Important advice for future students (and of course their parents!)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
21

Just to offer the other side to this conversation, it helps if your student really knows their own abilities and self-discipline. Our ds jumped in at Bama with 18 hrs his first semester with 300 level courses intermixed with typical freshman courses. He had been taking upper level math and science courses at local universities for over 2 yrs and had carried really heavy loads during high school. He felt more than prepared for jumping in full speed ahead. He is a sr this yr and has maintained a 4.0 his entire time at Bama.

He would have been underselling himself and been bored if he had taken fewer hrs or repeated courses. But, that is who he is. When he told us he wanted to take 18 hrs his 1st semester, I did wonder if he was making a poor choice, but he was determined. He knows himself very well and was confident he would be fine and he was.

Like most things, no universal truths apply to all students.

22

AP/CLEP credit is very helpful (ds had 55 credits which has helped greatly). But I think it is important for those who are pre-med majors to know that many (most?) med schools do not want to see AP credit in the foundation science courses. It is fine to take AP Bio/Chem/Physics in high school, and will be great prep for college if the course is rigorous enough. But it is not advisable to take the AP credit. I have a bio/biochemistry major as my undergrad degree and knowing how to study is key. I think there are a fair amount of kids who do not know how to study: reviewing notes every day and studying a bit every day, rather than trying to cram, is so important. I also think many get too distracted with socializing that they don’t put 100% effort into studying. And. yes, most of these intro courses are weed-out courses, but as said above that is not necessarily a bad thing! Not everyone is cut out for every major. Because ds was entering with a lot of credit, and because I had heard how hard CS 100 was, ds only took 13.5 credit hours his first semester. Ds ended up on the President’s list and felt it was really easy (we homeschool and he said his first semester of college was easier than any year of high school…lol!) However, I was glad he had an easier semester so he could adjust and really make some good friends. Ds is also taking a lighter semester in the spring because he is taking a couple of hard classes and he wants to be able to focus on them.

23

"Biology and chemistry are both “weed-out-courses at Alabama, and most of the professors are rated very poorly. Any student having the chance to get credit through AP should do so (remember, you do not have to take an AP class to take an AP test; you can self-study).”

This is very major specific. If the student is a pre-med major, they should be aware that some medical schools require you to take chemistry and biology in college. They were advising us that, whether or not D19 gets a 4 on AP chem and bio, she should take it again as a freshman. Because she won’t know for 2-3 years which med schools to which she will be applying and if they take AP credit or not. So it’s safest to just take it as an undergrad.

If you’re worried about taking both chem and bio as a freshman, just try to work it out so you take one of them as a freshman and one as a sophomore.

24

Biology and chemistry are “weed out” courses almost everywhere, since they are required for pre-meds, and the pre-med process is a “weed out” process. Pre-meds skipping those introductory courses with AP credit generally need to take more advanced courses in those subject areas to meet pre-med course requirements.

This seems like a waste of time and tuition if the student is in college to learn something new. On the other hand, if the goal is to grade-grub to boost GPA for medical or law school (at the expense of actual learning), then it is understandable that some students do this.

For those who want to join fraternities or sororities, wouldn’t deferring pledging to a later semester be one way to “just do everything you can to make the first semester not so hard”?

25

I would recommend taking the number below your high school class (ie., you completed Spanish 3 in high school, take Spanish 2 in college) rather than level 1, which is going to be a lot of busy work - lots of pointless hours recording and completing online assignments that count for your grade even though you already know the material.

26

Some students have to get the course sequences in in order to be on track for their major or possible double major. That means they can’t just skate by with gut classes freshman year. Academic scholarships are just that- and if a student for whatever reason cannot maintain the academic prowess, well, sadly, there may be a consequence.

27

Because high school and college language courses do vary in terms of how quickly they cover content, a student with some knowledge of the foreign language (e.g. through high school course work) should check the college’s placement recommendations to find out what the best placement in that language is.

28

The problem with delaying hard classes is that classes in general get harder. If you’re premed and figure “I only need one math, so I’ll take calculus as a sophomore and concentrate on bio and chem”

Sounds good in theory, except now you’re taking upper level bio and chemistry classes along with calculus instead of intro bio and chemistry classes…

29

However, for a premed, only 2 biology classes are required, no advanced bio classes required, so it’d be possible to stagger pre-med pre-reqs over 3 years or 4 years (if, like many, the student takes a glide year).

30

In reference to premed requirements @MYO1634, you may already know this but for the sake of others reading, just wanted to say that there are minimum requirements for many schools, and there are also “recommendations” above the first year of biology that you mentioned. Biochem is definitely an issue.

Example at UAB Med School, as an example, about biology it says:

1 • test introductory-level biology, organic chemistry, and inorganic chemistry concepts;
2 • test biochemistry concepts at the level taught in many colleges and universities in first-semester
biochemistry courses;
3 • test cellular and molecular biology topics at the level taught in many colleges and universities in
introductory biology sequences and first-semester biochemistry courses;
4 • test basic research methods and statistics concepts described by many baccalaureate faculty as
important to success in introductory science courses; and
5 • require you to demonstrate your scientific inquiry and reasoning, research methods, and statistics
skills as applied to the natural sciences.

So to be a competitive applicant (competition is tough out there!) needs to have the year of bio, year of organic and inorganic chem, a semester of biochem, and it wouldn’t hurt to take advanced classes like molecular bio; plus statistics; some other med schools require advanced writing class;

At Alabama, a semester class in Cell Bio is required before a student can take biochem; so that is another class to add to the premed list
Quote from UAB med school about AP and CLEP: is similar at some other schools:
“Applicants awarded AP or CLEP credit for biology are expected to complete 8 hours of additional advanced biology coursework.”

Also may want to be aware that the students are preparing for the MCAT and it contains biology, genetics, biochemistry. Genetics is recommended at some med schools. Quote from the UAB Med School site:
"General Biology 8 semester hours. Embryology and genetics are recommended. "

There again, not a bad idea to have extra bio classes. Different med schools say different things.

Anyone with a new premed, I recommend start by looking at your own state med schools admissions requirements.

31

@ucbalumnus : I meant, for students who don’t have a policy AND are determined to take “an easy course”. Starting in Level 1 when you’ve already taken 4 years in HS seems like a real waste of time and opportunity, even if the student wants an easy class.

32

I’ll chime in here. My DS has just finished his first semester at Bama. He was not the best student in his high school class and his unweighted GPA was 3.89 or something like that. A good student with very good grades, but not necessarily at the top. He did not come in with any AP credit as he was only able to take two AP classes at his small Iowa school, and he chose to take 6 DE credits instead of 3 AP credits for English/LA and didn’t do well enough on the calc AP test to use that as credit. He is, however, very good at standardized tests and as a National Merit Finalist, he received an excellent scholarship package from Bama.

So, he had calc and chem in HS but wasn’t super confident in either. I would say his study skills are probably a little better than average but not the ideal, and he does know to go to class and pay attention while there.

He is in the honors college there and took Honors Calc I, Honors Chem I, Elementary German I (a new language for him), Intro to MechE and a first-year honors seminar that was pass/fail for everyone. I haven’t yet seen his final grades for calc and chem, but he did very well in all in his classes throughout the year. I don’t expect any surprises when grades are final based on his feelings after taking the final tests. He should have well above a 3.0 GPA.

Part of his success may be that the honors classes are smaller and may attract better professors. If your student qualifies for an academic scholarship, they probably qualify for the honors college so they can take advantage of that. He’s also not in a fraternity, so I can’t comment on how that would have affected his grades.

He did not feel overwhelmed by his course load at all and found it very easy to keep up with his classes while doing everything else he wanted to do. I think the previous advice on attending class, doing the homework, seeking help when needed, and knowing your strengths as a student are all more applicable than just taking an easy load or taking classes where you already know all the material.

Just my 2 cents.

33

Everyone is different, so no advice applies to all. While I agree that the average student may want to be careful, don’t let that discourage top students from going after what they think they can handle. DD completed her first semester of 18 credits loaded with nothing but Engineering and Math classes and did extremely well. Reading some of this advice about 1st semester freshman and being careful with what you take had me as a parent worried she was overloaded at first. Many people suggested that she should start with Calc 1 even though she had a 5 on the AP calc exam (and loved Calc in HS). She took Calc 3 and did terrific.

You just have to know your student.

my 2 cents

34

Most of the fraternities and sororities take only one new member/pledge class per year, and that’s in the fall just before the first semester. A handful do small spring semester classes, but only a handful. So if you want the best Greek experience, plan to join in the fall.
Personally, I would take 15 hours, and a balance of hard and “cupcake” courses. Taking 12 hours is unnecessarily light and might delay graduation date on down the line. Taking 18 is very difficult with all the other changes a student experiences. Almost every student has the same basic course requirements and freshman year is a good time to take the basics and get acclimated to a strange new place, being on one’s own, etc.

35

^then pledging Fall sophomore year would make the most sense.

36

@MYOS1634 I’m pretty sure most sororities do not want sophomores and cut most of them first round.

37

Why? It’d allow freshmen to focus on academics and establish their academic and social bona fide on campus, thus have achievements to present for the selection process.

38

The option to rush as a sophomore is there…my dd’s friend did and had a great experience. She had a high UA GPA which worked in her favor.

39

@shelleyr25 Certainly one can rush successfully as a sophomore, but it reduces a girl’s chances. If wishing to join a sorority I think it best to do everything possible to improve one’s chances.

40

For those wanting to apply to med school and take the MCAT, there’s really no choice but to take biology and chem the first year–unless you do a post-bac to bone up after you graduate.

My student did plenty of Honors and AP STEMs, with credit-worthy scores on the latter (5s and 6s.) But those credits were not accepted at his school. Even if they had been, he hadn’t studied chem in so long he wanted to review. There’s been some repetition in bio, but that has been good for his confidence and his GPA.

I do think schools are different in their level of support. I’ve read some sad threads on CC of students in labs struggling with broken or outdated equipment. They cannot accomplish what they need to–and that’s considered part of the “weeding out” process! However, I don’t think any school should set up any student for failure: That’s a fundamental breach of trust.

Choosing a school that takes its responsibility to provide adequate lab equipment and responsive professors (including preHealth advising) is critical to student success. STEM is arguably the most challenging road, and ambitious students deserve the best possible institutional encouragement and resources.

CC is a very useful place for figuring out which programs do well by their students. Where else would you hear about it from the users’ point of view? Thanks for your post OP.