<p>While I agree with both BerkeleyMom and Antarius, I don’t think it will do too much harm for current students to share a little insight. </p>
<p>The thing about Gen Chem and Intro Bio is that the professors will most likely change by the time you matriculate, and therefore the class organization will be different. Dr. Hutchinson has been a long-time professor of both semesters of gen chem, but because of how busy he is with his new position as the Dean of Undergrads, he will not be teaching gen chem anymore. Dr. Hutchinson’s last semester of teaching was this past fall (fall '10), and now another professor (Dr. Weisman) has taken up teaching the second semester. While the second semester seems to be somewhat similar in class policies to the first (e.g. both gen chem semesters grade based on flat point values, not a curve), it’s too early to tell how similar/different Dr. Weisman’s class will be in regards to grading policies, test styles, and such . And there’s no telling who will be teaching gen chem next year and what their class will be like, so any info a current gen chem student could give may not be relevant later on.</p>
<p>The same goes for Intro Bio. Dr. Gustin, a long-time professor of Intro Bio (and - correct me if I’m wrong - the only professor), is going to be abroad next year doing research, and someone else will be teaching the intro bio class. I don’t know what the class sizes or grading policies will be for next year’s class.</p>
<p>However, I’m pretty sure one thing is going to remain the same despite any changes to class structure: the competition is going to be pretty cutthroat. The intro science courses are going to be tough anywhere, really. It’s not uncommon to see pre-meds (and many students of other majors/academic tracks) studying 10 and more - I’m not kidding - hours a day to earn the few A+s given to the top students in gen chem/bio. If you want to do exceptionally well in any class (especially the intro sciences), be prepared to use time wisely, stay up late (because there is often much more studying to do than can be done just during the daytime), and know your priorities. </p>
<p>One thing I do suggest strongly (and Antarius and others may disagree, but I have my reasons) is looking over the courses you would like to take and making multiple possible schedules you would like to have before you even step foot onto Rice. As in, make schedules A, B, C, and D, just in case you don’t get into a class you’d like to have (which is often the case for freshmen students). Don’t wait for O-week and the academic advising during O-week to do this. Here are some reasons why:</p>
<p>1) You hardly have time for anything other than O-week activities during O-week. One of the things I was unhappy with the general O-week experience was how little time was given for students to look at the courses offered and make their schedules during O-week if they hadn’t already done so before coming to campus. At least in my O-week experience, we were introduced to the resources for making a schedule on one of the earlier days of the week and were told that registration was in two or three days. For the next two days, however, we hardly got any time to plan our schedules and usually went to bed exhausted at midnight. If anyone wanted to plan their schedule, they would have to stay up late (despite being already exhausted) and try to figure it out. It was pretty frustrating having so little time during the day to devote to something so important. There were only a few hours dispersed here and there for academic planning, but that isn’t nearly enough (imho) time. Even though I had made a rough outline (or two) of what classes I would like (with the times scheduled as well) before O-week, I still had a hard time getting my schedule ready for registration (because of unforeseen obstacles such as filled up classes, changed time slots, etc). I would advise incoming students to come prepared if they want a smoother (and less stressful) O-week experience.</p>
<p>2) Academic advising tells you to have a schedule planned before you come to the one-on-one session anyway. During O-week, you will indeed have academic advising and peer advising (upperclassmen tell you what some of the classes are like, etc), but it’s only valuable if you’ve already done the bulk of the work and know how you want your schedule to potentially look like. It will save you a lot of time during O-week (where time is precious and sleep is little) to have done this already.</p>
<p>3) While it’s usually helpful to talk to upperclassmen about their experiences as a certain major (to get ideas for your own), a lot of times it really isn’t helpful. Your experiences will be different from theirs, and your professors may not even end up being the same (see Dr. Hutchinson and Dr. Gustin example above). Not to mention that all the upperclassmen I’d asked about their majors gave vague answers that didn’t really give me a feel for what it’s like to study that particular field. It’s really up to you to explore where you may be interested, and upperclassmen can point out some classes that may guide you in doing this. Keep in mind that you don’t really know how well these upperclassmen did in these classes, and don’t assume all the peer advisors are fantastic (or even good) students because <strong>not all of them are.</strong> Depending on the level of success the upperclassmen peer advisor has had in a certain course, their evaluation of that course could differ (sometimes significantly). Don’t rely on the peer advisors and their word too much.</p>
<p>I am aware that many people don’t think of their schedules until O-week, and that is completely fine. However, a little preparation can go a long way and give you more time to fine-tune your schedule. I’m not saying everyone (or even anyone) needs to heed what I have listed above. This post is just my personal experiences concentrated down to some advice to anyone who is willing to take it.</p>
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