I will be a freshman this fall at the University of Tennessee and I am very worried about my schedule. But first, some context. I graduated with a 3.96 GPA and I have taken 11 AP classes and have never made below an A in an AP. I am currently planning on Double Majoring in Bio and Wildlife/Fisheries. They suggested we take 15 credits for the first semester but I really want to get through my GEN EDS quick so I can complete both Majors in 4 years. So my schedule right now is:
Bio 100 (1) - Exploratory Bio
Bio 158 (3)- Honors Organsimal Bio
Eng 198 (3) - Honors Program English
Calc 142 (4)- Calc 2
HIEU 241 (3)- Western Civ
Chem 120 (4)- General Chemistry
I also wanna explain more background. Exploratory Bio is a really basic/ easy class. And Honors Org. Bio is supposedly an easy A(per student survey reports where 68% got A’s). For Honors English, It is also,supposedly an easy A. For Western Civ, I have already taken AP Euro( HIEU 242 Credit) so I am basically retaking the course.
I’m sorry to make this so long, but I just wanted to be thorough. So basically, do you think I should proceed with 18 credits for my first semester or should I drop H. Organismal Bio and go back to 15 hours. My top priority is really to keep a high GPA. Thanks for any help!
Haven’t you used AP credits for most gen eds? How were your scores?
Yes, 3 science classes and math is too many. In fact 2 science and 1 math is also s lot.
Which AP tests and scores do you have? https://admissions.utk.edu/apply/college-admission-requirements/ shows what they are accepted for at Tennessee.
While the courses may not be that hard, the two science courses with labs, a writing-emphasis history course, and the English composition course could be high workload courses. Taking four high workload courses while taking more than the normal load (18 credits instead of the usual 15-16 credits) in your first semester of college may be high risk.
If you will be “basically retaking the course”, why take HIEU 241?
The honors courses may have a lot of students earning A grades because the strongest students choose them. They could still be harder than the regular courses.
My AP classes did cover alot of my Gen Eds but most of them only counted as electives. My scores were all 4s and 5s except for Lit/Lang because I can’t write to save my life so I got 3s
We are required to take HIEU 241 & HIEU 242 as a pair. AP Euro covers the 242 credit but I still have to go back and take 241 even though its focus is within the AP Euro curriculum.
I also went through and used ratemyprofessor and the student surveys to determine the quality of each teacher and the difficulty. I know most of these classes sound bad, but from what I can tell, both Bio 100 and 158 are pushover classes with bad teachers who hand out easy As. I also HAVE to take at least 5 Honors courses and 158 falls within my focus.
Honestly, two science lab classes, calculus and two writing heavy classes sounds like a lot. That said, you can try it and then drop one class if it’s too much. Put the drop date in your calendar so you don’t forget.
http://catalog.utk.edu/content.php?catoid=1&navoid=213 says, for the Cultures and Civilizations general education requirement, “taking two courses from the following list” satisfies it. It does not appear to specify that pairs of specific courses need to be taken. Or is taking HIEU 241 and 242 together required for your honors program?
walk before you run.
college is very different from HS- no one will be asking if you have done your assignments which are now weekly ,not daily, the classes are harder, there is no hand holding by profs, so if you get in trouble its up to you to ask for help, you’ll have more unscheduled time to figure out when you are going to get homework done.
so take fewer classes your first qtr/ semester.
That is too many credits. Take 15 or maybe 16 to ease into college a little bit more. College is a step up from high school.
Calc 2 is a hard and time-consuming course. It can be a cakewalk or the hardest since many professors try to weed out many STEM majors. Can you give more details about Bio 100 (1) - Exploratory Bio? Is this an elective or major course?
Absolutely agree with @menloparkmom.
Also, when do you plan to take care of your personal needs?
Laundry, cleaning your room, doing homework with the double reading schedules, required team lab groups? These all take time and management skills.
You will be expected to adjust to a college schedule and meet with professors or their grad assistants.
It doesn’t matter how many AP’s you did in high school; these are NOTHING like college level expectations. As for Ratemyprofessor, ratings can be misleading. My former students were often stunned at their first quarter/semester grades.
After reading through the comments, I have to say that I agree. I wanna start off with a reasonable course load and gauge myself from there. Im going to drop Honors Bio 158 and so I will be back at 15 hours. Thanks to everyone for the advice!
My D takes 17-18 credits every semester and also works about 15 hours/week. In contrast to popular opinion, I think that first semester (and sometimes 2) is generally the easiest and can be much review. I’d take the 18, mark your calendar for “drop date”, get some insight via syllabi and professors and figure it out from there. Its nice to get those pre-reqs out of the way and have fewer classes once they require max effort.
Are you playing sports or planning to work? Those might be considerations. And it is different from high school but if you are used to AP classes and have good time management skills, you should be fine.
Sounds like OP made a good decision. I don’t think taking 18 credits a semester is impossible, but is really not the best idea for the first semester.
OP has made their decision (which is a good one), but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that 18 credits is not unheard of (or even unreasonable) for freshman. At my school, freshman engineering students routinely take 17-18 credits in their first semester to complete all the GE pre-reqs. It’s not ideal, but it can be done with the right amount of dedication and a really strong work ethic.