<p>I just registered for my freshman classes coming up this fall, and I ended up with what seems like a very intense schedule for me. As it stands right now, I have:</p>
<p>Eukaryotic Cell Biology I
Organic Chemistry I
Calculus II
Calculus II Lab
Human Gross Anatomy
Human Gross Anatomy Lab
Human Gross Anatomy Recitation
Honors Seminar (Kind of a combination of English, Philosophy, and current issues)</p>
<p>With everything, it ends up standing at 17 credits. Just with the number of science and math, I do feel a little bit overwhelmed. I have good background (I think and my advisor agreed) in all of those subjects, and she said she really is confident I can pull off the courseload with the preparation I've had. The big thing that might help me out is small class size (15-25) in everything except Organic Chem. I am curious to know if anyone has been in this situation before and have any kind of advice for me. I'm willing to study hard, but is this schedule realistic/doable?</p>
<p>That's a rough schedule for any freshman. I took 17 cr first semester, but my schedule did not include upper level classes like Cell Bio or Orgo. I was also not familiar with college classes (academically speaking) so I wasn't sure how much time to put into studying for each class; as a result, I overstudied to no end to ensure that I'd do well. It wasn't because any of my (mostly intro level) were particularly hard; they weren't. I just didn't have any idea how much work to put in, so I figured too much studying was better than too little.</p>
<p>I took orgo and cell bio (among other sciences) as a sophomore. By that time, I'd learned how much time to invest to do well. But I can't imagine how bad my freshman year would have been had I taken a time-intensive course like orgo or cell bio.</p>
<p>NO, NO, NO. Do not do this. You need to cut that schedule about in half. Don't take the chance of overloading like this and getting poor grades if you are thinking of med school. You are just digging yourself into a hole.</p>
<p>Take your honors seminar, one or at most two of the others you have listed, and then find some other easier class to round out your first semester. You just can't take cell biology, o-chem, calculus, and anatomy all at the same time. Labs often have separate homework and tests, so can be like another class. You just can't do this. </p>
<p>My D took four lab sciences her junior year and nearly had a nervous breakdown. I am not kidding.</p>
<p>And where is your o-chem lab? You have to have it with a lab for med school.</p>
<p>My school has both hours of Organic lab with the second semester of the class. It doesn't make sense, but I guess that's how it is. With the AP credits I'm coming in with, my advisor seemed completely convinced that these would be the right classes for this semester. I do realize it's a lot though. For me, a big reason for taking these classes now is making sure I stay fresh on the material I've already learned. I have one semester of calculus credit, so getting this second semester would finish up my major's math requirements. For Cell Bio, this is also the next class in the sequence I've already gotten credit for, and biology is my strongest subject. My advisor said Anatomy was pretty easy at my school and didn't require a huge time commitment out of class (in comparison to the others). Also, Anatomy is really the class I'm looking forward to the most. Organic Chemistry is obviously the most challenging course on my schedule. I'm taking it now because I just took AP Chem and want to retain that, and because it's needed as a prereq for so many other classes. The last thing that kin of assured me to tentatively sign up for these was the two week drop period. My advisor assured me there is a two week drop period that if you switch into another class will not show up on the transcript.</p>
<p>Cell Bio, Organic, and Human Anatomy are all classes that involve a huge volume of information, so you're going to drive yourself crazy studying all of that material simultaneously. Out of the three, I would take Cell Bio and Organic and replace Anatomy with a humanities class. </p>
<p>AP Chem will marginally help you the first couple of chapters of Organic, but after that it won't. I think taking Organic freshmen year is a good idea because of the same reason you stated: it's a prerequisite for many other upper-level science classes. Also, Organic helped me in classes that didn't even require it, like Cell Bio.</p>
<p>General chem (and consequently, AP Chem) and Orgo are virtually 100% dissimilar.</p>
<p>Also, I guarantee that your AP Bio did not go into nearly the depth or breadth that your school's intro bio does, and that your AP Chem was much easier than the general chem offered by your school.</p>
<p>Before you neglect taking gen chem, I would suggest checking out some med schools you're interested in and seeing if they actually accept the AP credit.</p>
<p>that's a great idea arez. I'll definitely do that. As for the above mentioned schedule, several things may change anyway. The anatomy prof may or may not give me an enrollment override. If I don't get Anatomy, I'll be taking a Logic and Critical thinking philosophy class. Also, taking O Chem depends solely on my AP Chem score, which I'll find out in a couple of weeks. If I don't take Organic I'll be taking Gen Chem II instead. As for the difficulty of these classes if they do end up like this at first, I have no aversion to dropping any necessary in that two week drop period. In each of the classes I might need to drop, the other level I would be taking is available and fits my schedule. Thanks so much for all your wonderful advice!</p>
<p>May I suggest you take introductory gen chem instead of orgo chem since you'll be able to more easily ace it. Cushioning the GPA with a little easier, though albeit more boring classe, is not that bad of an idea for premed, right?</p>
<p>Also, definitely take the calc class, since that stuff is still fresh.</p>
<p>What I'm doing is I'm taking an introductory bio class w/ lab, an introductory chem class w/ lab, calculus II, and a philosophy class. It adds up to 16 credits.</p>