Freshman Spring Schedule Help

DId fine last semester but looking to up my GPA and hopefully hit that 4.0 this time. Last semester I took Gen Chem, BSCI 1510, a writing seminar, and an american history class. Did well in the “weedout” classes but slightly worse in the classes that were supposed to be easier. Premed considering a major in Neuroscience or MHS
So for spring:
Definitely taking Chem, Bio, and Neuroscience
On the waitlist for Sociology with Woods - currently enrolled in Faeder’s class but her RMP reviews make me think I’d be better off dropping Soc than risking a low grade
Also enrolled in Oceanography with Goodbred, heard good things but not really relevant to my major or anything, also at the same time as Woods Sociology so I’d have to drop if enrolled
Other options I’m considering to replace Oceanography (advice needed!):
HART 1200 - Arts of East Asia with Miller
ENGL 1230W - Literature and Analytical Thinking with Korsnack
RLST 2664 - Foundations of Hindu Traditions with Turpeinen
JS 2230W - American Southern Jews in Life and Literature with Meyer (not Jewish but seems chill)
Anyone taking these classes/have experience with the professors?
Thanks!

Took Arts of East Asia with Miller. Its definitely a good class and Dr.Miller is extremely passionate about her subject, but theres alot of memorization. I usually started 2-3 days before the tests, and did very well on them.

Sounds good @AnnieBot did you feel like she was a fair grader? What did you end up with in the class?

She was very fair in grading in the idea that she tended to lean towards the higher end of grading( if you wrote something that was sorta right, she would give you the benefit of the doubt and give you all the points). The tests were all free response though, so you actually had to know the information in order to get the points. The only downside to the class was that you pretty much had to attend all of the classes in order to get the information she tested on.

I got an A in the class, but it wasn’t necessarily a free A compared to some of the classes in HOD/MHS. It required some work, but she doesn’t try to screw you over like the gen bio and gen chem profs do. The class and grading was very straight forward.

Hi @stvea349!

I highly recommend any class with Meyer. I’ve taken two classes with him (not the one you mentioned though) and he is SO great. The classes I’ve taken with him are pretty discussion based, so if you do the reading he assigns for the day (or at the very least skim it) and say a couple relatively thoughtful things, you’ll do great. There are short 2 page “response” papers throughout the semester that you can crank out in 20 minutes the night before and usually a couple long papers per semester. I LOVE Professor Meyer as a person - he’s kind of like your chill uncle who just wants to talk about books and get to know his students. He really cares about your success and gives lots of high grades.

With bio/chem/neuro, definitely try to get in to intro to sociology with Woods. It’s an extremely easy class and knocks out some axle requirements. You’ll know it on the first day when more than half the class is composed of football and baseball players.

@fdgjfg : Wow, the shade lol

@fdgjfg what are some other typical “athlete” classes?

That’s the main one that I know of. It’s also full of athletes because Woods is awesome and they all like her a lot. Apparently she used to be in the police; during the class she plays a recording where she was in a sting operation that goes bad and turns into a gunfight. You can hear her yelling and shooting and stuff, so they’re all really entertained by that and like asking her about it.

Other than that, a lot of athletes are sociology majors, so some of the sociology upper levels have a high concentration of athletes too.

Also, if you’re looking for other easy classes, ethics with Lachs is a good one. Another is nutrition but you probably can’t get in there as a freshman.

Do you have AP credits? If you want an easier route to a 4.0 use those and don’t triple up on sciences/take that many courses in 1 semester

If you take the max amnt of AP creds (18), you can take like 4 courses a semester+a couple of labs and graduate on time

I’m enrolled in sociology with woods right now, so good to hear that it’s easy

@hsstudent2015 I honestly feel like it wouldn’t be that hard to improve even if it were a medium level course. especially if you did well in weeders and overall last semester. You should have gained confidence to figure out things with about the same load you had last semester. There should be no need to “construct” a 4.0, you can instead just earn it. You pick a balanced (not necessarily easy, but of course not too strenuous) schedule, and you improve on things you did last semester. In the future, you will need to even think about which classes are more serious about building problem solving and reading skills and stuff (sorry, gen. chem and gen. biol don’t. Those are usually details based or emphasize algorithmic problem solving/relatively straight foward problems) in STEM and not all will be easy, but it will make MCAT practice easier for sure.