hello, again!  Here's a little archive of some past questions I've gotten, with my responses.  Hopefully this will help someone, and if you have any questions about anything you see, or something else, ask away!

Can you tell me what classes I would need to take my fresham year if I am exempt from taking calc.1 and chemistry? - if i were to take 16 credits(Neuroscience major).
is 18 credits the maximum?

and

If Im thinking about going into pre-med, do you recommend a biology major or a neuroscience major? or are they pretty much the same?

Great questions. Let me actually address your second one first. If you're intending to follow the pre-med track, any natural sciences major would allow you to meet the requirements. In fact, you can major in anything you want, just as long as you take the classes required for med school. Here's a list of what most medical schools want you to have taken as an undergraduate.


1 yr. of general chemistry with associated labs
1 yr. of organic chemistry with one associated lab
1 yr. of biological science coursework with associated labs
1 yr. of general physics with associated labs
1 yr. of English (composition and/or literature)
1 yr. of mathematics (calculus and/or statistics)
1 sem. of biochemistry (required by 30+ schools) with associated labs
Up to 24 credits in social sciences and humanities

from the office of pre-professional advising, here: http://web.jhu.edu/prepro/health/overview.html

Let me also direct you to this other message thread where there's more discussion on the pre-med track. http://z14.invisionfree.com/Hopkins_Forums...p?showtopic=244


As for the neuroscience question: Unfortunately, there aren't really many neuroscience classes offered for Freshmen. There is a class called Physiological Psychology, which is an introductory-level course on relating brain structure to function, basically. This is NOT a pre-requisite for other later neuro classes, so I actually did not take it. In the spring, the freshman class is called Cognitive Neuroscience, which IS a pre-requisite for later classes, so if you intend to major in neuroscience, you really should take this class in the spring.

Freshman year is a great time to take classes that are of personal interest to you, since there aren't too many requirements that you have to get in. This is from the office of academic advising, it's a great place for an overview of the Neuroscience major, and you can check out other majors as well. It has links to the department's website as well. http://www.jhu.edu/~advising/majors_neuroscience.htm

So for you, personally, it all depends on what you're interested in. There is a writing requirement (12 credits total), so I took an Expository Writing class first semester. As far as the Calculus goes, I'm pretty sure they offer Calc II in the fall, so you could take that if you wanted. Biology with lab is another good one to take, especially if you don't have to take Chemistry and lab at the same time. One thing I'll have to say--if you got AP credit for Chemistry, I would NOT recommend taking Organic Chemistry freshman year. I took it this year, but only because I took Chem I and II at a state university during the summer. Organic Chem is extraordinarily hard, not just content-wise, but also because it requires taking a different approach to it, one I was not ready for. Many freshmen who take it end up very stressed...heck, many sophomores and upperclassmen who take it end up stressed! It's hard..I'd suggest waiting until after you've figured out what works for you in university-level classes and once you've established a good learning technique.

And about the credit limits: For freshmen in the School of Arts and Sciences, the limit is 16, but I think 17.5 is allowed IF you take a foreign language. I think that's right...hm..It's only for the engineering students that the freshman limit is 18.

Im so excited about coming to Johns Hopkins , going to the lacrosse games, and enjoying all the activities on campus but that's after I'm done with my homework :D

My major is behavioral biology, which I found interesting. When I first applied to JHU I was like Im going to do PRE MED all the way then it wasn't on the supplement lol...
I am really curious about classes I'm gonna have to take. How does class scheduling work? I'm sure it's not like high school when your counselor just made your schedule and delivered it to you, or is it that way????

I love picking classes, browsing through the course listing is very fun.  Basically, what you'll do is look at the requirements for your major, and this link from academic advising is tremendously helpful--it has a link to the major requirements and a sample first-semester schedule.  So take a look at those things for starters, then go through the course listing, which can be found HERE for Fall 2010.  Start making up some possible schedules and thinking about what possible options you'd like as back-ups.  You'll register for your classes in July, and afterwards, your advisor (who is assigned to you alphabetically) will provide you feedback to make sure everything looks okay.

You'll get some materials from Academic Advising prior to registration that basically tell you all of this (and more!) so you have some idea of how the process works, but it's much different from high school!  It's really up to you to take whatever you'd like!

Congratulations on your acceptance to Hopkins :)

First of all, congratulations on your acceptance to Hopkins!

Changing majors is very easy (of course, I'm a pro, but I think even first-time-changers find it to be a simple process).  First, note that freshmen cannot declare a major until the end of the freshman year (at the earliest) and can wait until the end of the sophomore year.

So if you were to come in freshman year, take some public health classes, some other classes and decide at the end of the year that you want to be a public health major (or any other major), you just fill out the "add/change majors" form.  You write in your basic information, which major to add (or change), you sign it, and you get an advisor to sign it (I think...I'm trying to remember if you even need an advisor's signature to add a major, but we'll just say that you do).  Since you were admitted to the university overall, rather than to a particular major, you can come in and choose anything you'd like!  (Exception here is BME, which you have to specifically apply for when you're applying to the university).

If you decide after you've declared a major, at any point, that you want to change majors, add a double-major, add a minor, or anything else, you simply fill out the form again.  You'll want to talk with an advisor if you're thinking about changing majors, but they're only here to help and won't keep you from doing what you want to do.   Also, if you have declared a major, you'll have a faculty advisor in that department (otherwise you have a general freshman advisor).  So, if you do want to change your major, and you're feeling awkward about talking to a faculty member in the department you're getting out of, you can go back and see your freshman advisor or go see someone in the new department -- any signature is fine!

That's kind of a long-winded response, I hope it helps!  Let me know if you have any other questions and congratulations again!