<p>hi everyone,</p>
<p>as a science major, i am considering taking intro to psych next semester because psychology and sociology apparently have been added to the recently revised MCAT for 2015. can anyone give me some perspective/advice regarding the course? how does it compare with the intro pre-med classes like chem 1 or bio 13? i suspect it not to be too challenging...
thanks!</p>
<p>My son took it 1st semester of freshman year. There was a lot of reading but it wasn’t a hard class. In respect to bio 13 and chem 1, don’t take them together the 1st semester. If you took AP chem in high school and got a 5 on the test and you’re good at chemistry, consider taking chem 11. You get a much smaller class, individual attention, and a lot of opportunities for research. But it’s a lot harder, so you need to like chemistry.</p>
<p>momworried,
bio13 & chem1 are too heavy if taking them together? my son is planning to take them in 1st semester of freshman year, or bio14 & chem1.</p>
<p>They don’t advise taking 2 lab sciences 1st semester. It’s an adjustment period. But it really does depend on the child. Bio 13 is supposedly very hard and is known as a weed out course. My son took chem 11 1st semester as his only science. For his 2nd semester he did chem 12 and physics 11. He’s working much harder this semester then last. 2 lab sciences are very labor and time intensive. But again it depends on the child. I do think he could’ve handled chem 1 and bio 13 together. But he really enjoyed chem 11 It gave him a much deeper understanding of chemistry which he loves and an opportunity for a great research project.</p>
<p>thank you, momworried.
my son got 5 on AP bio, he might be able to skip bio13 to bio14. But I am not sure. Since he wants to apply medical school, maybe Tufts medical school wants him to take the bio13 & bio14 at Tufts, not using AP?</p>
<p>He did not take AP chem, so I think he has to start with chem1. I saw the class schedule for 2012 Fall. the chem1 class is 3 lectures in a week, I assume the lab is only once in a week which is 3-4 hrs? or every day for 3 hrs for the lab?</p>
<p>My son is premed also. He got 5 on AP Bio. He was trying to decide which to skip Bio 13 or 14. Ultimately he decided to skip 14 since 13 is molecular and he needs it more for MCATs. He will be taking it next year together with Organic chem (yayks). With respect to chem 1 the lab is 3 1/2 hours once a week. The professor that teaches Chem 1 is very good.
There is no reason to take both Bio 13 and 14. The medical schools want you to have a year of Bio in Tufts. He can just take a more advanced Bio class like genetics later on.</p>
<p>momworried, thank you so so much! great info. we were confused about taking bio13 or bio14 or both. I do see recommending taking bio13 before bio14. But since AP Bio can be counted as bio13 or bio14, so I think it’s OK to skip either one. Appreciate your help!</p>
<p>momworried, thank you so much for the class register info on another post.
I just want to confirm with you about my understanding. For example: chem1 and chem2 are required concentration courses for bio major, can they be counted as distribution requirements in natural sciences category as well? in this way, the student can save 2 credit for other courses.</p>
<p>Fromcalifornia, I believe so. Every semester when the students register there is a list of which courses fit under certain distribution requirements. And it’s different every semester. For example Chinese film(I’m making up a class name) can be counted as an art distribution course in the fall semester but not in the spring semester. But I believe if you’re a science major you take enough science courses to cover the natural science distribution.
But one thing I haven’t figured out yet. How does the school keep track of when you take certain classes for distribution requirements. For example if you take the Chinese film in the fall for your art requirement, does that go on your record somewhere? Does my son need to keep track of it himself? I asked him and he has no idea. So if anyone knows the answer to this question or can forward me to the department at Tufts that can answer it please let me know.</p>
<p>interesting! I did not know that if the class is counted to distribution class depends on when it has been taken. Why?! Tufts alumni, can you help us?</p>
<p>That’s not the case. The courses will count regardless of which semester you take them. And, in the event that a course doesn’t count, but you feel it should, you can petition for it to count. I did this, and it was really easy. (And, actually, the course that I petitioned for is now permanently on the list of courses that count).</p>
<p>You can filter for the courses that count for which distribution using this website - <a href=“Tufts User Authentication - Stale Request”>Tufts User Authentication - Stale Request; - and you can see there’s no reference made to the semester a course is taken.</p>
<p>You can always overlap courses between your major and the distribution requirements - I was, for instance, a political science major, and any/all of my PS courses would counted for the social science distribution. You can do this with the language and culture requirements, too. I took a course on Japanese Democracy that filled a culture requirement, a major requirement, and a distribution requirement at once.</p>
<p>Dan, thanks for the clarification! what a relief! 
In this way, student can use lots of credits from distribution/concentration overlap for other courses which makes a lot easier for double majoring! For science major, at least can save 4 credits: 2 for natural sciences, 2 for math.</p>
<p>Dan, thank you for clarifying! That’s what I was looking for. A central place with the list for all the distribution requirements. My son is a little bit of an absent minded professor.</p>
<p>Can anyone tell us about seminars in Tufts? there are many seminars in bio. for example: Bio 153 Seminar in Biochemistry. bio 169 …</p>
<p>Are the seminars graded in letter grade or pass/fail? Are they counted as 1 credit? Are there exams in seminars? Do you think it’s good to take the seminar instead of regular class?</p>
<p>Dan, what about World civilization requirement? I just looked at Tufts bulletin and am very confused. It’s not listed under distribution requirements, but is still listed under required courses.</p>