Posted by underground629 on April 17, 2013, 5:51 pm
I'm wondering if people took physics with or without calculus (in the class itself; I know people took a separate Calc 1 class). If you aren't sure, did you take a course in the 100s/1000s or 200s/2000s? I would prefer to take the one w/o calc, but I can't figure out if that looks bad (for not taking the more challenging one). The people answering the phone for a few programs have provided zero help.
The one w/o calc is simply called Principles of Physics 1, while the other is "General Physics 1 (w/ Calculus)." I'm confident I can get an A in the one w/o calc, but not the other. Also, do you think programs would even notice that the course doesn't involve calculus when it doesn't mention anything in the title? Does anyone know if they read course descriptions for the students they're interested in?
Also, do we really need Intro to English/Literature, or can it be something like Writing Seminar or something else that clearly involved a lot of reading/writing? Again, I've had horrible luck calling programs--they redirect me to the site I've already read a million times. Thanks.
I also took a non-calc based physics series and it was never a problem. I can't speak to the English requirements, I just took the normal run of the mill freshman English class. I do remember I had some questions on whether or not my biochem would meet the prereqs (I took intro, whereas most premed kids at my school took advanced), I ended up emailing the course info to the admissions director at Emory and she confirmed that mine was acceptable.
I took Physics w/o Calc and Case and Emory had no problem with it. I took the intro to English class, but I know that Case (specifically Laura Bishop) was very willing to work with me and check out if prereqs that I wanted to take satisfied their requirements. I had a big saga with the statistics prereq and ended up taking a graduate course online at the University of Utah. I can't say anything about the other programs because I only applied to Case and Emory. Good Luck!
I appreciate the info. I think I'll most likely take it w/o calc--I'm not sure they'd even realize it didn't have calc unless they did some research (which seems very unlikely).
I'm going to be extremely pissed if I'm told I need to take an Intro English course. I also just checked out Colorado's prereqs and they claim the stats course must be from the math/stats department. I took psych stats (was a psych major), which I've heard is about twice the work of the math stats course at my school, and I've also worked as a psychometrics research assistant. I hope these programs aren't quite as rigid about prereqs as they claim to be on their websites. I hope your saga with statistics wasn't at Emory. That's my first choice and I won't be applying to Case. Thanks again for the feedback.
on April 17, 2013, 5:51 pm
