<p>technically i am only taking 6 classes with 1 recitation and 1 lab
all i want to know is if this is overkill for my freshman year, i posted an old prelim schedule before but i decided on not being an econ major and switched to physics, </p>
<p>How many hours of work should one expect with this type of schedule? per day*</p>
<p>can you say it in terms of per day, that would seem to be more familiar to me. I really can’t grasp it in terms of per week, so i don’t know if 38-57 hours is alot, my bad</p>
<p>57/7 is 8 hours a day w/o classes? seriously?</p>
<p>That’s impossible to do without knowing which days you do your HW or how you divide it up. An average would be 38/7 or 57/7 which is like ~5.5 - ~8.15? hours a day.</p>
<p>i don’t get what so hard about it, english is a joke plus its only on mondays, and intro to cell and molecular bio is also just once a week, that leaves latin, physics, calculus and metaphysics as my main “chunk”. Besides metaphysics, all these classes are fresh/sophmore level classes, its not like i am taking real analysis, ochem, or something.</p>
<p>Your 19 credits are misleading. You have an fairly low number of class hours (your rhetoric class is 3 cr. for 1.5 hrs) and unusually large amount of expected class work for that amount of credits. </p>
<p>Physics, Calc, and Latin are the meat. They’re going to take time, concentration, and thought to work out all the concepts/linguistics involved. A typical freshman shouldn’t take all 3 in one semester, but a Physics major needs to get calc out of the way ASAP. Taking Latin is a subjective choice, but I suppose if you’re going to take a foreign language it’s good to start early. So let’s assume you keep these 3 as your core.</p>
<p>Is cell biology just a lab or a class? Why is it only 1 cr. What type of students typically take it at your school? Here at UW, cell biology is a real course with the typical workload of a 3-4 cr. class. You can’t handle that along with the core 3 above. Rhetoric can be a very time consuming class as well, depending on your prof. </p>
<p>I’ve never taken metaphysics, but that sounds writing/time intensive too. </p>
<p>I would expect ~15 hrs/wk of work and ~25 hrs/wk of studying to keep up in these classes (mainly due to the core classes–esp. Latin which you’ll need to work on daily). It could be more if your professors in Calc and Physics typically assign a lot of work. This is just my guess as a junior at UW-Madison–I have no idea what your professors or your university it general will expect. </p>
<p>Personally, I would slash cell bio and take the rest going into the semester. If, before the drop deadline, you find that it’s too much then you should consider dropping either rhetoric or metaphysics (prob. metaphysics).</p>
<p>EDIT: ^^^To answer your above question, I’d be worried about time, not just difficulty. Completing the assignments/papers in rhetoric and metaphysics will waste time you should be using learning your core classes. </p>
<p>You want to maximize what you learn in college. You might end up learning very little if you’re wasting too much time doing work instead of studying.</p>
<p>this molecular and cellular bio course is just a survey of techniques used at the bench, so pcr, vectors, methods of cloning, etc. i got a 5 on ap bio so i opted to take a lab course, does this change the dynamic of my schedule? and my school has a limit of 6 drops in the ENTIRETY of my college career (4years) so, if i drop one it has to be for a good reason</p>
<p>My adviser considers not just credit hours but the number of “preparations” for week, for which I think he is pretty smart. I wouldn’t do over five.</p>
<p>So you got credit for intro bio and you’re taking its supplementary lab? I don’t think this fits in with the rest of your schedule–it’ll just be a distraction and you’ll probably wish you could spend the lab time focusing on your real courses…It sounds like most people in this course will be taking other bio classes so they’ll be more involved while you’ll be delving into other courses. There’s no coherence between the lab and your other classes, it seems random and I don’t know what kind of pre-reqs it could satisfy as a physics major.</p>
<p>I’m all for taking college head on. People typically exaggerate the difficulty of college, especially if you know you’re prepared (did you go to a prep hs or take a scholarship at your flagship instead of going to a top school?). But just be aware that this schedule is pushing the limits on your time and sleep schedule regardless of how easy the courses will be for you. </p>
<p>If the courses won’t be relatively easy for you, then you’ll be screwed.</p>
<p>Your school doesn’t have a drop/add period at the beginning of the term that doesn’t count against you?</p>
<p>6 drops is about 1 per semester. That schedule is going to be very difficult for your first time in college. Unless you are some amazingly efficient/gifted student, I’d say it’s unlikely you have time to do ANYTHING but study/HW with that kind of schedule. Even still, it would be difficult. Not worth it in your first semester.</p>
<p>You don’t have a drop deadline the first couple weeks of the semester? Usually during that time drops aren’t recorded on your transcript–it’s just like altering your schedule during registration.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that if you drop the bio and metaphysics, you’ll still have 15 credits. If it’s too little, you can increase the difficulty of your schedule next semester. This is only the first of many semesters in college and things can change.</p>
<p>@ justtotalk: it may not seem coherent for a physics major taking intro to cell and molecular bio lab, but i am doing it so as to expand my employability when i apply for research internships with my professors’ and outside institutions. I doubt that as a physics major i will have the necessary skill to do research in a physics lab, so i am opting to take this course which directly prepares me for the bench. </p>
<p>@matt125, i don’t know if they have a period where drops are not counted, if not then i actually only have 4 drops left because i droped honors calculus for regular calc, and dropped econ for physics</p>