<p>My daughter will be entering the Engineering Program in the fall, however, she plans on taking several classes at our CC during the summer to get a head start. The College of Engineering has recommended to her that she takes Chem 1 during the summer because it is a very full class at UofA, but I cannot help be concerned about her taking such an important class (she leans toward chemical engineering) in a CC to then see her struggling in Chem 2 in a 4 year college.
Is it really a good idea to get Chem 1 out of the way?</p>
<p>Wow. I see your point, and share your concern. My son is headed to UA next year, also leaning toward chemical engineering. I was also surprised to see how generous they are in awarding credit for AP Chemistry tests. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, this also feeds my overall concern with UA, which is the size of the classes. My hope was that the freshman engineering program, with its support, tutoring, etc would offset this - sort of smaller program within a larger school.</p>
<p>Maybe not. I’d be interested in hearing about your experiences as you proceed.</p>
<p>We have decided against taking Chem 101 in the summer. For one my daughter is signed up for the first orientation session in June so we hope that she will not have any problems getting in this class. Also, I was not comfortable at all with the idea of her taking chemistry in a CC considering that chemical engineering is right now her path of choice.
I have been told also that it was a good idea to take history and gvt during the summer.</p>
<p>I am a bit disappointed that I did not get any answer or feedback to my question from a source close to the school. The UofA board seems pretty dead right now.</p>
<p>As a former engineering student at the U of A (graduated in '11) I can give you my two cents. The freshman engineering program is actually quite good. They give you an introduction to engineering and attempt to help you decide which discipline matches you best. Most of my engineering classes were quite small ranging from 10 students to 30 students for a typical class. Some of the lower level engineering classes such as CAD had a larger number of students.</p>
<p>As far as tranferring courses I think your daughter made the right choice waiting to take Chem. While these classes are large at the university, the lab sessions give you a good chance for one on one with the instructor. If you take the honors course the professor often teaches the lab as well. I feel the weak spot at the university was the math department. It just didn’t seem to have the same quality of instructors as the chemistry/physics/engineering departments had.</p>
<p>Personally I would recommend she get as many calculus classes out of the way as possible.</p>
<p>Assuming they haven’t changed the requirements for engineers there is a requirement to 2 lower level and 2 upper level social sciences/humanities as well as an economics class (Macro or principles of econ). These would also be courses to get out of the way if possible.</p>
<p>Thank you stategrad for your input.
My daughter has started English Comp 1 at ourcommunity college, which is also a great transition between HS and College.
Your opinion of the math program has me concerned because my daughter is actually going to take two math classes in the fall (college math and some engineering math class). She already took college math in HS and did very well so I am hoping that this class will be easy for her. She will also be taking the Freshman engineering class and a biology class (she is thinking bio-medical). Chemistry was not on her schedule for fall. I hope it will not be too hard to get in in the Spring.
She is starting to see the value of taking classes in CC in the summer to lighten up the load during the year.</p>