At the time of me writing this I'm about half-way through the second semester of my first year of college. I'll tell you right now I had no choice on my first year classes. At my orientation they were decided for me. They used a degree map from the university and literally placed me all over the board because I "live on campus so times shouldn't matter." Well times do matter to me. It's a Wednesday right now while I'm writing this and I started classes at 9:10 this morning and don't finish until 5:45 tonight. My ADHD medicine wears off at 4. See the problem? I literally don't know half the shit that's happening in my last class. I'm completely winging it. To be honest I hate the class and it's health care ethics. I hate it because it's team based and it's late. I haven't learned a damn thing I didn't already know. To be fair most of my classes are like that. I've taken them before in high school and since my high school taught 99.9% of the classes at college level without the college credit, I'm basically repeating classes. But it's the time of year where scheduling for next year can start, so this morning I got up early so that as soon as scheduling opened up online I could register for my classes.
Now, I know the title of this part is "How I Pick My College Classes". I'm getting to that. So how did I pick my classes? My university offers this handy feature called a degree audit. I went onto my degree audit and looked up what general education requirements I have to meet. The requirements at my university (these exact requirements vary by school and by state). These are all the requirements I have to meet:
- 2 years of a foreign language (preferably done in high school)
- Intro to University Life
- 6 credits of Writing/Composition
- 6 credits of Arts & Humanities
- 6 credits of Social Sciences
- 3 credits of Arts & Humanities/Social Sciences Non-Western
- 7 credits of Natural Sciences
- 3 credits African-American Social Diversity
- 3 credits of Social Diversity
- 3 courses of Writing Across the Curriculum
So what I have done from high school, the fall, and this (spring) semester. I have my 2 years of a foreign language (American Sign Language), 6 credits of writing/composition, 6 credits of arts & humanities, 6 credits of social sciences, 3 credits of arts & humanities/social science non-western, and 7 credits of natural sciences.
So for next year I'm finishing up the 3 credits of african-american social diversity and 3 credits of social diversity. I'm also doing one of the three writing courses.
On top of looking at the general education requirements I also looked at this list of required courses for my major. The required classes I have to take are:
- Anatomy & Physiology I/Lab
- Anatomy & Physiology II/Lab
- Intro to Psychology
- Medical Terminology
- Introduction to Health Sciences
- Health Care Ethics
- Introductory Biology I/Lab
- Introductory Biology II/Lab
- Applied Statistics
- Culture and Health Care
- General Chemistry I/Lab
- General Chemistry II/Lab
- Microbiology/Lab
- Organic Chemistry I/Lab
Out of those I've taken this year anatomy & physiology I/lab, anatomy & physiology II/lab, intro to psychology, introduction to health sciences, health care ethics, and applied statistics.
The third thing I considered when picking classes is the pre-reqs required for PA schools I'm interested in. I have it all in a spreadsheet and it's a lot so I won't relay it.
So what did I pick for next year. For the fall I'm taking:
- Introductory Biology I/Lab
- General Chemistry I/Lab
- Interracial Communications (goes for the African-American Social Diversity requirement)
- Medical Terminology
- Culture and Health Care
Then for the spring I'm taking:
- Introductory Biology II/Lab
- General Chemistry II/Lab
- Women's Health
- Writing in Health Sciences (one of the writing courses I need to take)
- Abnormal Psychology
Honestly, my schedule for next year is so much better. Like next fall my days look like this:
MONDAY: 9:10-3:15
TUESDAY: 8:30-11:15
WEDNESDAY: 9:10-2:15
THURSDAY: 8:30-11:15
FRIDAY: 9:10-10:00
Yes, on Friday I'm done at 10 am. On top of those I have 2 online classes to do. The one will be super easy though because I have a friend who's in it now, and she said it took 4 hours to do the entire course.
My schedule for next spring is only bad on one day, but it's a lab.
MONDAY: 8:05-1:15
TUESDAY: 12:30-6:50 (the only time they offer the lab is from 4:00-6:50).
WEDNESDAY: 8:05-1:15
THURSDAY: 8:00-1:45
FRIDAY: 8:05-1:15
Then I only have one online class that semester.
It's so much better to determine your own schedule. It works much better for me. It's rough your freshman year because you get stuck with the leftover times no one else wants. Like incoming freshmen can't start scheduling until May (at my school at least). Everyone else can schedule their classes end of February/early March. I'm telling you so much better when you can make your own schedule. Just make sure you're taking the right classes to graduate.
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