Freshman classes?

[forreal1]

Hey everyone, I am going to be going to college this coming fall and I was wondering if my schedule looks do-able for 1st semester.

college chem
college chem lab
Global Health & Health Policy seminar(1 cred)
Applied calc 1( I took calc ab and got a 4 junior year, but my bro recommended I should take a full year anyways for med requirements- is this good advice? I got credit for 1st semester college calculus with that 4 and a stats credit for 5 on AP stats)
Survey neural basis of behavior-psyc class
The Neural Basis of Addiction(university seminar- 2 creds)

I was wondering if I overloaded too much on the science courses. I have pretty much satisfied most of my university requirements(such as writing and history), but still have a few left(non western histoty, humanities, and foreign language). Should I wait off on the psyc class and take one of the requirement classes? But then again I have a feeling I might be able to get out of these requirement classes by applying for an honors my college has second semester. But then again to stand out for this honors I might need a broad range of courses 1st semester. Any advice would be great cause as you can see I am in a quagmire(not sure I used this word correctly, but it seems right )

thanks for the help

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[scattun]

How many hours is that? I'm guessing 13 or 14? That seems to be a good number. I wouldn't recommend anyone taking about 17 and it definitely won't hurt you to start off with 13 or 14. Especially considering that you have so many credits already, it's a smart move to ease yourself into college.

I'm not so sure about that Calc class. Unless you really like math, I say take your AP credit and either take Calc 2 or don't take a math class at all. As far as I know almost every single school accepts AP credit for Calc. For me, it was definitely not worth it to retake either semester (I took the BC exam) and I just sat back and lauged as my suite mates cursed at the ridiculous computer program my school uses to teach calc. If you have a dream med school, you might want to check on their website and see what their requirements are, but otherwise drop the calc and take something else, maybe calc 2 or spanish or a major class.

I don't think you have overloaded the sciences, considernig that two of them are psych classes. I'm not saying they are easier, but all of my psych classes have been very different from my science classes.

 

[forreal1]

yeah, it's 14. Thanks for the info. I didn't think AP credits were accept by any med school. Do you know of any schools specifically that do accept them. I am considering keeping it anyways just cause I haven't taken calc since junior year and applied calc II might be a slightly difficult.

Also I just checked and I have a second writing requirement I need to fulfill, would it be better to take that in place of the university seminar? Or should I just wait till I know if I can be exempt from it? Cause I hear a year or more of english is good for both med school and mcats.

 

[RySerr21]

yeah, it's 14. Thanks for the info. I didn't think AP credits were accept by any med school. Do you know of any schools specifically that do accept them. I am considering keeping it anyways just cause I haven't taken calc since junior year and applied calc II might be a slightly difficult.

Also I just checked and I have a second writing requirement I need to fulfill, would it be better to take that in place of the university seminar? Or should I just wait till I know if I can be exempt from it? Cause I hear a year or more of english is good for both med school and mcats.

First thing, make sure 14 units is a full course load. At my school, you needed to have an average of 16 units per semester in order to graduate on time in 4 years. Its okay if you had a semester with 14 or as few as 12 (anything below that and you were no longer full time) as long as you a) had transfer credit or b) were going to have a semester with more than 16 units.

English doesnt really matter for the MCAT, but a lot of schools have an english requirement. I think any humanities course satisfies it, but i'm not sure.

As far as AP credits, yes some schools do accept it. I never took stats in college, but i had the ap credit that transferred to my college. Since my college gave me credit, my med school counted it for their stats requirement and it saved me having to waste my summer in school. That being said, they dont accept any other AP credits for their requirements, only for math. So i dunno, you have to look into it.

 

[scattun]

yeah, it's 14. Thanks for the info. I didn't think AP credits were accept by any med school. Do you know of any schools specifically that do accept them. I am considering keeping it anyways just cause I haven't taken calc since junior year and applied calc II might be a slightly difficult.

Also I just checked and I have a second writing requirement I need to fulfill, would it be better to take that in place of the university seminar? Or should I just wait till I know if I can be exempt from it? Cause I hear a year or more of english is good for both med school and mcats.

I actually don't know specifically any schools that do not take AP credit for Calc. Specifically, all the schools, I am applying to accept them (UNC, ECU, Wake, Duke, Penn, Yale, Case Western, Ohio state, umich and vanderbilt).

If you want to keep it for the refresher, by all means, I just didn't want you to think it was required. I don't think English specifically helps with the MCAT, but I do think taking various humanities and social science classes does because it helps you get familiar with reading text and passages like 2/3 of those in the verbal section.

For the English, it might be a good idea to take the 2nd semester of that, b/c a lot of med schools want a year of it, and won't take AP credit (though at some places you can replace it with a writing intensive course in another subject). If the seminars are like at my school, they aren't offered on a regular basis, so I say take the cool sounding ones while you can. English classes will be available every semester.

 

[forreal1]

First thing, make sure 14 units is a full course load. At my school, you needed to have an average of 16 units per semester in order to graduate on time in 4 years. Its okay if you had a semester with 14 or as few as 12 (anything below that and you were no longer full time) as long as you a) had transfer credit or b) were going to have a semester with more than 16 units.

English doesnt really matter for the MCAT, but a lot of schools have an english requirement. I think any humanities course satisfies it, but i'm not sure.

As far as AP credits, yes some schools do accept it. I never took stats in college, but i had the ap credit that transferred to my college. Since my college gave me credit, my med school counted it for their stats requirement and it saved me having to waste my summer in school. That being said, they dont accept any other AP credits for their requirements, only for math. So i dunno, you have to look into it.

At my school the minimum is 12 a semester, so I think I'll be good.

Ok, so I'll probably take that second writing requirement class 2nd year. And I think I'm going to end up taking calc again(its applied calc so it's an easier version of the College Calc I classes you all are thinking of)
thanks for the help


And thats a good point scattun, I will probably take that seminar instead of english cause it's a small freshman seminar(18 or so kids) so I'll have an better opportunity at getting to know people and the professor, who apparently is a pretty well know doctor of some sort(a potential med school recommender? lol)

And that other seminar that is 1 credit will be interesting cause it is also fairly small and also taught by a well known doctor.

thanks again guys!

Also, I was wondering if it was at all possible to be a researchers assistant or be involved with research 1st semester of 1st year; do you think its even worth asking researchers at my college if I could help out in the fall? My brother(who goes to the same school) said its highly unlikely, but I don't know why a researcher would turndown anyone willing to do be a productive member of their team, am I wrong?