<p>Hello, </p>
<p>I am planning to apply to medical school and am planning my first semester of college. </p>
<p>Is this schedule that I've planned reasonable or too rigorous? Do you recommend taking these classes to prepare for the MCAT early?</p>
<p>General Chemistry
General Physics - geared towards premeds and MCAT preparation
Calculus I
Required Freshman Seminar Class</p>
<p>or should i replace Gen Physics with an elective?</p>
<p>Thank you in advance for your responses!</p>
<p>^^^ It seems reasonable. Its VERY similar to the first semester schedule of most pre-meds kids at my school. Freshman year, we are required to take a seminar class. Is each class at your school worth 4 hours? Each class in my school is worth 4 hours, so kids end up taking 4 classes, or a total of 16 hours.</p>
<p>I am not exactly sure…but I know that our freshman seminar class is about two and a half hours a week. Four classes is the normal course load.</p>
<p>I was just worried about taking chemistry, physics and calculus all in my first semester.</p>
<p>Have you taken any of those classes in high school? Did you receive AP credit for any of those classes? If you have, and you are just retaking any one of those classes for any easy A, then you should be fine.</p>
<p>You really should add another class. Four classes in a semester is barely “full-time” and looks like you’re “gaming” the system unless you have a full-time job or something else taking up most of your time. None of those classes are likely to be difficult. I’d suggest adding another humanities course or maybe a literature course to broaden your horizons (this will help on the MCAT, fwiw)</p>
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<p>It depends on how many hours/credits those four classes are worth. Four classes at my school are worth 16 credits/hours. 16 credits/hours is the norm for most schools. As long as the op is taking around 15-16 hours/credits a semester, it won’t look bad. In this case I am assuming that four hours is equal to 15-16 hours/credits a semester because the op said:</p>
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<p>Reasonable. Make sure that you load is somewhat heavier in first 2 years (around 18 cr. hours/semester). You will need lighter schedule preparing for MCAT in Junior year.</p>