<p>Does anyone have thoughts on who good profs are for bio and chem freshman year? DS is pre-med, bio major and will probably take both this fall. He is in honors and Bio 1 and Chem 1 both have honors sections this fall. What is the main difference between honors and regular (class size, quality of prof, material covered??) The honors Bio profs are Guy Caldwell and S. Marcus and the regular Bio profs are Kim Caldwell, E. Stephenson and J Olson. Honors Chem profs are D. Dixon and J. Vincent and regular Chem are T. Vaid and S. Street. Any thoughts on which section would be best and which profs? I have looked on the prof rating site and reviewed that feedback which is pretty interesting. Thanks all for your thoughts!</p>
<p>Yes, please, would love to hear info on this. Son will major in mechanical engineering, but has to take chemistry in the fall. He would also like to double major or minor in biology, so is interested in the bio classes as well. Son is also in the honors program.</p>
<p>Some may be hesitant to critique specific professors on a public forum, but would love to hear your thoughts on taking regular biology/chemistry, versus honors bio/chem, especially in terms of class size and whether both should be taken simultaneously.</p>
<p>I can’t help, unfortunately. I didn’t have any of those professors in any of my biology or chemistry courses.</p>
<p>But, feenotype, did you take the honors sections or just general of either or both and what was the difference if you took general for one and honors for the other?</p>
<p>I think in another post, feeno mentioned that he never joined honors. </p>
<p>I can’t add anything about the first 2 semesters of bio or chem, because my boys opted to skip them with AP Exams. However, I will ask them about the profs of their higher level bio and chem classes. For honors physics with cal, they both liked Stanley Jones and Gary Mankey. However, if you haven’t taken any programming yet, don’t take honors physics w/ cal.</p>
<p>Usually the difference between honors and reg is the size of the lecture class. The labs for both non-honors and honors are (I think) limited to 20 kids each.</p>
<p>thanks, mom, for the reminder on feenotype’s nonhonors status. would be interested to hear how big his/her classes were. no such luck on ap for son. it was either ap chem or ap bio as an elective, so he opted for ap bio. even though he’s doing great and May get credit, I know he would love the love the opportunity to take bio with either mr. or mrs. dr. caldwell. don’t think bio is required for mech eng major, but would like to possibly minor in bio if possible. as for chem, don’t think he has a choice. it is unfortunately required for eng majors.</p>
<p>Lower level classes are often going to be big. Dept honors lower level classes are usually smaller, but some can still be big. Labs are smaller. Bama has profs lecture, so that is going to cause these larger classes in lower division classes. If TAs were used to lecture, these classes could be smaller. TA’s only proctor tests, assist at labs, etc.</p>
<p>Upper division classes seem to be much smaller (at least in my older son’s case). He has math classes with less than 15 kids in them. I think he has one class with 8 or 9 kids in it.</p>
<p>Yeah, I never took honor courses.</p>
<p>I took CH 101 and CH 102, however, I took them over the summer, so there were only about 30-50 students in the class. When I took CH 231 in the fall, there was nearly 200 students in the course. But then I took CH 232 in the summer and again there were only 30-50 students in the section.</p>
<p>I also never took intro bio courses since I AP’ed out. I sat in freshman biology one day for reasons I can’t remember, and I recall there were at least 200 students in the lecture.</p>
<p>Also, engineering only requires one semester of chemistry, but a biology minor requires at least two semesters of general chemistry and two semesters of organic, I would believe.</p>
<p>^^
one semester of chem for engineering? LOL Tell that to my son who is majoring in Chemical Engineering. He’s already completing his 4th semester of chemistry and he’s only been at Bama since fall.</p>
<p>Thanks for the heads up on the chem reqs for biology minor. I will look into those.</p>
<p>Smart kid taking chem in the summer. Did you take it at Bama or another school?</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your help.</p>
<p>While I’m not a science major, I do know that working at the Caldwell lab is a huge honor for Bio Majors, so taking Honors Bio with him would probably be a good idea. As for Chem, if you are a Chem or ChemE major, at the least, you should take Dixon for honors because, although he is rigorous and difficult, he teaches at the level required for working in his lab, which is a huge honor for Chem and ChemE majors. Otherwise, my girlfriend didn’t like Marcus, but likes Vincent.</p>
<p>Try : Rate My Professor.com</p>
<p>DD has checked her professors there the last two semesters and has found the info helpful.</p>
<p>She dropped a class before freshman year started because the prof was written up so poorly. She had friends in the class & they really struggled. The info has been helpful &
a good start to resarching classes/ professors…</p>
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<p>Yes, imagine my surprise the first time I learned first learned of this from my lab partner in physics (in EE).</p>
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<p>at UA.</p>