This is good for you as reading data properly is good for the MCAT and understanding science in general) later in your career (or maybe even freshman year if allowed) as it’s quite useful. PACE will not take a lot of your time at all lol. You are basically taking 3.5 classes. If you are decent at science, you should do decently well with that schedule. It’s not too challenging and should certainly not be overwhelming (English is normally an automatic A- minimum. You just need to focus on the science courses). </p>

<p>By the way, if you want to get a win, win situation with biology, take Passalaucqua if she isn’t filled when the freshman seats open. She is case-based, so you learn a lot (It’ll develop creative/critical thinking skills and prep you for MCAT like passages and the questions that go along with them), but easy grading and tests, so you can make at least a B+ with some ease in there. She has only been teaching like 2 years and won a major teaching award already! If not her, take Spell who is an amazing, engaging lecturer that tries many methods to convey material to students. She has also gotten a lot easier (she used to give notorious tests, but is now as easy as everyone else, or at least generates the same test averages). These 2 are unusual in that they will find means to intellectually challenge you, while teaching you well, and not harming your grade. </p>

<p>Chem, no matter who you take, may be not that easy. However, all of 3 of them are solid teachers with McGill and Mulford are normally preferred.</p>

3

<p>Bernie - do you know what would be a good schedule for a prebusiness major?
Does this sound right…
Eng 101
Spanish
Business economics
Freshman seminar
PACE
Is a health class needed too?</p>

4

<p>Yeah health is needed. That schedule is standard too (as well as a little boring).</p>

5

<p>For comparison purposes, I looked at the first semester schedule for my #2 student:
PACE (called FAME at the time): 1 hr
Health: 1 hr
Freshman Seminar: 4 hrs
French 310: 4 hrs
History 285: 4 hrs
Theatre 241: 4hrs
(Total 18 hrs)</p>

6

<p>Bernie, you’ve always been a great help on these boards, so hopefully you can give me some advice on something - </p>

<p>I made up a mock schedule a week or so ago that I was really pleased with and that, to my knowledge, was right on the 19 credit limit. Here it is:</p>

<p>Freshman Organic Chem
Orgo Lab
Whatever Spanish I place into (201 or 212)
Childhood Psychopathology
Freshman Seminar (preferably ORDER)
Some type of gym
Health
PACE</p>

<p>I would be exempt from the freshman writing requirement with AP credit, and the psychopathology seemed like a really interesting HSC credit that I could get into with AP Psych credit. I want to be an NBB major, so the Orgo isn’t really necessary, but I wanted to take it to have an interesting science since I skipped over Bio and Chem 141 also with AP credit. (as is evident, I have a lot of AP credit, haha).</p>

<p>Anyway, yesterday I discovered that the orgo lab is 2 credits, unlike the credit-free labs for Bio and Chem 141. I had assumed orgo lab was credit-free too. With the extra two, my schedule now gives me 21 credits, and even if I dropped gym, I would still be over the limit with 20. </p>

<p>So, if I want to still take Orgo (which I do. Tell me if I’m making a mistake with wanting this knowledge before grad school even if it’s not necessary for my major), a freshman seminar, and Spanish (I want to get the HAL requirement out of the way before sophomore year), as well as the PACE and Health requirements, I have to drop psychopathology, which leaves me with only three “real” 4 credit classes. With a gym, that’s 17 credits. Am I wrong in feeling that, with only having three true 4-credits, my schedule isn’t enough? I guess I’m an overachiever but I just feel like I’m missing an opportunity. Should I drop orgo so I can take the typical 4 4-credits? Are there any interesting 2-credit courses that I could add to hit 19 and feel a little more complete?</p>

<p>I just really liked my old schedule, even if it was a little crazy :(</p>

<p>tl;dr- Are there any good two-credit courses to fill out my 17-credit schedule? Or should I just take it really easy first semester even though I don’t feel that this is really enough? Am I being silly in thinking it isn’t enough?</p>

7

<p>I’m running into this problem too, except I need the orgo chem/lab as a major requirement. My “ideal” schedule:</p>

<p>Organic Chem (4)
Orgo Chem Lab (2)
German I (4)
Continuing Writing (FWRT waived) (4)
Health/PACE (2)</p>

<p>Leaves me with 3 credit hours unfilled. :confused: I might consider a gym, although the ones I’m interested in fall on times that run into my classes. </p>

<p>I sent an email asking about this and am waiting for a response, though. For your case, if you really wanted to take orgo chem before grad school you could take it sophomore year too, since it’s not a major req. That would allow you to fill up your schedule?</p>

8

<p>I believe many freshman taking Soria last year ran into this problem. An exception was made. When Soria gets back on campus (I bet he’ll be back early to mid August), I will ask him how they worked something out to deal with it last academic year and get back to you. Your schedule should be fine. I wouldn’t forfeit your schedule due to that. Just drop the gym class and wait until spring for it I guess, and I think a Dean’s office will allow the 20 credits (because they also recognize that health and PACE aren’t real classes). Why would orgo. lab be credit free? It’s more rigorous than gen. chem lab, and having it as a separate credit can do more to help the GPA than just incorporating it into 4 credit hour course (given that many orgo. professors give lower grades than say, those in biology. Having a 2 credit buffer can save you! A decent effort in lab easily earns an A-, and in Soria’s lab, an A). Even regular orgo. lab is one separate credit. I think, other than your gym class, you’ll be okay. Also, Inkmuse, note that 16 credits is standard, so you don’t absolutely have to fill them if you don’t want to.</p>

9

<p>Also Bernie12, for English, would you recommend English 101 or 181? and which teachers would you recommend for these courses? Thanks for the help.</p>

10

<p>The teachers change too much from year to year. The course catalog/atlas should list several sections for each one along with the very specific issue/topic that the professor plans to cover (The intro. English classes are topic based and are not generic, so choosing ONLY based upon course number is kind of useless). Choose based upon the topic that interest you. I ended up choosing a 181 class on TransAtlantic Romanticism, because it covered a lot of American intellectual history via primary literature sources from various founding fathers and the like. Fortunately, my instructor (a grad student) was very good and extremely qualified to teach the area and did so with enthusiasm. Often we would have very interesting debates about the literature itself and how it translates to modern life and ideals (we would also compare interpretations and the like). 181 is more about comparison, so if done right, it should be somewhat interesting because, as opposed to expository writing, it tends to require more critical analysis of interpretations other than your own or even the dominant interpretation. Even when writing a paper for the class, it is essentially required for you to engage and critique other interpretations as part of your analysis and this is an awesome skill to build, no matter what field you go into (especially important to me since I plan on becoming a scientist, and the costs of being unable to analyze and differentiate between too different interpretations of a phenomenon could be very costly). Needless to say, this is very easy to do if the topic interests you. Choose based upon what skills you want to build and what topic area seems somewhat intriguing. Often the sections that give a topic description will also provide a booklist, thus this booklist may also inform your decision.</p>

11

<p>@bernie, I would be highly interested in hearing how the organic chem students got around this issue as well. I was hoping to fill all 19 credit hours too (so I might go ahead and take a random gym if I can get it), since we’ve already paid the 30k for it! xD</p>

12

<p>In case Inkmuse or anyone else comes across this issue now or in future: in the email I received today from Dr. Soria about freshman organic chemistry, he said that an exception is in fact made for freshmen who go over the 19-hour credit limit with 20 credit hours due to taking the 2-credit orgo lab along with four 4-credits, health and PACE.</p>

13

<p>Bernie12, Would you mind making a list of teachers and or classes that you think are the best for both NBB and pre med in general? Thanks</p>

14

<p>@complexity: Thanks! I just got that same email! :)</p>

15

<p>Ellenp, </p>

<p>Spell is the best Bio 141/142 teacher.
Weinshenck/Soria are extremely good for Orgo. With premeds preferring Weinshenck.
Morkin for Chem 141/142.</p>

<p>This has been beaten to death. Search it. It’s all there. Paragraphs of it. :)</p>

16

<p>You really don’t have to do the freshman seminar your first semester–you should see if there’s one you really like. I think it’s better to do it in the spring, in general, because you’ll know more about college and about what your interested and which professor’s seminar you want to take.</p>

17

<p>Passalaucqua=Spell I guess. P Uses case method, can help for pre-med in longrun as MCAT is passage based and many of the better med. schools are migrating toward pbl method of learning. </p>

<p>Anybody for chem I guess (though Morkin is the nicest, personality wise). </p>

<p>NBB 301 w/Frenzel. I don’t care about other NBB classes because I am skeptical about the dept as a whole (and why people go around announcing “I’m an NBB major” as if it is something that makes their major better or tougher than others when in reality it’s relatively soft. Ellen, please don’t be one of these people, you’ll only annoy your peers. Just avoid being one of these folks. The chem, physics, bio, and even psyche major pre-meds will probably think rude things which I am about to reveal). It doesn’t even require upperlevel labs or a methods class. In addition, classes are a bit large (as in larger than bio classes) and primarily use lecture, not much experimenting in teaching methods over there that may help students maintain info. after a course. This leads to most courses generally being content heavy and not focusing on application or analysis (you pretty much have to take psyche electives or intense classes like physical biology for this. Only actual NBB classes that build this are Drugs and behavior to some extent, NBB 301, NBB stats., and NBB 401 with only 2 of these being required. Bio dept profs. seem to be trying harder to incorporate more of this in its required courses). Aside from my rebuke of the NBB dept. and how it’s a bit too soft and conservative (in context of dominant pedagogical style) for my taste, many of my friends who major in it liked Drugs and Behavior w/Neil (or any class w/Neil), Human Brain (don’t know why, this was a pure memorization course and had stupid multiple choice tests apparently), neuroendocrinology, and some of the psyche electives (which tend to be better and smaller than actual NBB classes if you ask me. I think I actually like the psyche dept. better).</p>