Hello all, I would like to seek advice about a situation I am facing, especially from other students who have went through first year engineering. I have credit for all the UCCs, so my first year is very easy, so I was thinking if it would be a good idea to also take Chemistry the first semester in addition to physics, calc, and engr? I hear Calc II and Phys II are a lot harder, and on top of that I would have to take chemistry second semester if I follow the schedule, and this puts more stress on me since I need to keep a 3.5 GPA. Or should I take a really easy first semester to adapt to college at the cost of a much harder second semester? Any advice would be great, thanks
I like your comment about the “my first year is very easy”. My son came in with the same AP credits and decided to take Math 152 and Physics 218. He used a credit for Physics 208 and took Chem the second semester. Keep in mind, the Physics courses are weedout classes. My son also found that classes like ENG 111 weren’t necessarily hard, but they take lots of time. My son managed 15 hours (plus 1 hour for honors LCSE) his first semester. He doesn’t recommend taking Calc II, Phys 218 (or 208) and Chem in your first semester. You need time to adjust and you are going to find that TAMU is a bit harder than you think. My son managed a 4.0 his first semester, but he didn’t have a lot of free time. He got a B in his Chem lab in the second semester, which was the first B in his entire life.
Don’t overdo your first semester. Yes, you need time to adjust, meet friends, get use to college and also see how hard classes are before taking on too much. I know its hard to find classes when you use so many of your AP credits but you will find many others look at minors to fill some of the space later.
Thanks a lot for your reply, whciv01. Could I ask what engineering major your son was? What I meant to say was first semester I will take calc I and phys 218, but I fear for my second semester where I would have to take chem, phys 208, math 152 all together. I want to take phys 208 over the summer, but I want to be an EE major and supposedly its not recommended. However, I could use a credit for math 152. I really find TAMU’s second semester plan for engineers inconvenient, two weedout classes and on top of that chem and engr, ouch.
My son is an ME major. You will apply for your major after your first semester. It helps to take your math and phys classes at TAMU since they look at these during your application for your major. My son used his AP credit for phys 208 so his second semester was math 251, Chem, Eng 112 and a couple of other courses. Physics 208 can be harder than 218 so keep this in mind.