Hi,
I am currently trying to sort out my first quarter schedule and I was worried if this is taking on too much work. I chose Honors calc, Human being and citizen, (maybe honors) Computer science and comprehensive general chemistry. Does have experience with these classes? I’ve heard incoming freshman should start with a light courseload. I am not a pre-med and I am currently an undecided STEM major (possibly CS, stat or chem)
That’s a pretty hard schedule, masochistically difficult if you take Honors CS.
can you think of any alternatives to comprehensive gen chem?
Chem 10100-10200 (intro to chemistry) also satisfies the physical sciences requirement and is an approved sequence for the CS major. Is it offered this quarter?
Or - Why don’t you drop CS and just take three courses? You don’t need to take a major course right away. Honors Calc, Hum/Cit, and General Chemistry sound plenty rigorous.
Edit: start with your original, then drop CS if you get overwhelmed. You can drop as late as third week or so.
Thanks JBStillFlying! The thing is, the intro to chem class have really long labs (longer than the 110s) and I have done IB Chem HL before so I feel like I would be able to handle chem (at least, I hope so). I think I am going to do as you suggested, register for four and then see by the third week if it is too overwhelming. I was also considering metabolism and exercise in place of the chem class, so I will see after talking to my advisor on o-week. Thanks for your help!
Hey, if you think you can do it go for it - my first year schedule was really hard. I’m glad I did it. but know what you’re getting into first, you’re gonna have
-5-10 hour long p-sets a week for Honors Calc (more if you do IBL)
-100 pages of reading a week for HBC
-3 fairly difficult to write essays a quarter for HBC (so one every three weeks or so)
-homework due every other day for Honors CS, some of which are obscenely difficult
-projects due every week for Honors CS, some of which are obscenely difficult
-gen chem p-sets due every week
-gen chem tests you will need to study really really really hard for every two weeks or so
-gen chem labs that are 5 hours long PLUS you need to write lab pre-writes and lab post-writes that will take up a ton of time
Warning: the biggest problem with this schedule is going to happen around midterms. After having spent a few weeks getting used to the rhythm of the quarter and feeling like you can handle it and know how to manage your time well, all the due dates will suddenly line up with a test and you will feel like there is literally nothing you can do but work for hours and hours straight to get out of the mess you’re in that’s not even your fault. You will be super stressed and it will be way too late to drop anything.
So you will be busy. Really really busy. But if you think you wanna do it - go ahead!
Metabolism and exercise is significantly easier than Gen Chem, btw. I think that’s a great alternative and would make your schedule far more manageable.
No one in his or her right mind takes a required pre-med course just to satisfy a Core requirement. If that’s what you are doing . . .
^ that’s not true, plenty of people genuinely like chem and take gen chem because of it
I’m also looking for advice about my first quarter schedule. My current plan includes:
Intro to Humanities
Calculus II
Mechanics Electricity and Magnetism; Waves, Optics, and Heat
Intro to Microeconomics or Intro to Computer Science
I want Intro to Humanities to hone my writing skills, but there are very few seats for this course. I’ll probably end up in Reading Cultures or Human Being and Citizen. Any recommendations between these two?
Is Physics or Chemistry a better idea as a first year? I liked both in high school and just preferred physics. I do want a fairly heavy STEM load first year because my STEM education in high school was pretty sub par, steering me a bit more toward the social sciences. I just want to keep an open mind about possibly being a Physics or Chemistry or Molecular Engineering Major.
And for my fourth class, which is better: Intro to Microeconomics or Intro to CS? I’m mega undecided with Economics, Computer Science, Mathematics, Public Policy, and Statistics all as majors that I have looked into.
And since I’m not taking any Honors courses or anything like that, I imagine this is a pretty manageable course load. Is it?
Thanks in advance for reading my incoherent blurb! I’m jealous of my many classmates who have known what they’ve wanted to be since they were 8.
My daughter really liked the texts/films in Reading Cultures. Loved non-Honors CS (151/152) but said it took her even more time than Honors Chem. FWIW, she took 151/152 during Winter and Spring. You might want to see if that option is available this year. And ask if it would be better to wait until after Calc II to start CS (for majors).
As you can probably deduce from what I’ve written, I’d lean toward microeconomics rather than CS for your first quarter, especially if you can start the intro CS sequence in Winter. That would mean that, by the end of first year, you would have given both Ec and CS a try. It’s no problem to take micro one quarter and macro much later. But the first two courses of the CS sequence probably work best back-to-back (and having completed them both first year gives you more options second year). Also investigate whether there’s an intro ec course you could take in the Spring.
Econ 198 is offered in the Autumn and Spring; Econ 199 is offered Autumn and Winter.