<p>How many lab courses are techers required to take? I found that in physics, one can take one of two paths: an analytic and practical track -- the practical track emphasizing lab work, the analytic track being much more theoretical and using advanced methods.</p>
<p>Is this the same in chemistry or not? Biology?</p>
<p>I'm generally more of a theoretical kind of person and I wouldn't like to have to take too many lab classes. At the school I'm currently attending, we have the college setup of lab classes (1 lab a week, 2 hours long, 5-10 page lab writeup weekly). I'm really not that interested in it... maybe because I'm a math major, and I can know that a lot of the laws work just from looking at the math and I don't really need experiment to show me that a theory is really true.</p>
<p>So what's the absolute least amount of lab classes I could take if I were to attend Caltech, as a math major?</p>
<p>Depends on your major. Core requirements are one frosh lab + Chem 3a. </p>
<p>Math majors don't have to take any labs, other than those two, I believe.</p>
<p>Edit: forgot about physics.</p>
<p>OK, Physics and Math and split up into Prac and Anal. Chem and Bio are not. No labs for chem and bio (other than the aforementioned chem 3a). No labs for math. Prac physics DOES have a lab component, but anal physics does not. </p>
<p>So you could be a math major and only take two labs ever, and take those two on pass/fail ;-)</p>
<p>Thanks for the response. That's very encouraging.</p>
<p>What's the frosh lab you mentioned though? Does that mean that we have a choice of what lab to take out of the science courses of the required freshman curriculum?</p>
<p>You do have a choice: APh 9a, Aph 24, Bi10, Chem3b, Chem4a, Chem4b, ChemE 10, Phys 3, or Phys 5... or a more advanced lab (computational labs may not be used)</p>
<p>I took APh 9 since it's really easy and since it's required for my major anyway (EE).</p>
<p>APh 9a is the one most commonly taken by students. From the course catalog:
[quote] APh/EE 9 ab. Solid-State Electronics for Integrated Circuits.
Introduction to solid-state electronics, including physical modeling and device fabrication. Topics: semiconductor crystal growth and device fabrication technology, carrier modeling, doping, generation and recombination, pn junction diodes, MOS capacitor and MOS transistor operation, and deviations from ideal behavior. Laboratory includes computer-aided layout, and fabrication and testing of light-emitting diodes, transistors, and inverters. Students learn photolithography, and use of vacuum systems, furnaces, and device-testing equipment.
[/quote]
It's generally considered easy and pretty fun. Honestly, if you're a math major, only about 3% of the units you'll take will be lab classes, and introductory ones too. Don't worry, it probably won't kill you (excepting the HF used in APh 9a labs.) ;)</p>
<p>Actually, Ph 3 is just as common (if not more, since it's easier to schedule in). Bio majors usually take Bi 10, Chem majors Ch 3b or 4, and Phys majors usually take Ph 5.</p>
<p>I only know one frosh who's taking Ph 3 (and he might be a physics major.) Most of the frosh I knew last term took APh 9a. I only didn't because I'm a chemistry major and wanted to take CS 1 instead. Also, I know very few EE frosh.</p>
<p>I found APh9 to be pretty frustrating--the lecturer isn't great (he is a very accomplished researcher, though) and some of the labs are very, very tricky to get right. (In my lab group, I think about 2 out of 10 of us got the LED to work even though we essentially did all of the steps together.) However, parts of it were fun, too, and I did retain some general knowledge from the lectures (e.g. what is an NPN junction like, and so on) although most of the technical stuff went right over my head.</p>
<p>I can't remember why I chose it over Ph3 but I think it had something to do with scheduling.</p>