Please help me with Freshmen Course Selection....

<p>Hey everyone, I am attending preview July 9th-10th and I want to attempt Pre-Med Bio Chem</p>

<p>My schedule so far looks like:</p>

<p>Chem 1
Chem 1 Lab
Cal 1
Language (French the best?)</p>

<p>but I hear that all Languages at UF are extremely tough. Still, I'm thinking French, but if theres an easier language, than please I'd love to hear what your thoughts on a language are.</p>

<p>This is 13 credits in total, and my friend says that I should add another easy humanities gen ed course to get that out of the way.</p>

<p>I was wondering if anyone would please tell me if I should do that, and if I should, which gen ed class would be suitable with this schedule.</p>

<p>Also, to anyone who has gone to preview already, are any of the above courses full?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>I can’t say for certain, but you will probably be able to get slots in those classes, there are tons of sections for those common entry level courses. </p>

<p>As far as language, I am minoring in French so I am a little biased, but I think that as good a choice as any. Any other romance language (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc) is probably equivalent in difficulty. But French is awesome, so I’d suggest that! Did you take a language in high school? You might want to stay with whatever that was, you will have a little bit of a leg up. </p>

<p>13 credits is probably a good load for your first semester. If you find that not to be too much trouble then you can always pick up another class in the Spring. I would suggest that you not load up too heavily until your figure out how to manage your time. If you do want another course, I’d suggest ENC 1101, just get it out of the way. You should be able to find a section of that that works with your schedule.</p>

<p>French…hmmm It wouldn’t be my first pick. I hear German is easier because it’s similar to English (?). You might want to look into that. French can be a little tricky.
As for the course work, I would say you have your hands full already. There’s no hurry and I’m sure you rather have 13 A’s than 16 C’s, you know?
I found Chem 1 to be a little harder than Chem 2, so it’s important you set enough time apart.
I too was that eager freshman, ready to stock up on credits, and trust me…DO NOT SPREAD YOURSELF TOO THIN. Especially your first semester. Good luck.</p>

<p>@propwash</p>

<p>I had taken Spanish in high school…but my teacher wasn’t good at all and honestly I kind of want to move away from Spanish as its everywhere where I live. </p>

<p>Ahh thank you because I’ve heard these specific classes already can be quite a handful. I’m thinking your advice for a spring class is a great one. </p>

<p>I’m still getting used to the college credit system as I was so familiar with the mandatory 7 period system in my high school so thanks for your explanation.</p>

<p>@PrettyPeridot</p>

<p>I definitely will look into that. Yeah, I was actually very nervous as I’ve been hearing Chem 1 is a killer and I wasn’t sure how I’d have time for social activity. Now, Its somewhat calmed but there is still some anxiety. </p>

<p>Thanks to you guys, I probably will remain confident in these 4 for now. I really don’t want to make a bad first impression with all this work as I’ve been shy my whole life and am really looking forward to finally becoming open and meeting true friends.</p>

<p>Yeah, a lot of people find it awkward to go from taking seven classes at a time in high school to only four or five in college. Your average college course is a lot more work though, so be smart and don’t overextend. I would also take care in the future to balance your hard classes with ones that won’t be as challenging. You have 4 years to get it done, so space out the easy GenEd classes and use them to pad your more difficult major courses.</p>

<p>@propwash</p>

<p>Objectively, would you say that these 4 aren’t a wise combination together?</p>

<p>I would call it a challenging load. Too much? That depends on you. You are in the best position to evaluate your ability to handle those courses, depending on how well you can deal with the subject matter. </p>

<p>I’m not stellar with math, so the calc and chem would be a challenge to me. I found French I to be relatively easy when I took it (a lot of work, but it wasn’t very challenging), but your experience may be different. I know plenty of people that found the same French course I took to be really difficult. </p>

<p>Subjectively, I think you will be okay, I would just avoid taking two serious science classes together if you can avoid it (I mean actual courses, you are fine taking a class and a lab together). Like I said before, use the GenEd stuff or any non-major electives you want to take to pad around the more difficult stuff, which in your case will be chem, bio, physics and math.</p>

<p>@propwash</p>

<p>If you don’t mind me asking, what was your freshmen fall schedule comprised of?</p>

<p>My first semester I took freshman comp, statistics, intro to psychology and a non-majors’ astronomy course. </p>

<p>But, I’m a political science major, so I don’t have to go anywhere near serious math or science. My hard/easy balance usually involves trying to balance out classes that have a heavy writing requirement with those that don’t.</p>