Is Spanish worth 5 credits @dooley55555 : I just know you want to stay in “drop safe” zone. As in, you want to make it such that you have 12 hours left if you drop a course. Also, with biology, 141 and 142 are not really connected and 142 (basically molecular genetics) is more important for more challenging upperlevel biology courses except organismal (240) which you could honestly learn from scratch. If you do biology, be sure to take Spell or Abreu or you won’t be learning the information the 2nd time around either. I heard O’Toole isn’t that good and isn’t easy enough to warrant choosing ease over quality. I would suffer through an 8:30 Spell over taking O’Toole based on the way she has been described. I’m sure the woman is trying, but she is a noob and isn’t quite there yet whereas Abreu is also a Noob but just so happened to get it right. Spell is the veteran among them and is great despite her annoying voice and sketchy ratings on RMP (I think some folks just expect biology to be about memorization, so her ratings are lower because she expects more).
A 4/5 is good enough to skip chem. but go check it out on the first day to see how they are teaching it and see if you’re interested. If they are actually talking about teaching it a little differently/using the room the way it is supposed to be used (it has roundtables and stuff, so there is supposed to be active learning and problem solving during the lecture that otherwise would not take place beyond clicker questions), it could be worth retaking because you may learn it at a higher level if you only got a 4. However, if you get there, and they (again, only choose instructors that have 2 sections to themselves. These are the top ones so go during their times) are just lecturing from powerpoint slides, just gone ahead and skip 141 because it will offer nothing special that you already can’t do and will likely just make things more stressful. And if that is the case, your first semester is better spent with the schedule you have now. Despite my reservations, relearning biology with a good instructor is more beneficial than chemistry simply because from what I remember, Spell, for example, uses several methods to teach and make things more interesting, meaning that you may enjoy a perspective or problems that you didn’t get exposure to in high school. I recently talked to an acquaintance (I helped them with Weinschenk a little) and said that Abreu was very similar and tried to bring his research interests into the class by giving mini-cases and things like that. Basically, at Emory, you can take a teacher where you may actually learn the material differently from HS. Same can’t necessarily be said for chemistry as the way the material is presented may be the same as HS, directly from the textbook (rarely stressing applications and the big picture so much as minutia-They aren’t bad teachers, it is just that the material is kind of dry because they usually teach in a manner that assumes students can’t handle the material in context of higher level applications whereas many biology teachers say “screw it”) …However, I would be pleased if they prove me wrong this year.
Do you mean Math 211? I don’t think you’ll get into Math 221. Linear Algebra fills up fast. I think that’s a solid schedule. No killer courses. I still think you should throw in Econ 101 as well so you have five courses.
Multivariable is what I think aluminum had in mind. Linear algebra, unless you want to take the new one…is competitive however, I just checked (221), and one section has 3 spots. Since 1st semester freshmen at Emory often don’t take it and instead take multi, you may be able to get it.
@dooley55555 It is okay. To be honest, I’d rather you keep Linear algebra or multivariable and save QTM 100- better yet, why not take a real QSS class, QTM 110…ask an NBB advisor if that could work instead because you may be bored or disappointed by 100 as it is large and you have a strong math background.
Usually the NBB and biol dept are flexible on math requirements and certainly do not prevent students from subbing alternative/higher level versions of the baselines. I feel like you’d be more entertained with a medium level schedule. Getting that schedule to medium level just requires deciding either changing the math course or changing the seminar (but I assume the psyc 190 is something you really want because it is one of the course that has not moved from your list). Also, try to get Mialon for econ. I think they’ll be a joke, but apparently they are good (might be the only good one out of the bunch. The really good instructors are at the intermediate level).
And I always recommend ORDER seminar for science majors lol. What is the topic of the psyche seminar that draws you so much. If you skip chem, definitely put biol 141-L or 240 and 141-L back in. Actually, you MUST take 141-L (it is a pre-req, and you must take it even if you AP out of 141 lecture) if you are considering biol 142 in the spring, so keep that in mind. Keep in mind that no biology in the 1st year can be a pain if you’re an NBB major, pre-med or not.
Hi, guys! If you don’t mind, could you give me your feedback on my potential class schedule this fall? I’m planning to do premed & major in biology.
BIOL 141 w/ lab
CHEM 141 w/ lab
PHIL 115: Introduction to Ethics (Voluntary Core Curriculum)
Freshman seminar (either REL 190, which is on religion in Miyazaki films; or ECS 190, which I believe is the ORDER seminar)
PACE 101
Health 100
So I have a few questions: first of all, does that schedule seem manageable? I’d rather not get stressed out this semester because I want to explore the other aspects of college life. I’m not worried about bio much because I had a phenomenal high school teacher and got a 5 on the AP exam, though I am concerned about chem because my teacher was not nearly as good at explaining concepts (though I managed to score a 4 on the AP exam).
Second, I’m having difficulty deciding between the two freshman seminars I listed. Both of them interest me a lot–I’ve heard that the ORDER seminar is a really great experience, but the Miyazaki seminar appeals to a lot of my interests (I love Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli) and since I’ve never taken a class on this kind of topic I think it would be interesting. I know the choice is ultimately up to me, but any advice that could sway me in one direction or another would be appreciated.
Third (I admit this is somewhat off-topic, as it isn’t related to this fall’s schedule), I’ve been considering taking a creative writing course in the future or possibly double majoring in creative writing, but my parents are concerned that taking creative writing might affect my GPA for med school (sigh) and I’ve heard that Emory’s creative writing program is incredibly competitive. Any advice?
Thanks!
Edit: @bernie12 I literally just checked my notifications and noticed that a month or so back you recommended the ORDER seminar to me. (Clearly I don’t check this website often, haha.) Could you give me some pros & cons (if any) to taking it?
@litirali: Don’t waste your time with biol 141 lecture if you got a 5 and had good instruction. Gone ahead and take 240 instead as it teaches in a much more relevant way and emphasizes skills good for the MCAT. I literally had a testimony to this when my friend joyfully contacted me yesterday thanking me for recommending Beck after having taken the new MCAT and getting his score. He said that most of the biology passages on the MCAT were exactly the same format as Beck’s tests and activities in that they had several figures and graphs and asked for interpretation and extrapolation (regarding mechanisms, experimental design, etc). If you have a 5 and are strong, you can do better than biology 141. The lab and biol 142 are okay, but 141 is still mostly memorization and you’re capable of moving away from that sort of learning at this point. Don’t waste your time…note that you’ll also fulfill a column requirement with 240 earlier on in your career while also probably earning an A (mean in 240 is like B+, whereas 141 is B-/B despite like 1/2 of the people having AP credit). Keep in mind that the risk of taking an intro. class like biology at Emory is that some teachers (even if good) will make it harder knowing that tons of students are retaking it. And they don’t necessarily make it hard in a good way. The 141 class ends up emphasizing sort of an “applied memorization” that doesn’t really end up that helpful. The real problem solving and data analysis doesn’t appear until 142. Your decision with chemistry is more sensible to me since you found AP chemistry difficult.
Creative writing is competitive at Emory because there are limited spots in each class and you must apply. The grades are not particularly hard to come by but you apparently will be critiqued by a lot of good writers and this can be painful if you have a big ego or think your writing is already awesome. The idea that one class in the humanities can hurt your GPA is a very strange concept and I think anyone making such a declaration is a bit too antsy.
ORDER vs. the other seminar: Visit both and feel them out.
I just like ORDER because it emphasizes an interdisciplinary perspective, allows for a more exploratory and hands on approaches to learning, and also allows students to design their own projects based upon the research process. I think whether or not you want to pursue research or entrepreneurship in the future, this is a worthwhile thing to take earlier on in your college career, to come up with a proposal and then implement it. The cons is perhaps that its workload is technically higher than some other seminars, but in general the things you get to do in it make it worth it. And everyone gets an A in the end anyway. It also tends to attract some of the better students at Emory (specifically those interested in research and/or science- at Emory, you’ll find many science majors that have high grades, but in this class, you may find a higher concentration of those with passion for thinking and learning beyond their grades), much like your voluntary core course.
My schedule was rougher than yours first semester, pretty much looking like that (I obviously chose the ORDER seminar) but gen. chem was replaced with ochem with Soria (as you should replace 141 w/240 which would actually make your schedule a little easier but more “fruitful” TBH whereas mine was definitely made more challenging) and yet I still had a life outside of class. One fortunate thing was that I had a lot of overlap between several of my classes and could thus make friends in them. Like ORDER, ochem, and biology had a decent amount of overlap. It allowed me to have a core group of friends with similar intellectual interests and inclinations on top of the ones I made in my reshall which were mostly social (I actually went out a decent bit freshman year, especially spring despite biology 2 and ochem 2 supposedly being harder. The fall taught me how to juggle and classes like ochem 1 and ORDER built my problem solving skills to the point where most of Biol 142 seemed like basic logic puzzles to me as opposed to specific content and problem types that needed to be memorized. 142 was just easier to reason my way through, plus some of the genetics concepts were already learned in ORDER modules that year). You also have a decent amount of hours so that if you want to drop a course you can. Even when things got stressful, I didn’t regret it (and again, had the core set of overlapping friends which functioned as a de facto study group as well). I’m pretty sure I would have been relatively bored/disappointed (or at least less engaged) at Emory had my schedule been less challenging (as in I didn’t use some of the preparation I had and felt comfortable with to “place up”). It offered a tighter balance of EC and academic life while also not keeping them separate all the time which I think enriched my perspective on things in a way that keeping the two separate or having a schedule so relaxed that I could primarily just focus on social life could not (honestly, if I wanted to be underwhelmed academically and just involved socially, I could have went elsewhere as a freshman…and it could have been cheaper too).
Any grade of 4 or 5 is fine to skip it. In fact I would suggest taking orgo your freshmen year, and then taking chem 142 2nd semester of your either freshmen or sophomore year to meet the requirement for med schools (or replace that with analytical chem w/ lab or inorganic w/ lab if you’re thinking about majoring in chemistry). It’s still surprising that Emory doesn’t give AP credit for Chem 142, even though the AP Chemistry exam covers essentially what is taught in both CHEM 141 and 142.
And if you’re pre-med, remember that the new MCAT has actually de-emphasized pure physics and gen. chem, and now test both in a biology or biomedicine perspective (which makes more sense since there’s virtually no gen. chem or physics type material in the medical school curriculum). There wasn’t too much orgo in biological sciences section of the old MCAT, but on the new one there’s even less (and makes sense from a med school perspective since you’ll barely have to deal with chemical structures in med school). So having a solid biology background is key, and that means taking more advanced bio classes than just 141/142 will be much more helpful just for the MCAT alone, even if you don’t plan on being a bio major.
Also, a bit off topic but thinking on a broader perspective for the pre-meds, if you are more interested in just getting your degrees faster and starting to make money sooner I would try to graduate in 3 yrs and go straight into med school after (this means applying at the end of sophomore year). This can be done if you only have 1 major and use as much of your AP credit as possible, take your MCAT by the end of sophomore year, as well starting research at the beginning of your freshmen year (and doing some clinical shadowing + volunteering along the way, but these usually aren’t key to separating applicants in the med school admissions process nearly as much as research does). I’m currently a med student myself, and find that the whole med school education process in the U.S. is already a bit longer than it needs to be (in most countries outside US and Canada you go to med school straight from high school, and it’s usually 5 to 6 years long) and also very expensive. Cutting a year out of your education means an extra year you’ll be making money rather than paying money. And there are some 3-year med school programs that have recently started (NYU currently being the main example) so if you want cut out an additional year and save another year of tuition that would be a school to consider (though of course they’re currently very competitive to get in).
Chem 142 will still exist after the 2015-16 school year
Most people come and just stay pre-med/ constantly worry about how much money it will make them and when they can start to collect it. That is what led a UChicago med. school rep. who came to Emory to say live in front of an audience: “Students who take a year off lose 300k”. That is a bit shallow and appeals to the worst instincts of some of the worse students going into medicine who should perhaps find another high paying profession or oppurtunity that they can achieve. Who, after all, says that it is he worst idea for people who think like that to collect money via another type of high paying job after maybe gaining skills in math, computer science, and other sciences right out of college as opposed to going to med. school increasing potential debt load? Medicine is not something someone should just go into for the money because there will clearly be rough periods where most will have to do without it/pretend to have it (loans). If you are planning your undergraduate schedule and choice of med. school based (3 year vs. 4 year) on how much money you lose and not the quality of experience vs. the amount you are paying for, I would reconsider. However, more power to you if you can fit such recommendations well without sacrificing quality. I know of one person who did that, used the year out of undergrad to work and apply to MD/PhD programs, and is going to Michigan this fall. This was a very bright student though (scoring 41 on MCAT, you don’t them). They did manage to get lots of research experience and take the best classes and instructors while at Emory.
As for ochem: Apparently that’s like physiology stuff on the old MCAT according to what the person who contacted me told me. It’s either there more than expected or not. On his exam, none of the passages or stand alones had to do with physiology, but more had to do with ochem than when he took the old (he was unfortunate to have taken the old, didn’t do well, and then had to retake via the new one, but he did well and his coursework seemed more applicable to this MCAT than the old) , In addition, he said the ochem on the new one was harder and required students to know more reagents.
Huh? CollegeStu (a he btw) did have some suggestive things to say and always has (we sometimes discuss these things in person). The person asking for help seemed less concerned with that, I was critiquing/engaging CollegeStu, not the freshman.