<p>Greeting everyone on College confidential!!! </p>
<p>And a pleasure to be here to ask you all♥</p>
<p>Of all the classes one takes in college, or dreading to take, or have taken as the case may be, etc. which are the hardest, the "weed out" classes, and other classes that causes people to drop out of college.</p>
<p>Any major and subject are fine, Organic Chemistry, and Physics seems to be classes that most people drop out of (pre-med students at least), however, please list all the hardest classes out there in any college and on any subject, major, etc.</p>
<p>I am specifically looking for a list of classes that see the most people drop out or switch majors once they enter.</p>
<p>Or a list of "Weed out" classes if you please.</p>
<p>And I should add: how can one best prepare, and learn beforehand, to set oneself up to take these hard courses to ensure one gets the most out of these “weed out classes” as possible.</p>
<p>Probably every (or many…) majors have a weeder class or two… classes meant to separate the committed from the casual.</p>
<p>In the UW Journalism school it was Newswriting & Reporting.</p>
<p>If memory serves we sat there and wrote for nearly the entire duration of every class. It makes sense that if a person wants to be a journalist, he should learn to write and to love writing. So the class was a weeder in that sense: if you didn’t really love that type of work, you were not going to enjoy many of the classes in J school. </p>
<p>In my MBA program, everyone had to take two Stats classes and an Econ class before we were able to break into the degree’s core coursework.</p>
<p>I had taken a Finite Math class at UW and I had done OK… but I hated those grad-level Stats classes. But I gutted them out.</p>
<p>I think it depends more on the teacher than the class. The same class taught by different teachers can be a VERY different experience. Difficulty is relative to that, and to your own personal strengths and weaknesses.</p>
<p>From what I have heard, Organic Chemistry and many intro engineering classes are generally weed-outs as well as some of the advanced course (thermodynamics). I’m taking Organic chem in HS and my very intelligent teacher said the average test grades in his college honors organic chem class were atrocious. Darwinism wipes out the pre-med students lol</p>
<p>To guineagirl96: Then list all the “weed out classes” at every college and program you know of, I’m trying to get a list of all present, past, possible, and future hardest, hard-to-understand, and/or “Weed out” classes out there, thanks;)</p>
<p>And thank you to everyone who have posted so far and to all those who will post, thank you!!!</p>
<p>Physics E/M and DEs.
Unfortunately, because the scores in E/M are so bad, the department has to pass a certain amount of students so not everybody is weeded out.</p>
<p>First semester of upper division electrical engineering does its job at weeding out and I’m eager to test my luck at it!
Signals and Systems, Electromechanical Conversion, Applied Electromagnetics, Upper Div Circuits…</p>
<p>Gotta love the rate my professors for all the courses at this level and weed outs must be true to watch the class sizes shrink for the following semester ~ </p>
<p>Calc 2, physics 1 & 2 are weed out classes for engineers at my school. Also, it seems like your first year in your specific engineering major tries to weed you out too. </p>
<p>At my school, the supposed weeder for computer science is Intro Software Development and Object Oriented Programming. Personally I thought the only difficulty of it was how time consuming it was compared to other CS classes up to that point, but that the actual content was easy.</p>
<p>I took first semester of my sophomore year at a different school. At that school, Calc 2 was a “weeder” and was eating so much of my time that I was going to tank everything else. So I stopped going (it was too late to drop), took the “F” (got As and Bs in all my other classes) and went back to my main school for 2d semester. Took Calc 2 there and it was SO much easier! I actually understood the prof, it was a smaller class (as opposed to a giant lecture with a foreign prof who had a thick accent), and I think I got an A- or a B+. Went on to Calc 3 which was much harder for me, got a C and decided I’d had enough math!</p>
<p>At my main school (from which I graduated in 1984), for my eventual major (biochemistry), Organic Chem was a bit of a weeder, but I didn’t have any trouble with it. A LOT of students dropped it, though!</p>
<p>Introductory courses required for a major function as “weeder” courses by default, since some students find them too difficult, or not as interesting as they thought (though they can also simultaneously function as “attractor” courses that draw in students who may not otherwise have considered majoring in the subject).</p>
<p>“Weeding” is more likely to occur at schools with lower entrance selectivity, since more of the students will find introductory courses in various majors to be too difficult and switch to other majors.</p>
<p>And take note that “weeder” classes are not necessarily a bad thing. Better to realize that the degree track is too difficult for you when you are a freshman than when you come up against very difficult upper level courses in majors such as medical professions and engineering. That way there is plenty of time to change majors/career choices.</p>
<p>I agree, weeder classes can definitely be a good thing. I’m a physics major, and most of the people in my classes are either majoring in physics or engineering. Last semester was Calculus II and University Physics I. Calc II is kind of like the level 1 weeder at my school. Quite a few people didn’t make it. This coming semester (does it really start tomorrow?) is University Physics II - Electromagnetism. That’s kind of like the level 2 weeder. A lot of people won’t make it through this one, because it’s supposed to be the hardest course in the introductory physics sequence. I think it’s a good thing though. Honestly, I don’t really want to drive over bridges that were built by engineers who got Cs in their calculus and physics classes. </p>
<p>It’s good to have weeder classes early on in the curriculum though. It’s better to get weeded out in the second or third semester when there’s still time to change your major and graduate within a reasonable time frame. If you get weeded out during your senior year, your options are going to be a lot more limited. It’s a lot harder to switch your major during your fourth year of college. It may not even really be an option.</p>
<p>Calculus and physics weeds out a ton of people in meteorology majors. Maybe a junior year dynamics class takes out the rest of the non-committed wannabes.</p>