<p>I am going to penn as a freshman next year and I am a premed. I was wondering about the difficulty of biology 101 and 121, as well as chemistry 101 and 102. Is it too much to take both these classes first semester?
Also do most students fulfill sector requirements in their first year?</p>
<p>Take Biology 101 if your highschool background is weak, or if you want an easier time and/or less work. Take 121 (which is certainly much more demanding) if you're willing to work and are more interested in the learning/application side of things (though your grade may suffer). As for taking bio/chem first semester - I believe the general rule most advisors apply is ONE laboratory science (bio/chem/physics) first semester. Though you might be able to convince them otherwise. If not (hopefully not) I suggest taking another math course.</p>
<p>Don't worry about the sector requirements (though keep them in mind). You'll find that as you take courses you'll be constantly fulfilling sectors (i.e biology = living world, Chemistry = Physical). From what I've heard it's definitely not uncommon to be a senior and just trying to find a course to full that last sector...</p>
<p>You can do bio 101 and chem 101 all first semester. Engineers do engineering chem 101 and physics 150 first semester (I'd say thats harder than bio 101) along with a math class and an intro engineering class, and some come out with good grades. However, if you do choose to do two lab sciences I'd recommend your other two classes be easier ones like a writing seminar and another easy class like music 50 or a freshman seminar.</p>
<p>do you think it will look worse to medical school admissions if i took bio101 to maintain a better grade/gpa versus taking bio 121 and having a lower grade? also, what is the more accepted/common route taken by bio major pre-med freshmen?</p>
<p>It doesn't matter which one you take for med school. However, as a bio major I'd take bio 121.</p>