<p>hi,
i was wondering if some upperclassmen could give me some advice, information, etc.
1).so i am planning to take biology, chem, calc, and expos for my first semester... any tips on any of these classes. i heard expos was a joke, but i also heard there are a lot of essays to write.
2). i am thinking of joining some clubs that interested me, but everything interests me. how many maximum clubs should i join while taking into consideration my course load?
3). for the fitness do you have to pay for a membership? idk im really confused about the fitness center part.
4). has anyone done any of the fitness classes, like has anyone added a fitness class to their schedule during fall and spring semester... if so how many sessions are there usually, and whats the price?
5). are you or do you know anyone that applied for the BA/MD program during their sophomore year.... could you give me more info on this.</p>
<p>honestly any info is helpful, bc i am just trying to understand rutgers so i dont miss any opportunities. if i wrote anything wrong, please correct me. thank you!</p>
<p>1) A lot of people find expo’s challenging, I guess it depends on how well you can write. I tested out so I don’t know.</p>
<p>2) Its not easy to gauge how difficult your course load is. It depends almost entirely on you; if you took a lot of ap courses you shouldn’t find it all that difficult, if you haven’t you may find its quite work intensive. At any rate, first or second week there’s a big club fair, pick a couple you think are interesting and them drop the ones you aren’t crazy about as you adjust to your work load. Remember is easier to drop clubs then find new ones in the middle of the semester.</p>
<p>3) Fitness center is free, just flash your ruid</p>
<ol>
<li>To tell you the honest truth if you go on around this part of the site, expos is no joke, because I heard it basically makes you throw everything you learned about writing good essays in HS out the trash if you learned it a bad way. I wouldn’t treat any classes at Rutgers a joke, because it’s so competitive.</li>
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<p>I had a couple of friends actually that went into the medical part of Rutgers and it’s no freaking joke. One had straight A’s and scored a 2080 on the SATs and went to almost flunking out of the school. My other friend was the saludictorian of his class, took all APs, and had a 2100+ on his SATs and flunked out of pre-med and switched into another part of the school. At a big public school like Rutgers, especially because its a public ivy, don’t take anything too lightly.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>What I’m planning to do is do a couple of ones I really want to do, like maybe one or two clubs and build on from there, because I wouldn’t know how to gauge what free time I might have. It’s really important from what I hear to waste your ‘free time’ on school activities so you can unconsciously teach yourself how valuable time is.</p></li>
<li><p>Fitness is free, and the one I went to at orientation, which was Sonny Web. on Busch, and it looked fantastic. Loads of nice kept cardio and muscle machines, a big swimming pool, and a lot of wall rooms as I like to call them.</p></li>
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<p>One of the cooler things about the fitness center is that they have what my orientation leader like to call the pinch test, where the guys who work there pinch you and calculate your body % fat and give you a customized workout and diet all for free too.</p>
<ol>
<li>From what my orientation leader told me, those classes were like $3 a session and they were like the custom P-90x or Insanity type things, but I can’t remember what he exactly said. If my memory serves me right, he said it’s just a lot easier paying the $50 (I think?) fee so (ugh, I’m pretty sure this was semester, not too sure…) you don’t keep swiping your RU or guzzle out cash.</li>
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<p>^^ RU has a rep for being known as a public ivy</p>
<p>nice post, im in the same exact, and i mean exact sitch as you, i had the same questions in regards to the course load (taking same exact classes), clubs, medical program, and fitness.</p>
<p>thanks! how do you decide what meal plan you want? i think i did it a long time ago, when i decided my housing application, but im not sure. but then today i looked online and there is a website where you can pick your meal plan? once again so confused. so if someone could explain this to me that would be great, and also could you tell me what meal plan you are planning to take? thank you!</p>
<p>all freshmen need to get atleast 210 or if you want higher. But trust me you do not need more than 210. </p>
<p>-Expos can be easy if you are good in writing but people say they are good in writing but not good enough for rutgers.
-As for your schedule, don’t think you are going to get a 4.0 if you party every week and try to cram for exams. Rutgers has students that want the A hard enough that they will diminish their social life for it. So if you plan on trying pre-med, you have to have priorities set. One advice i can give for you for chem and calc is to do practice problems after each lecture and recitation. These are crucial so you dont have to cram as much especially with Bio memorization and the mandatory 1 day per week 3 hr lab.</p>
<p>-BA/MD is VERY COMPETITIVE. They look for highly motivated students in their studies. Most have at least 3.7 GPA to be considered and some might not make the cut.</p>
<p>You can upgrade at any time, but you can only downgrade the first two weeks. Freshmen who are living on campus are required to take the 210 plan as a minimum, as someone posted. Commuters and off-campus students have more options.</p>
<p>"Meal Plan/RU Express Change Requests for the Fall 2012 Semester: </p>
<p>New Brunswick/Piscataway meal plan add/change requests for the Fall 2012 semester are currently being accepted in person at the RU Express Office located on 620 George Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 and online. The last day to reduce or cancel your meal plan/RU Express is Tuesday, September 18, 2012. Click here to reduce or cancel your meal plan Click here to reduce or cancel your RU Express."</p>
<p>Once you are out of the change period, you must go in person to 620 George St. in order to upgrade your plan.</p>
<p>ps: I agree that you will probably not need to upgrade from 210 meals. I think my son struggled to use 150. Remember, sometimes you will go home, you will skip breakfast, you will eat out or get takeout from somewhere other than Rutgers.</p>
<p>First off, good luck taking all those classes at once. I AP’d out of Bio and Chem so I can’t give you feed back on them from personal experience, but a lot of my friends who took them said they were hell. I had Calc first semester and it wasn’t terrible. Depends on your professor, though. I had Seneres and she was AWESOME. Her lectures were interesting and she made sure everyone understood what was going on. My best friend took Calc second semester and was miserable because her professor just didn’t care if people did well or not. Expos was the same. I was in honors expos and it was a little different from normal expos, but basically all of us suffered. Whatever you do, do not underestimate expos. But also don’t be discouraged if you do poorly on your first essay or two. I got C’s on my first two essays and still managed to pull off a B+ in the class because I listened to my professor’s critiques and forgot everything I learned about writing in high school. Pretty much every class at Rutgers depends on the professor. Bad professor = tough class, good professor = tough but enjoyable class.</p>
<p>As for clubs/activities, I definitely second the idea to check out the fair the first week. Sign up for more than you think you’ll actually join and don’t be afraid to check out meetings by yourself. Only you know how much you can handle and don’t be afraid to take a break from a club for awhile if you need to focus on school stuff. Trust me, people understand how overwhelming things can get, especially during exams, and no one’s going to hold it against you if you don’t show up for a week or two.</p>
<p>I still haven’t personally used the fitness centers, but according to my friends you can basically just walk right in and use the machines whenever as long as you have your RUID. I think you might need to fill out a fitness thing first and get a sticker for your card, but after that you just walk in. I have no idea about the classes or the BA/MD program.</p>
<p>I will personally guarantee that you do not need more than 210 meal swipes. You won’t even come close, I promise. My first semester I had the 255 plan and ended up with about 100 left over. Downgraded to the 210 second semester and tried really, really hard to use them all and still had over 50 left. You won’t need to upgrade.</p>
<p>Hey there, has anyone here taken Principles of Organic Chem 315/316 with Seidel? I heard it was pretty tough, so I’m debating taking it in Fall of Freshmen year, but I AP’ed out of Gen Chem and Gen Bio, so I wanted to take a science. Any reviews/advice?</p>
<p>bonanzae- What’s your major? If you can get away with waiting a year to take Orgo, definitely do that. I was in the same situation and asked my advisor if I should take Orgo my first semester and she told me to wait because it’s a 300 level science class and would probably overwhelm me as a first year. I’d advise that instead of pushing yourself into a harder science class, try and fill requirements your first year. That’s what I ended up doing and it worked out well.</p>
<p>i don’t know about principles of organic chem but regular organic chem that A LOT of students take is Organic CHem 307/308. I advise you not to take orgo freshmen year. Set up a solid foundation for your GPA because Organic chem is a class that isn’t scared to fail a majority of the students.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I’m an intended Psych major going the Pre-med track, so Ill be taking Orgo eventually, but I shot an email back to whoever sent me the invitation asking if I’d still be eligible to take it next year. I definitely don’t want to overdo it in my first year</p>
<p>knight2015 - You said earlier you AP’ed out of Chem and Bio. Out of curiosity, did you take any sciences Freshman year?</p>
<p>if you want to take a science course, take physics. It is doable, there are some teachers who are easier than others you got to figure that out through webreg on whos teaching and using ratemyprofessors.</p>
<p>I took three Animal Science courses second semester (I’m an Animal Science major), but no pure science classes. Taking Orgo I in the fall. Rutgers science classes are hard. Even though I didn’t have any this past year, all my friends were in Bio, Chem, or Orgo (lot of upperclassmen friends) and they were miserable. A 60 was considered a good grade for most of the exams and a lot of people who I know are really smart were getting in the 30s and 40s. So I’d advise you take it a bit easy your first year. Settle in, take some GPA boosters or fulfill some easy requirements, just get used to college and leave Orgo until next year.</p>
<p>hi so im a vegetarian, and i went to the orientation and i dined at livingston, and the only vegetarian food there was pasta, pizza, and fruits. i was wondering if any upperclassmen that live at rutgers can tell me if there are other options for vegetarians in THE DINING HALLS? please let me know. Thanks!</p>
<p>i know in busch dining hall they have a vegan area, also there is always a salad bar. I don’t know if they do this for vegan but you can call in before you come into dining hall to get certain foods like for certain diets or kosher/halal. During the school year there are more food options, its just because its the summer that the selection is low.</p>