Freshman class selection advice

I’m entering Vanderbilt’s school of engineering this fall of 2015. Thanks to AP tests I have 52 hours of college credit. This has made freshman year class selection more difficult. I’ve already picked classes, and was told to pick more advanced classes since switching down is easier than switching up.

Chemical Engineering is the major which I think I will pursue, so I chose my classes accordingly. Vanderbilt requires that I take 3 modules, and suggested chemistry, math, and any ‘liberal arts core requirement’ class. I’m not concerned with the modules or the liberal art core requirement, but I would like some advice when it comes to the math and science selection. My AP tests place me in a position where I would take Multivariable Calculus(2300) and Organic Chemistry (I ended up choosing advanced placement organic chemistry because I took an orgo class senior year of high school). I know nothing about the difficulty of college classes, and most of the advice I’ve been given has warned me not to overburden myself—freshman year is a time to learn how to balance, and manage my time. Should I wait to challenge myself with these harder classes? Am I unnecessarily putting my GPA at risk?

Multivariable calculus is usually considered easier than gen calc. The subject matter may be more complex (calc in 3-dimensions) but the actual calculus (integration) tends to be a lot easier. If you found that you were pretty good at calculus, this course won’t be an issue.

Organic chemistry is really challenging. If you already took some orgo in highschool, that will help a lot. It boils down to a ton of memorization.

I took both of these courses my first semester and bombed both of them. Stemmed from a lack of time management/study skills and being totally unprepared for how challenging they were going to be. That said, other freshman I knew took them both and did fine.

The great thing about the advanced Orgo class is that it has (or at least, had) an extended “drop date” that surpasses the first exam. Meaning, you can take the first orgo exam, see how you do, and still choose to drop the class with no consequence (disappears from your transcript forever). Pretty much no other course has this option. It’s designed to make sure freshman don’t get in over their head; if you do poorly on the first exam, it suggests you’ve already fallen behind, and that will just compound on each subsequent exam. Naturally I did poorly on the first exam and just kept going… Not sure if this it still a policy they have in place.

By the way, “advanced placement” Organic Chem is just called that because all the students are freshman and have AP credit. It’s not more advanced than the other OChem course.

It’s hard to say what you “should” do. There is certainly no rush to take either of these courses, but it doesn’t hurt to get them out of the way before you dig into the core of ChemE. If you’re confident in your study skills, I think you should go ahead an enroll in both without worrying, but be prepared to hit the ground running. If you breezed through highschool without having to put much effort into studying at all, you might want to delay Orgo until your sophomore year.

Maybe they can take the one (ochem) for AP students. That Rizzo guy is teaching it an he is not that challenging, especially the first semester (his stuff is all over the web). There is more memorization than anything else, but based on the materials I’ve seen from his class, it could be far worse (it is a very standard level ochem course based on what I have seen). In fact, it appears the sophomore sections have a tougher line-up of instructors. The OP can have the benefit of being challenge enough while also not being thrown into an instructor’s course who is regarded as more difficult than others even among the experienced (sophomores). I honestly think the math classes there are harder so would worry more about that if I was taking someone at the level of Rizzo.

@CGI6737 compare this to what you did in highschool and gauge whether or not you can handle the jump for yourself:
http://as.vanderbilt.edu/chemistry/Rizzo/chem220a/Chem220A.html . That is honestly the best way of doing it. However, keep in mind, that you need to consider the context of your life at college in general and the fact that will no doubt be absorbed by many social events and EC’s. The raw content is still a good place to start. The site is a bit old, but this person hasn’t changed the way and level at which he teaches over the years (I decided to check just in case), so its a pretty safe approximation assuming he doesn’t make it easier for freshmen.