Yo peeps,
Sorry for another one of these incoming freshmen posts, but I wanted to see what you guys thought about the classes I’m enrolled in for the fall. So background: I’m planning on majoring in Biomedical Engineering (BME), pre-med route. I have a fair bit of credit going in also (Math 221, 222, 234, Physics 103, 104, 201, Spanish 226, CS 302, Political Science 104, Chem 103, and a independent study credit from interning at a lab on campus). Now that that’s covered, my classes for the fall are Chem 109 (Moore) , Math 320 (?) , Spanish 224 (Egea), and Sociology 134 (Nolen). All the InterEgr 160 classes were full, so I couldn’t take that this semester. What do you guys think of this schedule? Thoughts on it as a whole or individual classes or even professors and how to not screw up with them are much appreciated.
Peace out homezez,
Me
The last few days before classes start be sure to check the Learn at UW tab after logging in to my.wisc.edu, and look at the Content tab for each class to find and print the syllabus. Write the midterm dates in your dayplanner.
Sounds like you have a nicely balanced schedule with variety. Enjoy.
A lot of med schools want to see 2 semesters of gen chem and will not view Chem 109 as satisfying that. It’s better to take Chem 103 again and then take Chem 104 second semester.
Lastly, Spanish at UW is very tough, and you may find you’d benefit from taking 226. In addition, I don’t know if you can get retro credits if you don’t?
Regarding the Spanish. Ask yourself WHY you are taking it. If you already have 3 years of it you will have satisfied the L&S requirements for a BS, 4 years worth of a HS foreign language or 3 plus 2 of a second one is good for a BA. There are plenty of other courses you can use the time for. Just to get retroactive credits is NOT a reason to continue in a language. As a physician knowing ALL languages may have been useful, but certainly not practical. My crystal ball would have had me studying an Indian language to communicate with my inlaws…
You may find yourself changing majors. There are many paths to medical school- you can major in anything as long as you take the required courses. Do NOT major in anything because it seems good for medical school, major in it because you actively like it and could see yourself in that as a career.
@wis75 Solid advice. Motivation for spanish is definitely to be able to communicate with others in general. I also hope to do a semester abroad in a spanish speaking country to help reinforce this.
@madison85 Will do, Thanks!
@adamjr4 Interesting point about gen chem. I’ve heard the complete opposite from many people. Most of them said Chem 109 was definitely the place to be instead of 103/104. I’ll ask a counselor though. As for Spanish, I’m pretty sure I can handle 224. I had a kick-ass teacher last year who taught me a crap ton, and from what I’ve heard about my professor-to-be he’s awesome and always willing to help. Thanks for the help!
I took math 320 last semester. Note that essentially everyone in my class thought the first midterm was the most difficult of all the tests (pure diff eqs with no linear algebra). And the pure linear algebra midterm was the easiest. This was with professor Ying.