Rising Freshman With Pretty Specific Questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Georgia
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Heyoo! Rising Freshman here with some questions.

  1. How efficient are websites like ratemyprofessors.com at distinguishing teachers to stay away from and teachers to take?
  2. Is trying to sift through these websites and figure out how other kids feel worth it? because I am sure a lot of it is biased. Like, I feel like the kids who write on these websites are either raving enthusiasts about the teacher, or despise the teacher enough to defame their name whenever possible.
  3. Because I was fortunate enough to take and pass AP tests, (if this years exams went as planned) I’ll have about 30 credit hours complete. But, this is turning into a peculiar situation because currently I am looking into pharmD at UGA and the (very convenient) checklist for pharmacy prereqs leaves me with around 40 hours of Science courses and nothing else (as most history/math/lit courses are exempted.) So I was planning on taking it slow and taking less classes than a full time student and take these 40 hours of science in two year period. But, then I (am told) I would lose hope for not being a full time student. So as a rational person, I do not want to take 3 science courses each semester, but I also don’t want to waste time and take courses I do not need. Any idea/tips on how to handle this?
  4. If I do retake some Social Sciences, which are considered easier/harder?
  5. How hard is it really to stay away from alcohol? Can I go to parties and have a good time without it?
    Thanks for hearing me out! First post so sorry for messing anything up!
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  1. My d that just graduated used ratemyprofessors and encouraged her sis who will be a freshman to use the site.
  2. Your academic adviser will help you decide on classes. I am assuming you haven't attended orientation yet. 30 hrs is a nice number of credit hrs and many kids will have that ( or more) credits. There are loads of classes you can take. You may take a class that sparks an interest and you would like to take more classes. Remember you also need to meet Franklin college prereqs.

I think you can take 2 years undergrad classes and then apply to the pharmD program. If you are careful with your Hope credit hrs you may be able to extend your Hope $'s into your 5th year. HOPE pays for 127 credit hrs.

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1)-2) Use it but be careful. Read between the lines. For example, an instructor that is “okay” or “decent” may be getting low ratings if they challenge the students (often in college, student evals. correlate with expected grades for example). If most comments are whining due to difficulty, take with a grain of salt. If the comments are more so about organization and lecture/teaching quality, then it is more useful. Also be careful when most of the commenting is on the personality of the instructor. Some instructors may not have the “nicest” personalities but are great teachers and may indeed come off as tougher because they have high standarss
3) Be a little more open minded as Sally22 suggests. Just because a non-science class is not something you “need” for the pharm program does not make it a waste of time, you could learn a lot or meet an excellent mentor (instructor) outside of the sciences. This is part of what college is for. Most pre-healths are not into science as much as they claim (especially the way many science college courses are taught) and tend to treat the science courses as “checkmarks” so perhaps the non-science courses you take to be full time could be a nice break or something refreshing.
4)You probably should not “retake” social sciences vs. the AP’s you took. Find some other social science and humanities courses that are unique to college and are not AP equivalents. Topics in college are far more specialized in college and thus often more interesting. Do not worry about grading as they are usually graded pretty easy. The thing that tends to vary is workload, and sometimes a higher than normal workload, when assignments are meaningful and get you to engage the material, can be a good thing if the purpose is to learn. But if one wants simple “gut” courses where you mainly just take up space in the classroom and take a few quizzes or exams that are easy, there is plenty of that too.
5) Maybe, maybe not. UGA is huge though so there will be many different types of parties and social events, with many not involving much alcohol. Chances are, if it is associated with Greeklife or sports then alcohol will be fueling it. Maybe traditional dorm parties can be fun sober.