<p>I will be starting college this fall..
and I'm planning on taking bio, chem, English and calc I
(I'm a biology major with pre-pharmacy as an advising track..)
If I take all 4 of those classes, I will get 18 credits by the end of first semester..
I'm not so sure about this, but, some of my friends who went to orientation said
that counselors don't let freshmen take that many credits..
(or they don't recommend taking chem and bio concurrently in their first semester..)
would it be a lot of work?
(since I want to major in biology and go to pharmacy school, I will have to take bio and chem at the same time at some point..)</p>
<p>Well if you can’t take 18 credits freshman year, you will have to drop a class, won’t you?</p>
<p>Students taking chemistry and biology in the same semester is common so it’s definitely possible, just don’t under estimate the workload, it will be a lot. </p>
<p>It doesn’t really matter the combination you take those classes…but if you are majoring in biology it makes sense to start with that, though I am sick of biology so I would take chem and calc I at the same time. But for you prob. take bio and chem or bio and calc I.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t be my ideal schedule, but I suppose it’d doable. Just be prepared for a lot of work.</p>
<p>I am taking 18 credits this semester (the normal for freshman at my school is 4 full credit courses which equals 16 credits). I am also a bio major and all freshman bio majors are placed into chemistry and bio by the school (and are told NOT to switch out of either so basically I’d say it’s required to take both in the same semester). My 18 credits consist of bio, chem, calc, band, chorus, and my required freshman seminar (Irish Cinema yippee)…the band and choir are only worth one credit each so that’s where the extra 2 credits come in. I really don’t see it as a lot because the ensembles would normally be extracurriculars were they not credit bearing and I enjoy music very much. When it came time to do my scheduling I was really only allowed to choose one full credit course and we were advised to choose either a math or language, and seeing as I couldn’t physically make the language classes I was forced to go with the math. I see it as doable and am prepared to work hard to make it even more so.</p>
<p>its a lot of work, but it should only be an extra class or two.
if your planning on doing pharmacy, be prepared to take that many classes, and most of these classes will be hard. however, it will all pay off, i was a pharm major myself, but realized the field wasn’t for me. anyway, make sure you take chem very seriously, it will be your LIFE soon.</p>
<p>i’m not even taking chemistry and biology together first semester and i have 18 credits</p>
<p>chemistry (4), chem lab (2), calculus (4), WTE (4), conwest (4) = 18</p>
<p>It depends on your school - in my college, 16 to 18 credits is the norm and not considered difficult at all, it’s what most people do. 4 classes + labs come out to 18 credits here, so most science majors have 18 credits per semester. So 18 credits is considered typical here and not stressful, you don’t have to sacrifice social life - I did 36 credits freshmen year, had a part-time job, and plenty of free time. </p>
<p>In other colleges, 12-15 credits is the norm and 18 would be really difficult and unusual, take up a lot of time, etc. So check with whatever’s typical of your college. It seems like your college system is similar to mine, (4 classes come out to 18 credits) so it shouldn’t be too hard. It seems like a pretty typical freshmen schedule. How difficult it is depends on whether you’re good at those subjects or not. If you’re not a math/sci type person, a Calc 1 course might be hard (I thought it was easier than preCalc), if you’re bad at English, that might be hard.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t take a full load for your first semester. You should leave time to do other things like make friends and meet people.</p>
<p>If this is the maximum amount of units/credits you can take then it is sure that you’re doing a full load and you will sacrifice your social time for it.</p>
<p>those are all pretty serious courses, and its unusual for people to take 4 serious courses like that at a time. it doesn’t look like there’s much you can do if you haven’t taken care of your english/math credits in high school.</p>
<p>hell, might as well tack on physics</p>
1 Like
<p>I agree with Alix2012 it does depend on your school. Like I said 16 credits is considered the norm at mine, and the school preregistered me for bio and chem so unfortunately I didn’t have a choice in the matter. Luckily my freshman seminar is pretty much a throw away topic. A former teacher of mine graduated from the same college and she told me she was forced to get special approval to take 20 credits just to graduate. It just all depends on your school and major.</p>
<p>i’m taking 15</p>
<p>Yes…</p>
<p>If it’s all science, yes. If not, you can handle it. I had over 22 my first semester. Once you tough it out, you can take any amount of credits and handle it. You quickly learn your work ethic or bust. Most at my school take 11-16 the first. But, if you’re someone who likes to challenge themselves, there’s nothing wrong with starting off with one.</p>
<p>Not really.</p>
<p>Lol I have a friend who wants to take >20. Hes a genius (and I mean genius who scores 2300+ without studying and deciding to take it on a whim). So I GUESS its possible to do, but its really hard - so you wanna be sure you are prepared.</p>
<p>I am thinking about taking 18 units: </p>
<p>asian thought & cultures (3)
elementary japanese (6)
introductory psychology (3)
rhetorical written arguement (3)
afro-american history (3)</p>
<p>my mom says i should take it easy my first year but i would rather get all of my graduation requirements out of the way early since i am going in with an undeclared major. plus, i already have 15 units out of the way due to AP classes i took in high school. so realllly, by the time im done with my first semester at sdsu i will already be a sophmore. im just concerned school will take over my life as i do not know what the work load will be. i have a part time job and a boyfriend as well so a little help on this would be appreciated. thanks :D</p>
<p>Are you planning on working? Or joining any clubs/activities?
I would be careful…I am taking 16 credits this semester…and that makes me nervous…I couldn’t imagine doing 18, especially if I had other commitments.</p>
<p>I took 17 my first semester (including 2 sciences with labs) and made it out okay.</p>
<p>Were you also working part time?</p>
<p>I think having five classes plus work is going to be hard - especially first semester. No one can say if it’s too hard because we don’t know when your classes start and end, when your work starts and ends and what sort of assignments you’d have in your classes.</p>