Scheduling Question (Bio/Chem)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tufts University
1

Hi!

I’m a freshman thinking of majoring in bio. My student academic advisors talked me out of bio 13 last semester, saying that if I wasn’t pre med I shouldn’t take it first semester so I can have time to adjust. However, apparently they only offer bio 13 once a year (something I found really surprising for a school with so many premeds). Next semester I would take bio 14 for sure. However, looking ahead (knowing that I want to study abroad for a year), I also want to take chem 1 this year or over the summer, as I will take bio 13 next fall and dont want to take chem 1 and bio 13 at the same time. Would it be a terrible idea to take bio 14 and chem 1 at the same time? I am currently taking : environmental bio, intro to linguistics, sociology 50, and German I. This is a very manageable workload for me and I am getting As in them with relative ease.

I could also take Chem 1 over the summer, but it seems very intense and from what I understand is not recommended for freshmen.
Any Tufts students/Tufts parents have any advice?

2

Alternately- I could take the equivalent to bio 13 at Boston University over the summer (Bio 108)- Tufts does not offer bio 13 over the summer. Would this be ill-advised, given that all other bio courses at Tufts build upon bio 13?

3

Does Tufts allow bio courses taken at other schools to count toward the major ? In some subjects they do not.

4

@Mastadon Yes, they do. They cap the number of outside biology courses that count towards the major at four (there is a total of nine biology courses in the major as well as chem 1 and chem 2).