How to figure out if you've balanced your schedule well/overcoming freshman struggles

tldr at the end

Freshman year was kind of a struggle for me. I got just above my minimal GPA exception, which is alright, but I struggled immensely with time management and a work intensive schedule. I actually wanted to rush, but had to drop out so I could get grades that met mine and my parents' (especially my parents'...) expectations. My social life actually went to shit and was hoping for a fresh start this year with a better balanced schedule. Any help is appreciated.

(For reference, can skip if you want but it may reveal what type of student I am).
First semester courses: Intro bio (bsci110), general chem, psych 101, and a first year writing seminar. On paper that sounds easy/manageable to some (2 hard, 2 “easy” courses). Actually, it turned out my writing seminar involved more work than any other I have heard of, psych 101 was a lot of notes/time consuming work. I actually spent more time on my so-called easy classes and just barely, if you averaged the GPAs, did worse in my hard classes than my easy ones.

2nd semester: Intro bio, general chem, soc 101, spanish 201w. I actually regressed this semester and my GPA got worse unfortunately.. Spanish 201w was a lot of writing and soc 101 was actually more notes than psych. Again, I spent more time on my easy classes and actually did worse in them than my hard ones.

Overall, I think on school nights I averaged maybe 5 hours of sleep, which contributed to my out of school issues (and probably school performance as well).

tldr:
I was wondering about this schedule: Organic chem (plus lab), physics 116 (plus lab), econ stats, and financial economics.

Is it too much? I’m not terribly excited about 2 lab sciences again, but i have taken AP Physics B which many say is helpful. I heard financial economics is actually an easy A/A- regardless of professor (is that true?) so I want to keep that class and organic chem is a must for me. Concerned about physics 116 and econ stats, largely econ stats because 3 hard courses/2 hard one medium with a lot of work is probably too much. Any advice on this schedule or just scheduling in general? I’m hoping to rush again too, this time with a hopefully more manageable schedule.

Financial economics was definitely one of the easiest classes I took at Vandy. I had Goodyear. Required little time/effort. I believe all of the professors use a “fill in the blanks” style of notes, so there are zero surprises. Don’t worry about that one.

Physics 116 is… complicated. You get weekly online homework which is often unnecessarily difficult, but of course, you have the internet to help you. They go into much more depth than the exams which try to be a little more general but are still tough. Some people breeze through the class. I didn’t, but then again, I didn’t attend the lectures often because gen physics bores the life out of me.

Organic chem is very time consuming. Tons to memorize.

I don’t know anything about econ stats, but this schedule seems pretty normal for your sophomore year. If you’re particularly worried about a course, and you can push it back and exchange for some general ed elective, that certainly wouldn’t be a bad idea, particularly if you’re planning to both rush and pledge this semester. In order to do that, you need to be pretty dedicated to rush right off the bad because bid day is fairly early in the semester, and many who plan to pledge were rushing last semester.

What are some general ed electives that you had an easy time with?

Also, what did you mean by many who plan on fall pledging were rushing last semester? Is there spring rush?

As an engineer with AP credit, I didn’t need to take many gen ed courses, but I always enjoyed MGRL and ENGM courses. Not sure what they count for in AXLE.

Yes, there is fraternity rush during the Spring. It’s smaller and a little less formal (not that regular rush is formal at all). Usually it’s catalyzed by freshman who just pledged their fraternity, bringing around their other freshman friends who didn’t get a chance to join Greek life for whatever reason, whether they decided to rush too late, didn’t rush at all, didn’t have the grades, or transferred. Not all fraternities participate but most do. They’ll take a smaller pledge class in the Fall, I think sometime around late September (leaving little time to rush if you haven’t started yet).

Ohh thanks!

If you didn’t rush in the spring because you were unsure of whether you wanted to pledge or not (and had a rough spring semester too…), is it too late if you start in the fall?

There will be transfer students who arrive for the first time in the Fall and still join a fraternity after just rushing for those few short weeks, so it is possible. It’s a lot easier if you have a good friend in the fraternity. Also, some fraternities are more interested in growing their numbers than finding specific “types” of people, so those fraternities will likely take someone who has only been rushing a few weeks. In fact I think a brand new fraternity just came to campus last year.

Yeah we did get a new one and I think there will be a new one in the spring. I hear newer fraternities are require more work to get them going so I’m not entirely sure if those specific ones are suitable for my schedule but I’ll see and undergo the entire rush experience (hopefully without much trouble from keeping up with school work…)

Also back to the other topic: is taking two labs part of the problem? Would it be better if I switched physics with a nonlab class like genetics, even if that class may be more challenging conceptually?

Are the intro level mgrl courses of similar difficulty to financial accounting?

Physics lab is very easy and nothing to worry about at all. It’s almost childish compared to the lectures and exams.

Financial accounting is probably easier and less work, but the intro MGRL courses are generally regarded as easy. They’ve changed since I took them, but usually they involve some sort of long-term group project that can require a fair time commitment, but the grades come easily. Perhaps ask around on your class FB page, you’ll get more recent info.

Also there’s this: http://vandyeasya.■■■■■■■■■■/

I think that was made two semesters ago so it should still be accurate, nobody updates it though (it was actually created as an HOD or marketing project from my understanding)

Awesome, thanks!

Also, have you heard anything about Physics for the life sciences? I have been asking around but most people I know took 116 for engineers

I’ve heard that Physics for Life Sciences is actually curved much less than regular General Physics. In regular General Physics (both A and B) the test averages were almost always extremely low, and in the end I think something like a 70 would get you a “B” type grade. I remember it being quite difficult to get an A, but not nearly as hard to get a B – just because of how the class is curved/graded. Compare this to Physics for Life Sciences where I believe the averages were always very high without a huge decrease in difficulty. It doesn’t leave much room for a curve. That said, this is just based on my own experience and what I’ve heard from others. It’s possible this can vary greatly from year to year based on the professor and your previous knowledge of Physics.

Did you take general chemistry? How did physics compare with that class?

I only took the first Gen. Chem. I found it much more difficult than Physics. Whether that’s because I took it my first semester or Physics comes or is easier, I don’t know. I definitely put more significantly time into Chem. but got a lower grade than in either Physics class. Physics lab is also much, much easier and less time consuming than Chemistry lab, and you generally don’t have to do any work outside of lab. I will say that the Chemistry professors are much better lecturers than the Physics ones, and that I generally found class not very helpful, but YMMV.

I’ve taken Physics for life sciences; I thought it was a very fair and reasonable class, and did not regret taking it over the engineering one. As mentioned above, the class and the lab are most definitely easier than those for general chemistry. The averages were indeed high, but I didn’t feel that grades were unfairly low or anything. It felt less like an outright, mean-spirited weed out like gen chem and had a more reasonable atmosphere. I guess you have to pick your poison in the manner of competition that you face: either engineers who chose engineering partly because of their mathematical aptitude, or cutthroat gunner pre-meds.

I absolutely wouldn’t rush/pledge with that schedule though. I found organic chemistry to be harder than both gen chem and gen bio. By itself it is a challenge, but having it doubled up with physics would not make for an enjoyable semester if you are trying to get good grades. You could probably survive it, but it would be difficult to really excel. Having two labs a week seems to really devour study time.

Honestly, the best path to a high GPA in Vanderbilt pre-med is intelligent scheduling before intelligence in the classes themselves. The pre med requirements are inherently built to be unfair, and final grades are often results of luck and circumstance. You have to treat them like the beasts that they are, and give them plenty of space and breathing room in your schedule. As a rising sophomore I still held onto the erroneous high school belief that I could succeed in any academic situation as long as I gave 100% effort. Unfortunately, this is not true at Vanderbilt, and poor scheduling can get you into situations that are truly impossible.

If you’re pre-med, there is honestly no practical reason to double up like this either. Biochem is crucial for the new MCAT in my opinion. Unless you are planning on taking it in the spring (and taking it on top of orgo II and physics II - a truly horrible idea) you won’t be ready to take the MCAT during the summer of 2016 anyway, so there is no need to cram in your science requirements this early. I would push physics off until this summer or next year, and take orgo by itself this year. You could fill in with some easy AXLE requirements that you won’t get on the way to your major/minor. Oftentimes, people forget the US History/perspectives/international cultures requirements, and have to take them senior year anyway.

@fdgjfg do you know of a good course I could substitute Physics with?

@Pancaked @fdgjfg How does an intro language, orgo, econ stats, and financial accounting sound in terms of difficulty with and without rush. I want to say it would be fine (2 classes widely regarded as “easy As”, one intermediate course, and one very difficult course) regardless of my extracurricular activities but I know I’m bad at evaluating my schedules haha

I’m not familiar with financial accounting, but I’ve heard econ stats is easy. The bottom level intro language is 5 hours of easy A, that’s definitely a good choice if you still need the foreign language requriement. That looks like a much better schedule than the one you had before. You could definitely rush/pledge with that schedule.

Financial accounting is very easy. Your schedule seems great. Ideal to not have to take Orgo alongside calc/bio/physics.

Great, thanks! Looking to junior year, is physics with biochem a bad combination (worse than orgo/physics)? I think regardless I’ll take physics and orgo and physics 2nd semester (and take the 2nd half sometime junior year) so I can focus more on the upper level courses for my major junior/senior year