<p>Is it too late to select courses for premed freshman? Can someone tell me which web site should be used for selecting the courses for premed freshman? Any advice on what courses or professors are good? Are some of the popular courses full already? </p>
<p>Can any premed give me more advice in details, or would like to send me a private messages about what kinds of Biology textbook, general chemistry textbook you used in last year? Thanks</p>
<p>WATOGO: Advisors during registration at orientation will indicate which courses you need to take freshman year. You will fill out a paper indicating your major and the fact that you are premed, which APs you took, scores, etc. You won't have to figure it out on your own. The advisors will let you know and guide you through the process.
Popular courses will not be full since they make openings for each orientation session.</p>
<p>You'll probably end up taking:
Bisc 120 and Chem 105a along with 2 other GE's/language/elective</p>
<p>the bio text is by campbell and the chem text is by zumdahl</p>
<p>Many thanks, Sequoia and rdang for your promptly replying!</p>
<p>Ugh, are you kidding me? I already suffered through Zumdahl before...</p>
<p>do the editions of the campbell and zumdahl textbooks matter?</p>
<p>yea. you should be updated with the professors' edition. bio definitely has changed with the phylum/kingdom thing. chem...try sticking with what they assign because if you ask for help, professors probably dont have answer keys of questions for older books.</p>
<p>I know for Zumdahl that's extremely true. In AP Chem, someone had a different edition and all the questions were mixed up and different. The chapters were also divided in a different way.</p>
<p>eh, I'd disagree on the Zumdaahl. if you're a good student and do the homework (which isn't turned in btw) you'll need the current edition in order to know which problems were assigned for that week. but if you're like the vast majority of students, then you'll be using your book more for reference than actual homework. the chem books are expensive so I'd suggest taking your old zumdalh to 'sc and see how long through the semester you can get away with it. if you really do need the latest edition, you can spring for one at the bookstore (which I should also mention is surprisigly competitive when it comes to prices on normal textbooks)</p>
<p>also if you need recommendations for professors: I really liked Dr. Parr. she's nice, she gives a good lecture, she's very approachable, and although she's hard on her exams, she's fair, consistent, and will curve the test if too unreasonable. some people also recommend Dr. Bau as being easy on the tests but I havn't had him as a professor</p>
<p>also to weigh in on the premed courses, don't worry about it. the advisors are great, they'll make sure you don't slip through the cracks regardless of your major. just be sure to communicate you're pre-med and remember to stay on top of your requirements. also remember that your AP's (bio, chem, phys) don't count for most med schools so you'll need to retake.</p>
<p>feel free to contact me if you have more pre-med questions</p>
<p>Hey, arcticdragon, many thanks for your suggestion. The GPA in the freshman year is the most important thing to premed student. I heard Bisc120 was very diffcult to get a "A" comparing to USC honor Biology class even the materials are a little hard. Is this true? Right now, the honor biology is full for this fall. Only having the waiting list. What are your guys opinions about the regular general biology and honor biology at USC?</p>
<p>eh, i wouldn't stress about your GPA freshmen year. it's kind of like getting into college. it's hard to ignore an F from any semester, but if you're showing improvement, and maybe slipped up a little bit your first semester, it's forgivable. besides, if your only claim to fame in your med school application is your grades, you got other problems to worry about. there's a bigger picture that you get to think about. that doesn't mean to go crazy, just not give it undue importance.</p>
<p>the difference between general and honors at the university level is not as wide as it was in high school. yes it might be something you get to brag about on your resume for med school, but it's hardly expected. you should consider honors because it matches your style of learning. if the way they teach honors is right for you, then by all means go for it. I chose not to do honors chem because I hate chem, and gen chem regular was bad enough for me, I didn't need to put myself through that when I had a full engineering course load and TO as well. I did choose to do TO because I really like writing and reading and that program was perfect for me. even though it was a lot more work than the regular GE program and probably not as "pre-med related" as say honors chem, I knew that if I took regular GE's I'd probably not respect/like my classes as much and I would probably get bored, skip class, and just do a lot more poorly. I'm sure they're people who feel the same way about gen chem or biology. that's what I think should be the deciding factor between gen and honor bio at 'SC.</p>
<p>oh i realize i didn't answer your question, yes, it's true. honors is harder, usually a LOT harder. or so they say about honors gen chem and honors physics. sorry =)</p>
<p>I loved bisc 121/221! well, I'll admit lectures were pretty boring. The exams were really difficult, but I did alright overall. I'd say the FSH people studied probably about as much as the bisc120 people. I took IB biology, but I don't think it prepared me that much for FSH bio. I got owned by FSH chem though. I didn't really take chem in high school. Ended up with a 3.3 and 3.0 in chem. :(</p>
<p>Make sure you can register for bisc 121, if you want to do it. Space is limited because it's for the Freshmen Science Honors program. You can do 221 instead of 220 in the spring if you do well in 120.</p>