<p>So I'm trying to figure out what my schedule's going to be freshman year...</p>
<p>Would you recommend taking Freshman orgo or just taking gen chem? I want to double major in econ and chemistry. I'm also Pre-med. How difficult and time-consuming is Freshman Orgo?</p>
<p>Is it too hard taking Intro Bio, Freshman Orgo, and Economics 101 & 112 in one year? Plus English (maybe, I have a 5 in English though), Calculus II, and Freshman Seminar?</p>
<p>What about this combination for freshman year: Bio 141 & 142, Freshman Orgo, Math 107, English, Calculus II, and Freshman Seminar?</p>
<p>Those listed above are the classes I'm interested in taking. Is this too difficult/rigorous? What would you guys suggest?</p>
<p>You definitely will want to take freshman orgo, especially since you are double majoring. It will free up quite a bit of time since you won’t have to take gen chem+lab, and since you are a chem major, you will have to take upper level chem classes anyways. You can use these upper level classes to fulfill the 1 year of chemistry requirement for premed. Also if you take gen chem now, you will probably have to take physics and orgo together during your sophomore year. </p>
<p>Your schedule is definitely doable (but still difficult), and in the long run, it will make things much easier for you.</p>
<p>It matters. Take your AP credit for the freshman English requirement. Gives you more credits so you can enroll in classes before people with less. You will have to take 3 more writing classes to graduate anyway and you can just have one of those can be the English course for your pre-med requirement. </p>
<p>I can’t tell you much about econ but I haven’t heard any bad things about it. Taking orgo/bio with the intro econ classes won’t be too bad if you work at it.</p>
<p>I thought u were gonna take gen chem based on ur other thread? Or did that letter from Dr Soria convince you otherwise?</p>
<p>And as a chem/econ major myself, I and most others will tell you that the econ courses here are a joke, especially the intro ones, so not to worry.</p>
<p>I’m still not completely sure if I’m going to take gen chem or orgo haha. Is it easier to get an A in the regular orgo classes vs. Freshman orgo?</p>
<p>Normally A=93-100 A- = 90-92, but freshman orgo is like 95-100=A, 89-94=A- and its like a 55 to fail. There are 4 exams, 7-8 quizes and a couple random assignments. There is no curve but for the harder exams you will probably get quite a few bonus points if you participate in class. Getting an A first semester is not too bad if you keep up with the material and not get scared by his scary looking test questions, but getting an A second semester will require more effort since the material is cumulative.</p>
<p>He doesn’t really post averages or the grades so there is no way to know for sure. Its safe to say that a good amount of the class got above a B both semesters but there weren’t many A’s second semester. The regular organic lab is quite a pain in the ass but if you are invited take Jose’s 226/227 lab I would do so.</p>
<p>I’m gonna do the BS in Chem and BA in econ. I haven’t exactly taken many courses in both areas, but it’s definitely more work and requires overloading to 20+ credit hrs during several semesters. </p>
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I personally took freshmen orgo fall semester and a regular orgo section with Dr. Weinschenk spring semester, and would have to say that it’s somewhat easier w/ Weinschenk due to a smaller percentage of hardcore chem students in the class. My recommendation if you want to take orgo freshmen year is to not take the special freshmen section but one of the regular ones filled w/ sophs and upperclassmen because the freshmen orgo tends to be filled with many of the best chem students in their grade. Here are the curving methods (or as much as I know of) for the various orgo profs:</p>
<p>Dr. [Jose] Soria, the freshmen orgo lecturer, has a fixed scale and does not curve the class at the end of the semester. His scale goes by 5-point increments so that 95-1 = A, 90-94 = A-, 85-89 = B+, 80-84 = B, 75-79 = B-, etc…, which makes it easy to get a B but VERY hard for an A. Like megasupa said he doesn’t post actual stats so I can only guess, but I’d say about 8 to 9 out of 65 people got As first semester. Yes, he does give bonus points as well which is like his method of curving, but you have to work for them.</p>
<p>Dr. Weinschenk will usually curve his class average grade to a B-, but it’s not an even curve since he reaches his target class average by boosting the lowest grades the most and the highest grades the least.</p>
<p>Dr. Blakey, another regular orgo prof, artificially bell curves his class so that there are many B range grades but VERY few As and A-s (last spring he gave out 4 As and 7 A-s out of a class of 80 students).</p>
<p>Jose’s earned curve probably inflates grades more than you think. It significantly inflates the amount of people getting over B- for example. And some people would beg to differ regarding his class being harder than Weinshenck’s merely due to the fact that better students are in there. That cannot be proven becaus normally those in upperclassmen orgo. have college chem/science experience. Admittedly, Jose’s finals are terrible and he does introduce some different/non-traditional material that is not covered in general organic chem. courses. But you can do it. And I’m sure that many students get B+/A- in his course. These are not bad scores at all. If the As were 90-93 with all of those bonus points, his course average would be far beyond the others. </p>
<p>Also, Jose gives nice “placebo” exams each semester (either 1 or 2 per semester) to weed out the really weak students before he intensifies the material and testing style. This helps students that are strong enough to boost their grade and rack up bonus points before the last 1-2 exams which can be insanely difficult if you became complacent. You don’t get such buffers in Weinschenk’s class. Both profs. are tough, but put a significant amount amount of time into the course. Some would argue that they can’t tell b/c of Jose’s abstract teaching style, but he does a number of things to improve the outcome of the classes students that have potential. He often experiments with learning methods and clearly integrates mandatory out of class work that encourages a collaborative environment. Last year’s synthesis group problems in his orgo. II class improved the performance of the class quite a bit, especially on the synthesis problems. My year, we got to the final and were generally completely unprepared for the synthesis on the final. This year, he will make sure that students don’t fall through the cracks by integrating a review/problem solving session into one of the lab days. This will cover more basic material, while the discussion session problems will now only cover the more difficult material. For this reason, I think he is requiring people to take the lab if they want his lecture this year. He wants to make sure that no student is able to claim that he did not expose them to some of the important/basic concepts. I know him really well, so I get all the insider info. lol. Despite his demeanor and sometimes tough love, the man wants the worthy to succeed, but is not willing to go far in terms of inflating grades to make this happen. He provides other means for you to succeed. Use them to your benefit. I highly recommend the class, as you may hardly ever experience a classroom environment like it again if you become a chem. major. Much more personal than the large lecture rooms (other than Morkin’s special section) for gen. chem.</p>