Hey guys! I’m going to Oxford College next year, and was wondering what kind of classes I should take? Haven’t checked my AP scores yet, but I’m very sure that I got a 5 on AP Calc AB, and I think that’s the only one that is going to be accepted from my AP scores (I got a 3 on AP Calc BC last year). I’ve heard from a couple of sophomores that freshmen usually take Chemistry for their first science class, but other than that, I have no idea what else goes on! Can anyone give me some insight into this? Thanks! ^^
Don’t ask why I’m still up, but you honestly should just make it up based on prospective major requirements, GER’s (provides flexibility but maybe make one of them meet Oxford’s “INQ” requirement), and your own desire after that. If you want to ensure you avoid something taking sciences during summer, maybe double up with biology and then fill in the other 2-3 slots with whatever non-sciences you please/show intellectual interest in. Aside from major and pre-prof track requirements, college is all about choice (okay, even those tracks are choices) and ideally about your intellectual passion regardless of any track or major you have and what reason you have…
What if I doubled up in science, with chem and bio? Or any other combination? I’m definitely planning to take GER’s to get them out of the way, but is there a good way to start with those or does anything go? And how do summer classes work at Oxford? LOL Do I have to stay at Oxford to take them or can I take them at a college near home and have it count as credit? Lots of questions, I’m sorry XD
You are fortunate that I don’t party that much and have a thrown off sleep schedule this week: That could be fine, but it may be quite intense as Oxford, because of its size, will put a higher out of class workload on you than students on main will get (though intro sciences there are smaller than most peer schools, it still is too large to do much more than standard, on your own ungraded mentor sheets, online HW, and exams). Imagine balancing a Georgia Tech workload but with harder exams (general chemistry and general biology instructors at Emory generally give harder exams than their counterparts at Tech, but this is okay on main because all one has to do is study and maybe go to mentor sessions to complete problem sets. In addition there are quizzes to ensure students keep up). That is what you get at Oxford (much more project based learning and writing, especially in the lab components, but biology has it in both). I often encourage doubling up, but in your case, sit in on the classes, check out the syllabus and see if you want to stay in both.
GER’s are to be taken in whatever order you want, it does not matter. Just maybe avoid saving all the INQ classes for last as they are apparently more intensive than the regular versions…maybe make a class overlap. I think bio 141 and 142 there both are INQ and maybe even writing requirements for example. But GERs are really just “take in whatever order, just make sure you finish them”. As for summer classes, those can only be taken on main. And yes, if you do it before you exceed 64 credits, you may do it near home. Note that I would not advise doing it more than once for a science course (whether at Emory or elsewhere).