<p>I've received different advice regarding my first semester schedule and I am still undecided whether I should change my classes.</p>
<p>16 Credits
Physics II, Monday + Thursday 8-8:50 a.m, 2-3:50 p.m, Wednesday 6-7:50 p.m
Calculus II Mon, Wed, Thurs 12-12:50 p.m Tuesday 11-11:50 a.m, Wednesday 2-2:50 p.m
Intro to Bio(Bio I) Tuesday and Friday 12-1:20 p.m
Intro to Bio LAb: Tuesday 4-6:50 p.m
Chemistry I w/ adv lab Tues, Fri 8-9:20 a.m, Wednesday 8-8:50 a.m, 3-5:50 p.m</p>
<p>Some of them are test blocks and are not every week. </p>
<p>1st year biomedical engineering major but Pre medicine track (very interested in Medical school but not set on it)</p>
<p>Well I was comfortable with this schedule at first because I took AP Calc BC and got a 5 so even though I could have skipped Calc II and took differential equations, I wanted the easier class and to boost my GPA, so I'm not worried at all about Calc II. I took ap physics B and C in high school (got 5's on all 3 exams) so I'm pretty comfortable with physics but I heard some schools don't accepted AP credit for physics I? I didn't take anything beyond bio honors in 9th grade and I took AP chem last year but wanted to start out with Chemistry I.</p>
<p>So is my schedule difficult more because of the Workload or the sheer difficulty of the classes? What I thought about trying to do (if there are open spots) is </p>
<p>a) move down to Physics I
b) switch physics II for an english elective
c) switch calc II for an english elective</p>
<p>But are english electives really that much easier? Aren't there plenty of essays and work still? </p>
<p>Depending on how strong of a writer you are, it can vary. Remember that you are probably also required to read long texts and write about them. So in comparison, an English class could be more work than a Chem Lab</p>
<p>Double stacking that many science courses can be overwhelming if you’re not prepared. I know you say that you got 5s, but college courses move pretty fast. You’ll need to stay on top of your game, unless you’re just a natural for science. Impossible for any of us to determine through the internet, though.</p>
<p>English will depend on your English proficiency, and also varies by person. I personally find essays easy (I can churn out an A-level college level essay in an hour), but my friend spends hours. On the flip side, I’m dreadful at math, while the same friend can skip his math classes religiously and still get As. Each person’s different.</p>
<p>Some students find calculus 2 to be the most difficult lower division math course (more difficult than the more advanced calculus 3, linear algebra, and differential equations). If you know the material well, based on review of your college’s old final exams for the course, you may want to consider skipping it if allowed by the college.</p>
<p>Three courses with labs will be a lot of work. If you are concerned about the workload and your college’s recommended course plan for your major does not require you to take all three lab courses to stay on track to graduate on time, you may want to consider rearranging your course plan to not have too many lab courses in one semester.</p>
<p>If you are a pre-med, note that many medical schools do not accept AP credits for the pre-med courses. This is unlikely to be a problem for subjects in which you will be taking the needed (for pre-med purposes) number of more advanced courses in the subjects anyway (e.g. you will be taking two semesters of more advanced math anyway for your major, so skipping freshman calculus with AP credit is unlikely to be an issue), but can be an issue if you do not plan to take that many more advanced courses after skipping some with AP credit.</p>
<p>So would it be wise to try and switch into Physics I and follow the Pre med track for biomed (I already am following it except I’m taking physics ii and calc ii)? In the event I do apply to medical school, most of them won’t accept AP credit for Physics I unless I take a higher level physics class than Physics II?</p>
<p>Why do you want to retake so many classes whose material you already know? For me, that would be recipe for disaster. (I’d get bored, stop paying attention, get frustrated with the school I’m at, etc.)</p>
<p>5s on both Physics C exams place you out of both Physics I + II. A 5 on Calc BC places you out of Calc II. A 5 on the Chemistry exam places you out of first-year chemistry.</p>
<p>There’s no point in retaking classes whose material you are very comfortable with. (Though re-taking chemistry might make sense if you didn’t do much lab work in high school.) </p>
<p>Here’s what I gained from starting out in 2nd year courses: I immediately had the attention of my professors. They set up me with summer internships and introduced me to colleagues at other universities. They advised me on how to accelerate my coursework even more. I took a full year’s worth of graduate courses in my junior and senior years. I got very strong letters of recommendations that got me into some of the most selective graduate programs in the country (and I am the only student in my program who did not graduate from a top 20 university!). None of that would have happened if I had taken the cautious approach and started with a normal first-year courseload.</p>
<p>Since your AP credit covers Physics 1 and 2 for your major, you can reduce your workload by replacing Physics 1 with lower workload breadth course or something like that. That way, you won’t “waste” your AP credit if you decide later not to do pre-med.</p>
<p>If you later decide to do pre-med, you can take the two needed physics courses (possibly more advanced physics courses if your knowledge of the Physics 1 and 2 material is good) later.</p>
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<p>I agree, but pre-meds seem to think that retaking AP credit will give them an “easy A”, and medical schools implicitly encourage retaking AP credit with their admissions policies.</p>
<p>@Barium I self studied the 2 Physics C exams (yes that was important, should have mentioned) (but took the actual Physics B class) so I think I really only know enough to do well on the exams but not to skip the class that covers Physics C. </p>
<p>And that is interesting, what happened in your undergraduate years. Of course that may not happen exactly to me but I do want to be challenged throughout college. </p>
<p>And some of my hesitation is because my (shes a biomed eng professor) advisor at orientation told me schedule is very difficult and that few kids do well with that level of schedule , but I do believe i can pull out top grades in those courses and I suppose it would help me decide if i can handle the level of work and study required of med and pre med students.</p>
<p>I also read in the pre med forum that it is much safer to start out with lower level classes and not risk taking the more advanced classes, but is it really that much better TO take the advanced classes, particularly if you do that well? Are the incentives that good for a good number of students if you know?</p>
<p>Also, what GPA (rough minimum) should I be looking or aiming for (at least) to see if medical school would be a realistic option?</p>
<p>(I was told sophomores at my school will be strongly advised from continuing with the pre med track if their freshman GPA is not deemed good or competitive enough).</p>
<p>The advantage of taking more advanced courses is that you learn new and presumably interesting material, rather than repeating what you already know. After all, that is presumably one of the reasons you go to college.</p>
<p>But that is not valued by medical school admissions, so lots of pre-meds repeat what they already know to play the medical school GPA game (though not always successfully). Of course, those who do that and do not get into any medical school may regret having “wasted” so much of their schedule space in college when they could have been taking courses with new and interesting material instead. (Most pre-meds do not get into any medical school.)</p>
<p>Think of it this way: if colleges did not care that high school students took the most or least rigorous courses in high school (as long as they met the minimum course requirements), but did care a lot about GPA, do you think that high school students would be rushing to take advanced, honors, AP, IB HL, etc. courses?</p>
<p>Of course, you do not have to be a typical pre-med retaking already-known material to play the medical school GPA game (you might get a medical school acceptable GPA in more advanced courses). But make whatever decision you make a conscious one that you will not have any regrets doing.</p>
<p>In terms of your first semester, consider deferring the physics decision, if your physics knowledge is enough (try to look at old final exams from RPI’s Physics 1 and 2 courses). That way, you may have a clearer idea of whether you want to continue doing pre-med after taking biology and chemistry, so you can decide your physics courses then.</p>