<p>Hi everyone! I couldn't get a convincing answer by asking around, so this is my first post. </p>
<p>I got back from orientation yesterday and I have enrolled in 4 classes in the e-school. For the record, they are as follows: Calc 3, Intro to Programming, Intro to Engineering, and Engineering & Society. Those four total to 14 credits for the fall semester. I was informed that I need at least 15 credits to be eligible for Dean's list. I would put another class in there, but my adviser told me what I was taking was sufficiently difficult. I was told of the option of taking a seminar or a PE class, but I'm sort of lost as to what to take and/or the time commitment. My question is, is making the Dean's List all that important in the fall of my first year, would this make a difference in getting into grad school? Or would you recommend taking a small 1 or 2 credit class? </p>
<p>As a point of reference, my SEAS son was in the same position, 14 credits first semester, and added a USEM. It was a 2 credit course with less then 20 students. The professor was from the Comm school. It was an excellent experience his first semester to have such a small class, and access and time with a great instructor. He was more then capable of handling the 16 credits (in fact I don’t recall a semester he’s taken less then 16).</p>
<p>Deans List in itself is not important but the academic honors that come later on done the road are. To get intermediate honors or induction in to your school’s honor society (like PBK or the various engineering honor societies) you more or less need Deans List every semester. Don’t slouch academically, hit the ground running.</p>
<p>A one credit phys ed class can be beneficial to force you to get exercise. Too many students don’t get enough exercise their first semester, which is important to keep your mind healthy and to manage stress. It also will help avoid the Freshman 15 from the all-you-can-eat starch at the dining halls.</p>
<p>Our D is premed and GPA, as you probably know, is paramount. She tackled physics, honors (80s series) gen chem/Orgo, labs, psych, etc. her first year. Although she only took 14 hours each semester, she was technically in class for significantly longer. She knew the demands of this schedule, coupled with the 20+ hour per week student athlete commitment, sorority recruitment, etc. would be enough. She made Dean’s List, but this was only because this was the last year (2010-2011) the minimum wasn’t 15. Last spring she had another rigorous courseload and took 14 hours so she didn’t make it, but no big deal because her GPA was high and didn’t suffer. She has slightly over a 3.9 cumulative, and if she makes PBK fine, if not, oh well! Med schools will be more impressed by her cumulative GPA, MCAT, and ECs rather than an honor society recognition, and I doubt they’ll notice she didn’t have a Dean’s List distinction one semester. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>I took 12 credits one semester. I took 14 plenty of times (like jc40 said, the requirement was different). I would agree your GPA is more important than Dean’s List. If you want to add a USEM or phys ed class, fine, if not it’s just your first semester and wouldn’t matter in the long run.</p>
<p>Thank you all. Very helpful replies. I believe taking a small USEM shouldn’t be too much, and it is best to, as was mentioned, “hit the ground running”. Doing so wouldn’t hurt my GPA either!
Once again, thanks! I’m excited to be attending a great university with a great community!</p>
<p>You can always sign up for USEM and if it ends up being too much, you can always drop the class. The school sends out several reminders once it gets closer to the drop date but you’ll have plenty of time to figure it out. </p>
<p>People handle course loads differently. If you’re a person who enjoys class discussions, then USEM would be a good idea so you’re not overwhelmed with E-school only classes. But if the only reason you’re taking it is to be eligible for Dean’s list, then I would reconsider. During one semester, I took an extra course because I thought it would be easy. But I ended up neglecting the class (because it had nothing to do with my major) to concentrate on my E-school classes. I was one of the few E-school students in the class; for other students, the course counted towards their major/requirements. You don’t want to be ‘competing’ against kids who are putting in 100% of their effort into the class. </p>
<p>And yeah… for most general/lower-level Eschool classes, you’re competing with others for grades. Multivar Calc for example, the highest 20% get As, another % gets Bs, and etc. (Can’t say if the same applies to Arts & Sciences courses.) But I think you need should reassess and decide if you have enough time. Unfortunately, the # of credits assigned to a course doesn’t always indicate the amount of hours you need to put in. I have had 3 credit courses that required little effort… whereas chem lab was only 1 credit but took a lot more time.</p>
<p>Finally, don’t stress over your GPA. Not many people decide to pursue Engineering grad school-- as a result, it’s not that hard to get in. Johns Hopkins has a great part-time masters program for working professionals; you will get accepted if you have over a 3.0 GPA and you don’t have to take the GRE either. I can’t speak to/say the same if you are pre-med. </p>