Hello, I’ll be starting up at Yale as a freshman next week, and I was wondering if the course load I have planned out for my first semester was too much or too unbalanced. Here it is:
General Chem/Fresh Organic (depends on how I do on the placement test)
Calc II
Intro to Writing
French (L5)
Physics 180/BIO 101/biochem
I’m hoping to major in chemistry or biochemistry, if that makes a difference.
Well, I think it depends on you and would vary for each person. For example, my daughter loves chemistry and really “gets it” so this would be a very manageable schedule for her. Does that describe you also? For many other students, chemistry is a mystery and they have to study a tremendous amount of time to get by. I doubt that describes you since you plan to major in chem, but sometimes people do choose majors in a subject that is challenging for them rather than easy.
Exact same things could be said for languages – i.e., French. I made 100s in every language I studied in college, including German and Russian, but my dad was furious when I first signed up for these classes because he had a roommate in college that made Ds in German, and so he thought it must be impossible to learn. Ditto for Writing and Calculus. It all depends on the individual. So if YOU think this schedule looks fun and manageable, then it will be! 
I must say that I’m a bit surprised if you didn’t have an adviser at Yale already discuss all this with you. My daughter is at another university, and she had three separate advisers meet with her personally to discuss every aspect of her schedule as she signed up for classes. Maybe that’s a luxury elsewhere…
@mommyrocks Well, I move to New Haven tomorrow, so I’ll have a meeting with an adviser when I get there.
I can’t really say how difficult that load would be for you, but you might (on general principles) want to take fewer than 5.5 credits. There is a lot happening besides class work for a freshman.
Use the shopping period to see, and leave room for a course with a rock star professor. You don’t have to knock off multiple distributional requirements every semester.
It’s a pretty heavy load. It’s not a bad idea to get that writing course as soon as possible, and it’s also not bad to satisfy your foreign language class while you still remember the French you learned in high school (I think if you’re going into L5 that means you only have to take one semester). Could you hold off on the Calculus or one of the sciences?
What was your high school like? If you had a pretty rigorous school, this may not be too bad. If it’s a significant step up in rigor, then you might want to take it a bit slower.
@hunt My high school was a pretty rigorous college preparatory school.
You don’t mention the required lab courses. Thus I think you should do either of these:
Plan A:
General Chem/Fresh Organic (depends on how I do on the placement test)
Calc II
Intro to Writing
French (L5)
Chem or Org Lab
or
Plan B:
Physics 180/BIO 101/biochem
Physics 180/BIO 101/biochem Lab course
Calc II
Intro to Writing
French (L5)
But maybe swap out another writing/English course? Something out of the ordinary? You really should take advantage of the Blue Book, IMHO. I have to say my 1st semester was rather saccharine. 2nd semester, I started to really fill my plate w/some super courses and instructors. I really filled the remainder of my semesters with an oddball class that I grabbed just b/c of the subject or the instructor. Please make full use of shopping period.
I personally urge you not to take 5.5 credits as a first semester freshman. Not a good way to start your time at Yale, in my opinion! T26E4’s suggestions above are excellent, including the suggestion to shop. Look for a freshman seminar – something that intrigues you. There are some fascinating ones, and the class sizes are small, which is nice. The freshman seminar my son took his first semester was his favorite course of the year.
Is there a “benefit” you are trying to gain by front-loading with the science courses? You’d be much better off staying in your math and French tracks, start your college English and Humanities requirements and then Freshman Chemistry is fairly standard.
I concur with @bookmobile. Based upon my son’s experience, freshman should take 4 credits (or 4.5 credits with a foreign language course) their first semester and take the time to get acclimated to college life. FWIW: My son took 6 credits his first semester of SENIOR year because he absolutely loved all his classes and couldn’t bear the thought of dropping one. In the end though, he did drop one course, as he didn’t need the credits, and 6 credits was an awful lot of work, as I imagine 5.5 would be. (And this was from a student who had already taken 5 credits for both semesters of his junior year-- the extra course each semester was a graduate level course). So, be forewarned!
You need 36 u to graduate from yale. This amounts to approx 4.5 u per semester. In general, the first sem frosh year should be lighter than the other sems while kiddo is getting their feet wet. So most would advocate 4 units, or 4 classes.
You cannot pick your courseload like this and the great thing about Yale is that you don’t have to. You will have a freshman counselor (FroCo), your dean and assorted others to help you choose classes. You will have shopping period to go to classes, get syllabuses so you can make sure you don’t have classes that all have major assignments due the same day or week. Use this unique time wisely. There may be more than one section of a class. One teacher may rub you the wrong way while another for the same class may have a teaching approach you love. Like said earlier, you need 36 credits to graduate. This works out to 4 classes on semester and 5 the next on average. My D took a language which was 1.5 credits so her four classes gave her 4.5 credits. She did that both semesters to get her 9. She then took German 3 and 4 this summer and got 3 more credits. She is starting sophomore year with 12. Every student is different and Yale celebrates these differences. Take your time. Blue Booking is a sport. Enjoy!!!