<p>I just got back from CTOPS on Tuesday and I know I signed up for too many classes. I ended up getting a lot of classes I wanted, unlike a few of my friends, but I feel like it is way too many difficult classes to have all at once. I have 17 credit hours which includes Chem 101L, Math 130, Engl 102i, Germ 102, and a first year seminar Math 58. </p>
<p>Will it be easy to handle first semester? or should I drop a class come August 2nd? Any input is appreciated.</p>
<p>Un momentito.</p>
<p>Math 130 = 9.1 (out of 10, 10 being the heaviest)
Chem 101 = 5.9 (although the C = 36% grade distribution, followed by 33% B and 16% A)
English 102 = 3.6 (65% A, 32% B)
German = 4.8 (41% A, 38% B)
Math 058: Distribution not available, but your professor has RAVE reviews. (gives 33% A, 31% B, 19% C)</p>
<p>Yeah. You have a little too much for your first semester, IMO. Here’s what I’d do: Keep your German, Math 058, and English, no matter what, because they’re necessary for your pre-reqs and they’re responsible choices. I’d then take EITHER Chem 101 OR Math 130. (I’d probably take 130, because you’ll need to take Math 231 or 232 pretty soon-- am I right?)</p>
<p>Depending on which you pick, you may already be at your 15 hours (sorry- I’m useless with how labs + languages count as course hours) or you can add a fluff course that fills another gen-req (easy history, easy art, etc)</p>
<p>17 hours is way too many for a first semester freshman (in my opinion). I would drop whichever class is getting you the fewest requirements. I would most likely keep the chem, the english, and the german, and drop one of the maths. You could always try taking one of the maths second semester, but I wouldn’t mess up the chem/english/language paths.</p>
<p>No way Math 130 is harder than Chem 101.</p>
<p>^ I just reported what it said.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the information, I’ll try to think of a decision soon…but Artemis, where exactly are you getting these grade distributions? I feel like they can be helpful.</p>
<p>Trav23- I’m sharing a MyEdu account with a few of my friends. If you split it, it’s pretty cheap and some of the professor details are a little more in depth than ratemyprof. Plus, the grade breakdown is pretty helpful too.</p>
<p>Yeah it’s pretty helpful. Thanks for looking all that up for me, by the way. I’ll go to you if I have any questions, haha.</p>
<p>I love MyEdu (formerly pick-a-prof)! Several of my profs for next semester didn’t have reviews so I went by grade distributions. Fingers crossed, ha ha!</p>
<p>MyEdu is pretty good but sometimes it seems weird. Bio 101 was listed as having very little work (or whatever the scale was) and that was my most difficult class at Carolina to date.</p>
<p>I agree with Artemis, though. It should come down between the extra math and the chem. I had an easy first semester in college and I’m so glad I did - everyone tries to ramp it up to try and prove to themselves they can do it but you want to be making your friends that semester and not killing your GPA before it even gets started. It won’t mean you’re dumb if you have an easier semester, I promise.</p>
<p>^ Right. I’ve noticed the site is a little wonky for some things, but that’s where the grade distribution REALLY helps. Another thing- myedu generally says that honors courses are easier than non-honors courses. I’m guessing that’s because in the honors courses, there is a higher distribution of A’s and B’s than in the regular class and that throws off their formula. Of course, the people in honors are probably the same people who’d get the A’s and B’s in the regular class, so you have to take it with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>Yeah exactly. It doesn’t take into account characteristics of the sample. I did take honors bio, and people had said, oh everyone gets As and Bs in there so don’t worry about it… but they get As and Bs because they’re pre-med honors program students. I did make an A- but I worked my tail off AND in the honors section there are more projects etc etc etc. I had a group project in there, and I worked harder on it than I had any group project (it was due in December, we started biweekly meetings in October, really put our all into it) and we got a 92 on it. </p>
<p>I think the best part of that site is the comments, though I wish you could see the GPA of the people who make those comments.</p>
<p>I wish more people would comment on their professors, I fill like most of the commenters only get on to complain. People who enjoyed the class don’t even bother.</p>
<p>OP, drop the Chem, you won’t be able to take the Chem anways until you take the Math 130.</p>
<p>^^ I’m also not sure how they measure how “heavy” a course is. It might be that a class that only has a midterm and a final might be classified as “light” while an english class with bi-weekly quizzes and weekly tests would be considered “heavy.”</p>
<p>How are the honors program classes, in your experience? Should I try to get into an honors english class my first term? (I’m already exempt from 101 and 102)</p>
<p>Yeah, I usually just go by the grade distributions. I always get the professors who are new or who don’t have any reviews. Most of the reviews I’ve read are pretty honest (people loved the professor but the class was a lot of work, etc), but the very bitter definitely like to post too! Ha. </p>
<p>Also, I kind of thought you had to go through a lot of red tape to take honors classes if you weren’t in the honors program. But I might be making that up.</p>
<p>^ I think you have to get an appointment or request permission from the department or something to that effect. On the website, it says that you have to have a B average to take an honors class, so maybe they won’t let me take one during the first semester? Bleh. It’s bizarre.</p>
<p>You have to go to the honors office and sign up and they’ll let you in if there’s space after the honors kids sign up and you have a 3.0. OP, I’d personally drop something besides Math 130 or Chem 101. If you’re planning on being a science major, it’s important to have both under your belt after your first semester. I think the math prereq for chem 101 is math 110. But if you’re not strong in algebra, you may want to go ahead and drop chem 101…</p>
<p>Yeah, you don’t want to get messed up on the chem schedule. Heck, I’d probably drop the FYS…</p>
<p>Is really bad to have to wait to take Chem 101 second semester? What if you plan to take chem 102 over the summer?</p>
<p>^ Be careful there. I was planning on getting my science with a lab requirement done over the summer, but I was advised against it because the courses are accelerated to fit in the short time frame. It’s a lot more material packed into a shorter time, so a lot of people struggle with it.</p>