<p>* EVERY SINGLE alumnus who comes back to visit my high school reports that college is a walk in the park *</p>
<p>I consider my children to be very smart, yet neither one would say that college is a “walk in the park” as an Applied Math major and a Chemical Engineering major. Both worked/are working very hard for their A’s. Working hard in every class? No. Working hard in OChem classes and upper division classes in their majors? Yes. </p>
<p>Taking Topology, Real Analysis, Numerical Analysis, Complex Calculus, Boundary Value Problems, Stochastic Processes, and upper division ChemE courses are not “walks in the park” unless you “gamed the system” and learned these subjects somehow before actually taking the courses.</p>
<p>Frankly, I find people who take hard majors and claim them to be “walks in the park” to be rather obnoxious (and often, liars) because they know what they’re doing. They’re really saying: “well, it was easy for smart little ole me, even if it was a challenge for dumb little ole you.”</p>
<p>It really comes down to perspective. I think we can all agree on this general statement: work hard in college, and good things will happen.</p>
<p>Because OP’s question is so personal, it is seems reasonable to try and see what happened. Club sport was too much for my D. but could be OK for others. All her classes were hard (maybe not Gen Chem or Stats, but they were very few). One of the most time consuming - “Paper Making” - took out of curiosity and to stay somewhat connected with art. I cannot imagine how pre-meds are taking any art classes, but some of them are art minors.</p>
<p>^^^
Yes, art classes are time-consuming. I remember taking a couple art classes in college, and one of them, Rendering Technique, was unbelievably time-consuming and stressful because at the end of each week we had to put up our work and listen to the prof and others critique the quality of our renderings. The prof was a real B@LL buster.</p>
<p>^I warned her (her bro is a Graphic Designer, so we knew). Oh, well, she has been taking private art lessons since the beginnng of time, so that one was the only art that she took in college, learned from the experience,…it is behind us…was very hard “A” and we even missed the show and her show peace was lost.
Music Composition minor has worked much better, very relaxing and actually has helped D. in her science classes a lot (according to her, she would look at problem solutions from different prospective, applying her creativity). However, Music performance was out of questions, since these people practice about 6 hrs/day (again, regular kids, not Mozarts).</p>
<p>Still, warning to everybody (geniuses excluded) about sports and elective classes if you are pre-med.</p>