Engineering Major

All I really wanted to be was pre-med, but I was afraid with a simple Biology major I would have no career options if I was not accepted into medical school. So now I am a chemical engineering major in my second semester, and my schedule consists of Calculus 2, Chemistry 2, and Biology 1 as well as a required humanities. I am concerned about taking all three of these hard classes at once, especially considering Calculus 2 is not required for most medical schools and is often cited as a very difficult class at the college I am attending. I was always good at math in high school, but never reached up to this level. Any advice on whether I should drop calculus 2 or not? If I did drop calculus, I would most likely switch to a Biology major. Thanks.

How’d you do first semester?

All I took was chemistry, a humanities, calc 1, and psychology. But I got all A’s. Calc 1 wasn’t hard for me because I took it in high school.

@bodangles

Repeat courses or no, that’s really good. A lot of people struggle with the transition to college (I did) and if they retake classes, they may find that the college versions are a lot harder (I did). All A’s is a real accomplishment.

Personally, as an intended ChemE major (though not premed), I would keep Calc 2 for now, and if you start to feel overwhelmed, you can drop it. However, the first 2/3 of the class is different integration techniques, some of which you may have learned already in either of your Calc 1 classes. Integration isn’t super hard. Overall, I didn’t find Calc 2 too bad. Put the work in – which your current grades show you are certainly capable of doing – and I think it’ll be fine.

Chem 2 shouldn’t be much harder than Chem 1, also, so you might already have an idea of how much time and effort you’ll have to dedicate to that.

@bodangles I’m just worried with two labs it will be even more difficult. And I can’t drop the Calc because it’s 4 credit hours and that would make me no longer a full-time student, which I can’t do.

I also don’t want calc 2 to bring down my grades in my core sciences that I would be using for med school.

YOU got to decide if you want to be Bio Major or engineering major. Nobody in a world can tell what do YOU want, you are at your wheel!
No matter what you do though, consider the fact that most of upper Bio classes ( I imagine that there are lots of them in Bio major) will be considerably more difficult than Calc 2. Neither of these majors is easy. What people do when they do not get in - depends on how much YOU want to get in. Some apply year after year after year, while completing some Masters program. There are many other options, it all depends on YOUR personal plan. And YOU have to plan for whatever. Say, you are very desperate to get in. Not everybody is desperate, so I am going to describe a potential plan for somebody who is desperate to get in. The plan is simple and starlight forward. You have to plan to get an A in every single class, hard, easy, or impossible, it does not matter, you got to deal with whatever requirements might be. You may have an easy time in one and the next one may feel completely out of this world in difficulty level. Difficulty level has to become irrelevant to you. You will have to have a specific plan for each class that should lead you to an A. Maybe you will need to go over material in your head while walking from class to class, maybe you will need to see prof at numerous office hours and maybe you will need to seat thru Supplemental Instruction sessions, whatever… And, of course, you will need to use the same approach studying for the MCAT. Do whatever it takes YOU to get a high score, forget about the next person who may be a test taker genius. This is NOT a theoretical plan. This was my D’s approach and she is a first year resident now. She did not ask herself what she would do if she did not get in. She asked herself what SHE needed to do to get in.