<p>If you're going to Vanderbilt and plan on studying on the pre-med track, could you post your schedule below? I need some help starting my schedule.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>My son’s in the same boat and has no idea where to start.</p>
<p>My daughter on the pre-med track … her first semester is Chemistry, Bio, Writing Seminar & a foreign language. </p>
<p>My S is also on the pre-med track. He is taking CHEM 102a w/lab, MATH 155a (Calc), Writing Seminar, and a class that counts for Humanities AXLE credit.</p>
<p>My D is pre-med but is in Peabody. She is taking Chem 102a 2/lab, statistics, and English class (for her core), and a course related to her major.</p>
<p>@KaMaMom, I’m curious, did your daughter’s adviser ok Chem and Bio together? My daughter’s adviser highly encouraged her not to take Bio or Physics with her Chem freshman year.</p>
<p>Two sciences per semester is pretty much the norm for most kids on the premed track, no matter what school they are at. </p>
<p>Well, I guess you’d have to tell that her adviser. We were all for it. </p>
<p>@belle315 … yes. Her advisor actually said she needed to take both together. </p>
<p>Thanks, @KaMaMom.</p>
<p>Belle, I noticed your daughter does have stats with her chem so at least she does have 2 medschool prereqs. My daughter just finished her 2nd year of medschool so it has been 6 years since she was a freshman so my memory is a bit fuzzy on her exact course sequence. Knowing that there are more prereqs now than then, I am surprised that the advisor doesn’t have her taking 2 sciences right out of the gate.</p>
<p>Yes, me too @GA2012MOM. Originally she was going to take Chem and Physics together, but the adviser said not to. She decided to take his advice. She AP’d out of calculus, which is why she signed up for statistics. She knows she’ll still be facing Bio in the future.</p>
<p>Chem, Orgo, Bio, Biochem, and Physics… 9 semesters of sciences to cover in 6 semesters. Why would you need to double up on sciences every semester? Am I missing something? You only need to double up in 3 semesters, and your first semester at Vanderbilt probably shouldn’t be one of them.</p>
<p>Vandy recommends, by semester:
1: Chem
2: Chem
3: Orgo
4: Orgo
5: Physics/ Bio
6. Physics/ Bio / Biochem</p>
<p>For most of us, Physics was a miserable but not incredibly time consuming course, so many students take it sophomore year with Orgo. I don’t think it is out of the question to take it freshman year either, if the student likes/has a background in Physics.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/hpao/documents/Threading%20a%20path%20through%20premedical%20expectations%20-%202013-08-12%20Rev.pdf”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/hpao/documents/Threading%20a%20path%20through%20premedical%20expectations%20-%202013-08-12%20Rev.pdf</a></p>
<p>Thanks, @Pancaked. That’s very helpful information.</p>
<p>My daughters are both pre-med neuroscience majors. They both were advised against taking bio and chem at the same time. They both said chem should not be taken with anything else. Physics was not bad, orgo either. Bio is tons of reading and studying, but not hard course work. 2 lab classes freshmen year would be really hard. It’s no joke. Biochem will be on my senior’s docket this year, so I can’t report on that. I can only say that of all the classes between the 2 students, chem was the most horrible, awful, dreadful, of all.</p>
<p>Well … at this point it is what it is. 
My daughter is far too headstrong (for her own good at times) to be talked out of altering her schedule. </p>
<p>So the chips (and grades … and sanity perhaps) will have to fall where they may!</p>
<p>@KaMaMom I wasn’t trying to cause you any anxiety. I was curious about the differences in advising strategy. There could very well be good reasons why your daughter’s advisor suggested this particular path, and more than likely she will do very well. Not to mention, she will have both requirements finished early. All the best to her!</p>
<p>Kakamom;</p>
<p>She can change her schedule up until the end of the first week of school. There are staggering statistics about the drop out rate of pre-meds after the first semester, and again at the end of the second semester. Getting into med school is all about the GPA. If your D has a terrible GPA in the first semester due to taking two sciences, trying to recover to a good GPA is a tough battle. </p>
<p>As you plan the first semester, you might take one last chance to “influence” your D’s thinking on this issue. After this first semester, you will most likely have little influence over class scheduling. However, you might need to help her understand that if she digs a hole in the first semester, its going to be hard to get out long term.</p>
<p>Remind her that there are lots of challenges in your first year–doing your laundry, getting your food on time, social aspects, living in a dorm room, etc. Those challenges take time and energy away from your studies–and each kid experiences those to a differing level but all experience them in some manner.</p>
<p>@Belle315 … no worries!! I’m actually not too concerned w/ her taking Bio & Chem together. (Though I probably should be!) It may be rough, it may not be … but I’m sure she’s not the first freshman to take them together. </p>
<p>@vandyswim … Totally appreciate your advice, and your points are well taken. She actually tried to add a music theory class - and her college friends (one sophmore, one junior) completely talked her out of that one. (Thankfully so!) </p>
<p>Unfortunately, I know my daughter. And there is no chance that I have ANY influence over her academic scheduling - either first semester or last. 
In her mind, her advisor said to take these two together and that will be that. </p>
<p>Quite honestly, if she can’t handle two sciences (she may, and she may not - and by no means do I mean to say that two are in any way “easy”) I think that may be a good indicator of whether or not she can handle the next decade of medical education. </p>
<p>Science has long been her favorite subject. I guess we will see if that holds true come December. </p>
<p>(And I’ll have to remind myself to come back to this thread to post how this all shook out.)</p>
<p>Just to toss in another schedule here (mine also has the dreaded 2 labs!), I’m taking:
Chemistry + lab
Biology + lab
Intro to Literary Criticism
Writing Seminar
French 201W.</p>
<p>17 Credits and 2 labs, so… basically what everyone tells you not to do. But my advisor said I needed to do Chem and Bio, since I’m a pre-med Microbiology major.</p>
<p>And we discussed that during the Add/Drop period, I needed to take a critical look at the Intro to Lit Criticism class, and would drop it if I needed. But it should be easy, since I did IB English HL, and it was all Lit Criticism.</p>