<p>i'm planning my schedule for next semester and am completely confused about one thing: </p>
<p>i had ap bio credit, so i only took bio lab this semester, and i still need another semester of bio lecture and lab...my options are taking it spring 2006 or waiting until second semester of sophomore year (spring 2007)</p>
<p>the first option means that i'd have bio and bio lab w/chem and chem lab...i don't think it'd be that bad b/c it'd just be like my schedule this semester, but with an extra bio course (5.0) credits, as opposed to the 5.5 credits that i would take otherwise...but it means 2 science courses w/lab freshman year</p>
<p>the other option means that when i declare my major, i will only have had one semester of bio to decide with...(i'm considering a bio major)</p>
<p>either option requires my doubling up on 2 sciences (chem and bio this year or organic chem and bio next year)..it seems like the 1st option is better, but i need some more opinions...if it means anything, i'm pre-med, so GPA is a HUGE issue</p>
<p>any comments are well appreciated!
thank you guys so much for everything and hope everyone had/is having a great fall semester! :)</p>
<p>What chem did you have in HS and what course is this? A course primarily comprised of Doc wannabes? Is it a course w/ a reputation? It sounds like you did fine the first semester but some students are snowed by the hours of lab write ups.......I have no idea how the lab operates. What do the course reviews tell you? Do you know other students who have taken the course?</p>
<p>i had chem 101 and will have chem 102 next semester...i had ap chem in high school (made a 3 on the test, so i guess i did ok)</p>
<p>lab writeups aren't too bad...the class itself isn't much more than a general freshman intro chem class</p>
<p>i'm not really sure what you mean by "a reputation"...i think all the intro science classes at my school are designed to weed out ppl not qualified for pre-med, but i haven't found to be insane like the chem majors course was</p>
<p>i don't know anyone who's taken bio 122 (the second semester), but i do know someone who's had chem 102...</p>
<p>neither of the labs is actually too bad...about a couple of hours/week to do writeups, but i can deal with that...i really feel like i want to get bio out of the way so i know whether i want to continue with it first semester next year or not, but idk if the best thing is to go ahead and take it now or just wait</p>
<p>All that matters is your ability to get the score that you need. As for courses that weedout the competition.......I don't know what school you are in but the courses don't sound very difficult. If you only have a few hours dedicated to lab write ups it is easy. Don't worry.</p>
<p>i'm at the university of pennsylvania...the courses are difficult, but i guess i lucked out with easy lab sections...?
i'm actually not so worried about labs as i am about lectures--i had chem lab and bio lab both last semester, so i know i can handle them together...it's adding bio lecture that worries me more</p>
<p>Register for it......try it....determine the workload and drop it by the deadline for drop/add.....easy to do. Pick up another course if you need to. Students do this all the time, there is no penalty. Get your advisor to approve your addition of another course and then see which one fits your available time better.</p>
<p>122 lab is really not a big deal, there's hardly any prep/write-ups to do. The class is also not curved, so it's a bit less stressful than 121. If you haven't been doing Campbell readings you might want to catch up on those over break, but it's not essential. I took 122 after not taking any bio for a year and a half, was sick for the last midterm and the lab practical and I still did fine. I haven't taken chem, so I can't really say how it fits in with the workload, but I didn't find 122 to be a whole lot more stressful or harder than any other class at Penn.</p>
<p>I'd also recommend taking BBB109 with Fluharty if you can. AFAIK he teaches it fall semester and he's awesome.
OK...back to finals.</p>