<p>Hey, I was wanting to know if the following schedule is too much for the first semester for a freshmen (Biochemistry major) or is it ok because of the Health (1040), Music (4630), and Seminar (1000) classes?</p>
<p>Math 1501 (4 hrs)
Physics 2211 (4 hrs)
Organic Chem 2311 (3 hrs)
HPS 1040 (2 hrs)
Music 4630 (3 hrs)
GT 1000 (1 hr)</p>
<p>Total hrs: 17 hrs</p>
<p>Have you taken AP calculus or AP physics in high school? Im guessing you have taken AP calc before since they are letting you take calculus based physics and calculus 1 in the same semester.</p>
<p>I would not suggest taking two lab sciences (O Chem and Physics) in your very first semester. They take up too much time. I’d suggest getting rid of one of them, or replacing it with something else, like your required computer science class or a humanities/social science elective. 17 hours is very doable, but it depends on the person - many people (including very smart people) dial it back to 14-15 credit hours for their first semester, but that is up to you.</p>
<p>Do you have biology credit? Does Tech give credit for both semesters of bio or just one (we only give for one, I don’t know the deal over there)? Why not bio instead of orgo or physics? Orgo. is brutal for a lot of freshmen. I took it as a freshmen and did well, but many/most struggled at some point. Here, a lot of people take orgo. and physics, but that’s because physics isn’t as hard as orgo (with exception of the lab, which can get really crazy). Physics is probably worse than orgo. over there, and I am sure that orgo. is nowhere near pleasant.
I did orgo. and bio as a freshmen. The bio lab was crazy, but lecture was more doable so I was able to do well. Orgo. lab was less intense than bio, but the lecture was extremely tough, especially the final, which was most ridiculous each semester. I look back and wonder how I did that well sometimes. Don’t know if orgo. is as bad there. Plus the curve might be nice. Don’t y’all sometimes get multiple choice on the final?</p>
<p>Anyway, I would reconsider either physics or orgo. Maybe get rid of one of those. Both classes are crazy at Tech.</p>
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It’s OK. I probably wouldn’t take Physics I with Calc I, though (you need a good Calc basis at the start of Physics I). As someone else mentioned, you might want to consider taking your CS requirement in place of Physics I. </p>
<p>That Music class also seems strange and out of place. Do you really have that many credit hours to “burn”?</p>
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<p>You do not take a lab with O-Chem I. Synth Lab (a 6 hour lab) is taken as a separate 2 hour course with or after O-Chem II. </p>
<p>However, Music 4630 (Mixing and Recording) apparently has an “unsupervised” lab component.</p>
<p>bernie and majord, a 5 on AP Bio gets you credit for one semester (BIOL 1520) at Georgia Tech.</p>
<p>I didn’t take GT 1000 and finished my first year with a 4.0. From what I heard, I don’t think it teaches you anything you couldn’t learn from reading Fastweb or simply asking the parents here at CC.</p>
<p>That’s what I figured. So eventually, won’t the OP have to do Bio II for the biochem. major? I think even bio and orgo. might make sense.</p>
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<p>Thanks for the correction. However, this doesn’t change my advice, as O-Chem supposedly takes a lot of time even without a lab portion.</p>
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<p>Not really. If you “get” chemistry, O-chem I is pretty straight forward. The reason O-chem has such a bad rap is because you get plenty of pre-med students that don’t really get it.</p>
<p>What works for some doesn’t work well for others. Be careful from whom you get advice. The 2.0 student probably thinks some courses were harder than the 4.0 student. It also depends on your background. If you do sprint triathlons for fun because 5Ks were too easy, then you might like taking 17-19 hours, and you’d be bored with 12-14. Remember: you’re being charged for 15 hours either way.</p>
<p>Yeah, the thing about the pre-meds is true. Most are biology/neuroscience majors and “don’t get it” or hate it as soon as they drop to a B-/B. Needless to say that a B- start range can be between 66-75 depending on the Prof. This range only has correlation with the difficulty of profs. who curve. My profs. scale was fixed he’s one of the tough profs. I guess the problem here is that there are really no graded assignments besides tests and quizzes. Very typical for final course averages to be in the low 70s or mid-high 60s because of this. The median is normally higher than the average, so those that curve make the median B- or B depending on how they feel. Don’t get me wrong when I say this because half of the profs. are extremely difficult. However, I thought the material made sense. How hard is it to push electrons and guess products if you actually know the stuff? Everything in orgo. is like a puzzle as far as I’m concerned. It’s kind of fun. I just don’t know if it’ll be every freshman’s cup of tea. Seems to require a different style of studying. Lots of hours is not the only thing key to success in there. Many people give it a disproportionate amount of time everyday while still barely managing to get into the curved C ranges (which could be like a 60). And then, in two of the sections here, the book is almost useless (as in not used at all as a reference by the prof. And the problems on exams are infinitely more difficult than suggested book problems. Luckily there is SI), and some people hate that.</p>
<p>thanks everyone… the only reason for the Music class is because recording music is something I want to do when I have downtime in ATL. </p>
<p>and fabrizio, what was your semester schedule bc a 4.0 is amazing</p>
<p>and I thought that Physics I with Organic Chem would be kind of a rough ride but I wasn’t sure since I haven’t attended the classes together yet</p>
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<p>I was a Management major, not an engineer. Moreover, I was pre-registered for the wrong classes–they put me in EAS even though I earned a 5 on both AP Bio and Chem–so I had to make my own schedule on the fly at FASET:</p>
<ol>
<li>CS 1315 - Introduction to Media Computation (CS for non-engineers, non-math, and non-CS)</li>
<li>ECON 3110 - Advanced Microeconomic Analysis</li>
<li>LCC 2112 - Evolution and the Industrial Age (Tech’s way of describing “British Literature”)</li>
<li>MATH 2403 - Differential Equations (Thank God there was another Management major in the class!)</li>
</ol>
<p>Is Math 1501 really difficult to the point where a Biochem major would need to take it instead of the AP Cal credit…is math 1501 more advantageous for math 1502?</p>
<p>I am personally in favor of taking the credit and moving straight to 1502. At Tech, Cal II is actually mostly Linear Algebra, which does not require much 1501 to comprehend.</p>
<p>Yeah but w/ a 5 on the AP Calc test, wouldn’t it be good to take 1501 just to start off w/ an automatic A?</p>
<p>Thing is, it’s not an automatic A even with a 5 on the exam, AB or BC. Based on my anecdotal experience, many students who do the credit / retake route regret it because they find that the class is much harder than they thought it would be. In general, I found that students who wanted to retake 1501 or 1502 in later semesters “to boost [their] GPA” often dropped out due to lack of effort. They thought it would be easy, but it turned out not to be.</p>
<p>I second what fabrizio said. Most of the stories I have heard from people who wanted to take Calc I for an “easy A” did pretty badly because they didn’t study, expecting the “A” to just come, not realizing that the course covers more than your AP class did.</p>
<p>Fabrizio, Do y’all have a separate linear algebra class over there? Or is it only consolidated into the calc. 2 material?</p>
<p>Quote:
“Math 1501 (4 hrs)
Physics 2211 (4 hrs)
Organic Chem 2311 (3 hrs)
HPS 1040 (2 hrs)
Music 4630 (3 hrs)
GT 1000 (1 hr)”</p>
<p>One thing you should check is if you can take Orgo 2311 as a freshman. I know you can AP out of Gen Chem 1310, but I didn’t know about Inorganic Chem (1311), although thats probably Gen Chem 2 now. I know that you need both 1310 and 1311 to take Orgo.</p>
<p>I never took Math 1501 so I can’t speak about that.
Depending on your teacher, HPS isn’t that bad - as long as you go to class and take notes. Study those notes before the test and you will be fine. Plus you can get a lot of extra credit.</p>
<p>Physics 2211 takes time, especially since it involves a lot of practice, but the more understanding you come in with, the easier it is. Check if you have Modern or Classical - people tell me Modern is easier.</p>
<p>GT 1000 will probably be the biggest waste of time per credit hour, unless you’re unsure about your major or really hope to get something useful out of it. If you’re taking it for an “easy A”, remember that its 1 credit hour and won’t help out of 17. That time would be better spent toward your other classes.</p>
<p>Orgo was difficult in terms of understanding. Unlike other classes, you probably have not seen this chemistry in high school before. Once you understand the concepts, you should be fine. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>