Hello!

I can answer you question from an Arts and Sciences point of view, and if you are interested in engineering lab classes - one of our engineers will be answering this as well.

As a freshmen, the classes that are usually taken are Introduction to Chemistry Lab, Introduction to Physics Lab and Introduction to Biology Lab. All of these classes have their work structured so that you work with a partner, when you get to higher levels of labs ie Organic Chemistry and Neuroscience Lab you work individually.

In terms of how challenging the classwork is, I have a bit of a skewed sense because after taking Orgo lab and Biochem lab, Intro to Chem and Intro to Physics Labs do not seem as challenging. But, in all honesty, the labs are designed to help you succeed. You work with a TA during the sessions, and Intro to Chem I know has help sessions every night for an hour [at least they did when I was a freshmen] - I know that JHU_Dominique is a TA for Intro to Chem so she might be able to give you a bit of a backstage answer to this question and what is expected from you.

The work in these classes are absolutely manageable and there are many resources that are available to you to ensure your success!

Haylo!

So, Intro to Chem was purposely created to be a bit tougher because the professor wants to prepare students for the upper level chemistry labs. I know it was stressful for me when I took it because of all the work it required. However, I knew then (and even more so now as a TA) that there was nothing she asked that was unreasonable...the answers were always somewhere in the material she gave us. It is a lot of work--pre-lab online homeworks to test lab preparedness, lab worksheets/reports that test your knowledge of the chemistry, and exams. But there's nothing tricky about it. A lot of students do complain that it's a lot of work for one credit and I won't lie, it is, but it's completelyyyyyyyyyyyy doable. As Wafa said, there are helps sessions every night except for Thursday-Saturdays and you can get help on the homework/lab reports there, as well as on the online pre lab homework.

I definitely agree with Noah as well, don't push those assignments to the backburner because they do require more thought. You work with a partner and your TA is very involved and is always there if you have questions--don't worry, we don't just throw you in and leave you hanging! ;) You do have to come prepared, with the manual read and with an idea of what you need to do procedurally. But nothing that's not doable. A lot of students say it actually helped then prepare for the upper level lab courses by making those not seem as bad.

Intro Physics Lab isn't bad at all and is graded completely differently, and although they recently changed the class it's nowhere as much work as Intro Chem lab is (you don't have any homework or pre lab homework, only in-lab work) and you work with a partner.

Does that help?

I've taken the same labs as everybody else, but I just wanted to add one thing in case you are an engineer. I know for BME we had a freshman lab-type class (MechE has it too), and those labs are SUPER fun and are generally in groups of 5. :)

The only intro lab course I took here is General Physics Lab II. And it's probably one of the easiest class I've taken. I don't think describing what I did for the lab is not necessary, since they have changed the curriculum and the grading policy after I took it. But basically, labs here are done with partners, but usually lab reports are required to be written individually.

I agree with Greco, Physics Lab (I took I and II) was a really easy class, they usually just used the labs to help demonstrate the concepts and mathematical equations that you learn in lecture, which is really helpful since I always need to understand everything about the concepts to apply them on exams.

Aside from that I've taken Organic Chemistry Lab which isn't too difficult, but there's also an exam component to it which is a little annoying. It requires you to take what you've learned in Intro Chemistry (or AP Chemistry in my case), Organic Chemistry I and II, and the lecture component of the course and apply it to theoretical questions on the exams. None of the labs are excessively difficult, and they have tons of opportunities for you to get help whether it be through review sessions run by the TA's, office hours, or sessions at the Learning Den.

Personally I love lab courses since you actually get to apply what you learn in lecture instead of just reading textbooks and hearing about experiments people do in labs.

I completely agree with Keith: I've taken Physics I and II labs, biochem lab, and cell bio lab, and all of these classes have been very collaborative.  Especially in biochem lab, I did almost every lab report by working out the calculations and the discussion questions with a group of friends.  Biochem lab has been my hardest lab class at Hopkins, but most of my classmates who took Intro Chem Lab last year found biochem lab to be very easy in comparison.  If you feel like you didn't have much experience with doing labs in high school, it might be a good idea to take Intro Chem Lab at Hopkins to get more preparation for your upper level lab classes since it has a reputation as a challenging class.

I got chemistry credit from IB so I took organic chemistry lab the fall of my freshman year. Work is completely individual and you get your own labstation and glassware to work with. If you break it, you have to pay for it because it belongs to you for the duration of the course. It was not as challenging as I was expecting so if you are interested in chemistry and have credit from AP/IB/ecc, I would suggest you try it out!