I am a Chemistry major who is also planning to go to medical school. I want to take:
RA 101–Freshman Seminar (3 credit hours)
MATH 120–College Algebra (3 credit hours)
CHEM 121a–General Chemistry I (4 credit hours)
CHEM 125a–General Chemistry I lab component (1 credit hour)
PHYS 131–College Physics I (4 credit hours)
PHYS 131L–College Physics I lab component (1 credit hour)
Is this manageable? My advisor says that more than 15 credit hours might be too much. I also want to have a part-time job and be involved in extra-curriculars. (On a side note, I wanted to take Biology 151–Introduction to Biology, but there are not any seats available).
If you hope to graduate in 4 years 15-16 credits is a normal load.
16 credits is perfectly fine. In fact (at my school) it’s common for engineering majors to take 17-18 credits their first semester
16 credits for a first semester freshman is perfectly fine. As others have said, for some majors 16 credits would be on the low end.
Your course selection looks pretty typical. Attend class, do your assignments, get help if you feel you are not understanding the material and you will be fine.
Hold off on starting the part-time job until you get the hang of college academics. You need top marks in all those classes, and the hours of work required may be more than you think / are used to. Those are usually seen as ‘weed-out’ classes and they deserve their reputation.
Since you are in a lower level math course, do you fulfill the math prerequisite for the physics course?
While 15-16 credits is a normal course load to be on track to graduate in 8 semesters, be aware that including two lab courses can make the workload be on the high end of the range.
Agreeing with previous poster that 16 credits is not too many, but I might reconsider 2 lab sciences. And I would definitely double-check pre reqs, bc it’s very common for the chem class to require a higher math as well.
^
Since he’s a chemistry major I imagine two lab sciences classes wouldn’t be out of the ordinary…
Doesn’t Physics have a math prereq higher than College Algebra?
I would hold off on Physics until you’ve at least completed college algebra.
instead, take a class that fulfills a requirement for your general education - history, psychology, art…
My son will be a senior in September. He’s taken 16 credits every quarter in college. His college operates on the quarter system, or trimesters (excluding the summer quarter).
Nope it’s normal and necessary to graduate on time
15-16 credits is completely normal and almost required to graduate on time. I’m taking 15.5 credits 1st semester and I’m a freshman too.
No, in fact it looks like it might be a bit light. Depending on what you declare as your major, you might have to take extra courses to fulfill the medical school admissions requirements. Most pre-meds take between 4-5 classes per semester so that they meet all the requirements.
Agree that Physics with that level of math may be difficult. Can you drop that and add a 3 credit core requirement in Humanities/Social Science?