So for now I enrolled in
ECON 1500- Economical Statistics with Staff
Gen Chem with Phillips
ECON 1010-Principles of Macroeconomics with Driskill
Math 2300- Multi-variable Calc with staff
Literally in seconds my other classes I wanted were filled quickly and I will be on the pre-med track
Do you guys or girls think this course load is heavy? I do not know what to expect in terms of the level of difficulty from Economic statistics or Principles of Macroeconomics. Don’t want to make my pre-med route harder you know.
@XAtlas The two econ classes are easy. Econ Statistics is a joke if you took AP in HS. Most people find Gen Chem hard, and Multivariable Calc is supposedly easier than the lower level calc classes, but its difficulty depends a lot on who ends up teaching it.
@gwh2016 Freshmen can get the intro-English requirement out of the way with SAT or AP scores. As part of the AXLE requirements you are required to take a FYWS either fall or spring semester.
@Vandy93 How about General Psychology? I did not take AP stats or econ classes in highschool (econ wasn’t offered).
@Suffer To be honest I thought I was taking it pretty slow. I already took multivariable calculus senior year and I could place out of gen chem but I chose not to.
@XAtlas Just to clarify I meant like fraternity rush because if you really want to get into it you have to start early and go out almost every night although how much it affects your schedule depends on how much time you want to put into it. ie if you only rush 1 house it probably won’t affect you that much whereas if you rush many houses (which is pretty common) you’ll be really busy
In general though that’s a very manageable schedule but it really depends on what you do outside of class. Just want to add that my schedule was gen chem, intro bio (harder class wise compared to multi), gen psych (similar to macro I think, maybe slightly easier) and a fyws (I also took econ stats this past year and I thought my fyws was harder… the fyws difficulty depends on your professor)
@Sophie1295 I’m going to add a different perspective… if your school had a really good AP chem class and you did well on the AP test I’d recommend taking gen chem. At that point it’s almost an easy A. Since he’s pre-med he’ll probably have to take an upper level chem class in place of gen chem (inorganic chem isn’t easy apparently) unless all the schools he applies to takes AP credit without requiring an upper level course. If you’re a chem major though then take the credit because you have to take the upper level courses anyway
@XAtlas I never took gen. psych but it’s a pretty easy class from what I’ve heard. I never took AP Econ in HS and did fine in the intro classes(with Buckles) with 2-3 hours of work/week. I took AP stats in HS but even if you didn’t econ stat should be easy. Pretty basic material. Your schedule is definitely not hard, especially since you took chem and multivariable calc in HS. I’d agree with @Sophie1295 and place out of gen chem. I know of people who took AP Chem in HS and still found it challenging(same thing happens with kids who took AP Calc BC in HS and decided not to skip to multivariable). It’s not a guaranteed A and will still be time-consuming with the lab component.
As far as rush goes your schedule is definitely not too demanding. A good percentage of the freshmen who rush will be taking gen chem and calc. Guys rush (and sometimes even pledge) while taking 18 hours (wouldn’t recommend it, but people do). It’s honestly not as demanding as @Suffer makes it out to be. Most guys who drop out of the rush process do it because they realize the Greek system isn’t right for them, not because it takes up too much time. I’m not saying that rush doesn’t take time, but there is absolutely no reason why you couldn’t rush while taking that schedule.
A lot of guys rush with gen chem and calc. They usually don’t drop out of rush or pledge, but they often drop pre-med. And most of them get mediocre grades that make the rest of college an uphill battle. You’re schedule now is ok though. Gen chem and calc will both be somewhat hard, econ is medium to easy, and econ stats is easy.
Gen psych is pretty easy, but the tests can be deceptively hard so a lot of freshmen who come and treat it like a high school class don’t get A’s. You should be fine though if you actually study for the tests. With your solid math background you should do fine in econ/econ stats. Multivariable won’t be that hard either if you already took it. Just remember to take it seriously or you will get a bad grade. I know kids who had already taken it but didn’t try that hard and got B’s.
I also agree that you should skip gen chem. It’s a really annoying class and you’ll be glad you did. But if you choose to take it, it probably won’t be that bad for you since you already got a 5.
I think you should be fine in this schedule, but the little changes you mentioned should be fine. Just avoid taking greater than 15 hours your first semester, (probably 13 or 14 is best) and you should be golden.
@Vandy93 Yeah I said that schedule is doable with rush but getting a good gpa (3.7+) with that schedule while seriously rushing is pretty tough which is why if possible he should make it easier. Getting drunk almost every night and trying to get As can get kinda tiring at the end too. I also knew plenty of kids rushing/taking gen chem that struggled through the class
There are people that take chem and calc but the ones I knew were almost all engineering/not pre-med. There are some that are engineers/pre med though
It really depends on your time management skills. I had none, and was a really slow note taker/writer (probably because I can’t focus when I do these things) and my non stem classes were note intensive and writing intensive. I got a good GPA but I wasn’t as involved in rush as I would have liked because I had to make a sacrifice. I’m sure if I didn’t have a chronic procrastination issue (or honestly if my schedule was balanced better given my earlier deficiencies) everything would probably have be fine, but I feel most freshmen don’t always have the best study skills even if they aren’t as bad as mine
@XAtlas I don’t know what you’re like, so I’d naturally suggest you take the safer route. I just wanted to give you a heads up from someone that’s a pre med, rushed, and saw a bunch of his friends (who are pretty smart) struggle through their classes during rush and later pledging. If you feel you’re capable or have good study skills you could probably take this schedule (or even something harder) and have no problem during rush
edit: I agree with @fdgjfg for the rush part, but I still think taking gen chem after taking AP chem sounds much better than taking inorganic (just my opinion although I’m kinda biased)
It is true that some guys who rush while taking gen chem and calc struggle in those classes. The same is true for some guys who don’t rush. Gen chem is a tough class. When people talk about calc being hard at Vandy they are talking about the single variable sequence, not multivariable. Honestly, if you took multivariable in HS you’ll probably find the class pretty easy. The tests generally aren’t that tough in multivariable calc at Vandy.
Here’s the thing about rush. While it does occupy some of your time, it’s not like you’d be spending all the time you spent at rush events studying in the library. Additionally, people often find that they are more productive when they are busy. If you have nothing on your schedule, you find that you waste lots of time.
@XAtlas I’d still recommend switching out of gen chem. You could replace it with an easy AXLE course or a FYWS and take a more advanced chem class later. But even if you stuck with your current schedule you’ll find you’ll have lots of free time.
@Vandy93 I took AP Chemistry sophomore year so I felt like I needed to learn chemistry again, which is why I am trying to use the class as review. Thank you for your input.
@Suffer I plan to join a pre-med frat or society if there is one, but no I as of now do not intend to rush a traditional frat.
@Suffer : My friend said that Analytical (which counts as an inorganic for med. school) had a pretty high grade distribution and was taught well. Apparently a lot of it was homework and exams had a decent average as well. Maybe they can do that instead (I think he told me course mean was about B+). Also, achem is the closest thing to the gen. chem you see on AP. It just typically incorporates statistics and covers more complex concepts in equilibria that are still easy to grasp if you are a math person.
@XAtlas : Do not join one of those orgs unless you really want to. There are honestly plenty of other health related organizations at most schools that are much more worth while. Pre-prof. frats and societies are essentially over-rated and sometimes draw a not so interesting crowd often with questionable ideas of pre-health. Maybe aim for any honor society affiliated with your major instead?
@XAtlas Out of the science classes I took (chem, bio, physics 1, orgo, and neuro), intro neuroscience was definitely the easiest although I took bio first so some of it ended up being review. Even so the tests are MC and occasionally/rarely? curved. It happened once when I took it. Even if they aren’t curved there’s a big EC assignment which gives you like 4% to your final grade. There are only 4 exams and no final, although the last one is taken during finals week. The only drawback is that the A cutoff is a 94.5, but even then the professor said it could be lowered if the class doesn’t do well (don’t count on it though)
Gen chem, math, econ stats and macro is very doable… gen chem, math, psych and neuro is a little harder but possible especially since you don’t want to rush.
@bernie12 Yeah that could be something he can consider. That said, my gen chem professor told me 2nd sem that 33% of people get an A/A- in gen chem. I can’t say it’s easy, but it’s really not as bad as people say it is