<p>Would anyone consider taking general chemistry for 'fun'? The general chemistry course I am looking at meets six times a week, three hours of lecture, two hours of recitation, and three hours of lab. I am not a prospective science major, but I think I would enjoy a comprehensive, thorough treatment of chemistry, rather than taking a watered down version of general chemistry (my college offers two alternative one hundred level chemistry courses for non-majors). Advanced Placement Chemistry was not available at the high school I graduated from, so my background only involves an honors chemistry course. Would it be worth my time to take general chemistry, in light of other options (e.g.: other, less intensive introductory chemistry courses) and my prospective majors (economics, psychology, and other social sciences)? Does anyone take the standard chemistry course for premeds, future grad school students, etc. merely for intellectual interests?</p>
<p>If I wasn’t trying to keep a high gpa, I’d probably take a lot of non-major courses (I’m a philo major).</p>
<p>If you are interested in it, I say go for it. More knowledge is always a good thing, I think.</p>
<p>Nevermind, I agree with him</p>
<p>Edit: Nevermind again, his post was deleted</p>
<p>If you don’t need it, you should consider taking it pass/fail.</p>
<p>Technically I took gen chem for fun. I could have gotten away with much easier science courses for graduation, but decided to go through with gen chem. It’s a good course and if you’re smart and work hard you’ll be able to get an A over all the premeds.</p>
<p>I attend Haverford, whose students are fairly non-competitive when it comes to grades. I’m not very concerned about battling pre-meds on a rough curve; I’ve heard grading is very fair in general chemistry. I am more concerned about the time commitment relative to other courses and getting adjusted to college life.</p>
<p>I want to take Advanced Genetics for fun but I also don’t want to shoot my GPA with a shotgun.</p>
<p>I know a girl who took Organic Chemistry for fun and she is a Latin American Studies major and she did okay and the time commitment did not bother her.</p>
<p>It’s probably going to be your most time consuming course, but it won’t take over your life.</p>
<p>Gen Chem is not a very fun class. You’ll run through a laundry list of chemistry stuff and none of it is connected at all–it isn’t a very elegant course. In my opinion, it’s actually pretty boring, but if you think you’d really like chemistry, then go for it, I guess.</p>
<p>If you’ve got a hankerin’ for science, I’d try out the intro mechanics class. It’s pretty cool and intellectually satisfying to see a few basic principles transform into an entire system for explaining the cause of and describing the motion of objects.</p>
<p>If you’ve got a hankerin’ for math, I’d try out a discrete math class or what a lot of universities call “introduction to proofs”. You’ll learn a lot about how to argue and think through things mathematically. A lot of the unpleasant things about math (boring computation) are absent.</p>
<p>I actually think Quantum and Thermo is the better one year sequence, if you have the math for it, because the end result of both of those classes (when taught right), is that you rigorously prove General Chemistry and it becomes obvious that the random smattering of information in general chemistry is really, mostly, the material most easily derived from a few simple model problems in physical chemistry.</p>
<p>That being said, for someone who doesn’t want to learn three semesters of calculus + linear algebra first, I actually think orgo is far more interesting, far more applicable to every day life, and far better designed internally as a sequence than gen chem.</p>
<p>I gotta take a chem class this year to fulfill my science requirement and am NOT lookin forward to it :(</p>
<p>I’m taking Geography if I can get away with it.</p>
<p>Don’t know why there’s so much genchem angst in here. If you can understand “mass/energy are conserved” you’re good.</p>
<p>Go for it, Chemistry is way more fun than people give it credit for as long as you allow it to be. I’ve had a blast in all the Chem classes I’ve had because it always feels like you’re learning a new and astoundingly complex concept while at the same time you’re basing it off what you’ve already learned. I’m a Chem Major so I’m a bit biased…</p>