Freshman Year Chem Class

<p>Hi, I'm an incoming freshman who plans to major in chemical engineering. Because I received a 5 on AP Chem during junior year of high school, my advisor suggested that I simply not take any chemistry courses at all during freshman year (as the chem AP credit allows me to skip the entire general chemistry sequence), and then take orgo sophomore year. Alternatively, if I were feeling brave enough, my advisor noted that I could just take orgo freshman year.</p>

<p>Is taking no chem classes freshman year actually a good idea? I'm really worried that, by the time of sophomore year, I'll have forgotten most of my chem and be unprepared for orgo. Or maybe I should take orgo as a freshman? I really have no idea what to make of this. </p>

<p>What would you guys recommend I do?</p>

<p>I would take it if it matters to your major a lot and I mean if it is a prereqiuisite for other courses in your major. All you really need is AP chem and if you wanted to get a head start you could learn naming and other fundamental topics by getting a cheap book or just searching online.</p>

<p>–I can’t see whether you should take it first or second year, but I feel Chemistry happens to be one of those subjects that sticks to you pretty well and if you understood the concepts behind AP Chemistry, it’ll be easy to get those brain cells running again (General Chemistry isn’t memory intensive!). I did AP Chemistry sophomore year of High School and took the Gen Chem course second semester of freshman year and felt like I didn’t really lose much over the years…</p>

<p>What you probably want to do is try the old final exams of the chemistry course(s) that your college allows you to skip with your AP credit. Use them to check your knowledge compared to the college’s expectations. Then make the decision which chemistry course to start with.</p>

<p>It all just depends on how you feel. If it’s the norm for students to skip gen chem with AP credit and you don’t need to take the class for any reason, I would just skip it.</p>

<p>For what it’s worth, I got a 5 on AP Chem, skipped general chemistry, and took organic chemistry sophomore year in college. Had no problems at all, even though I hadn’t touched chemistry since junior year of high school. You really don’t need that much general chemistry for organic chemistry, and anything you do need will come back to you pretty quickly or you’ll just relearn it. Everything’s easier to learn the second time around. I know several other students who did the same, and some who took organic chemistry their first year, and we were all fine.</p>

<p>I had the same situation with biology, and I decided to re-take the class anyway my freshman year. Honestly I’m glad I did, because it was a relatively easy A and it helped me refresh my knowledge before starting genetics and microbiology. </p>

<p>If you take Orgo this year, it can possibly help you get ahead of your classmates, as it is likely a prereq for other courses. I know a coworker who did that and he was able to knock out a lot of his required classes earlier and he now can potentially even graduate earlier. Getting a head start freshman year can also give you the opportunity to test the waters and see if this major is really what you want to keep pursuing. </p>

<p>On the other hand, it may be in your best interest to use your freshman year to adjust to college course rigor and to focus on knocking out your non-major related gen ed classes so you can dive right into chemistry and engineering for the remaining years. </p>

<p>It all depends on what you think you’re ready for. In my opinion, I would skip freshman chemistry unless you really believe you need the review. However, there are plenty of other resources you can use that are cheaper and less time consuming to do that as well as opposed to using up two semesters to take the classes and labs that go along with it. </p>

<p>Okay, thank you for all of your suggestions :D</p>

<p>It’ll be a while before I finalize class schedules, so I’ll definitely take your recommendations into account!</p>

<p>Since you are aspiring to major in Chemical engineering, your foundation in maths, chemistry and other required sciences matters a lot.
Compared to HS, college can be tricky. My advice would be not to skip your general chemistry sequence. Yes, it is quite different from organic, but when you start taking advance level chemistry like, analytical, computational and biochemistry … and even GRE chemistry subject that is now being required by some grad schools etc… you will find that freshman General chemistry becomes an unavoidable foundation for life, and this is just not limited to “stoichiometry”.</p>

<p>Best of luck to you.</p>