How "manageable" would my semesters be? Starting spring

>>17408508
I' m reading all that and I'm wondering if you have your electives squared away?
Honestly, it depends on what kind of professors you have. The physics courses are all different but still fall under physics - which is applied math. What does that mean? It means that if you're motivated enough, you will see some underlying fundamental connections that will allow you to lop all the material together as if it's one big physics course. The more you can simplify things in your head, the better off you'll be.

That is, if you do reading outside of class and your professors don't give you unnecessary work/put you to sleep during lecture.

I almost guarantee your biggest pain in the ass will be the lab- so much work and a really long period for a credit/2 credits.

To summarize, if you can get into the mindset that follows with STEM class material and pacing, and if you can find at least one or two professors who you can chat with about the material, you could get a 3.8 easily.

Oh and study diff eqs early. You'll need it in every one of those subjects, I think.

>>17408508
Depends on how good you are juggling school work, a friend of mine did two semesters of med school in one semester and still had time for social activity, seen other people do way less and fail miserably

>>17408528
Thanks for the advice. I did finish most of my electives, and only have 2 left (which I plan to take during the winter and summer).

That's what I figured, all those physics courses fall under one huge umbrella, so if I study for one of those courses, I'm essentially studying for the others. As for the labs, I heard it is the biggest pain in the ass (even the advisor said it is). It sucks though, some of these physics courses only have terrible professors....

As for differential equations, I think the 2 part physics course covers it (there's a physics course that covers differential math, or a math course entirely dedicated to it).

Also, which course would you say might be the "hardest" besides the labs?

>>17408547
okay, so one distinction here is that you aren't studying for the others by studying one, it's just easier to study them all if you attack it holistically.

Anyway, the hardest besides the labs? I can't say for sure objectively. My hardest class so far was Diff Eq, but that was only because a) my professor was terribad at explaining things and b) I stopped paying attention at the last quarter of the semester because that was the last calculus course I would ever take. Essentially, I ended up doing things mechanically because I didn't have the time to figure out a way to abstract/visualize the concepts properly.

Other people have told me Diff Eq was easier than entry level calculus (!)

Optics and EM can often be confusing because signs are important and you have to make sure you set up a frame of reference correctly. On a test, you have to do these things quickly, so you could end up in a tight spot.

Otherwise just look up some MIT lecture videos of one thing or another. There's usually some relevant demo that solidifies the ideas for you.

>>17408583
My friend seems to agree, he said diff eq wasn't that easy for him, as well as EM, but optics was fine.

Well, I'll have to wait any see the material for myself.

Btw, I'm a MechE student, so which of these courses do you think would be most essential?

>>17408595
Fucking thermo. Energy is the business nowadays unless you're planning to do aerospace.

It has become such the business, that ME and ECE work way too closely together, and now they even intrude on my major - Materials Science Engineering to minimize heat loss, increase capacitance, improve durability, etc etc.

Anyway, thermo's everywhere. It is basically what defines the topography of all science. Think of it this way: You can model the descent of a ball through the air as a function of time with Newtonian or Hamiltonian mechanics, but that same function would also suggest that time is reversible and at some negative time the ball would be back in the air.

In thermodyanmics, the same situation can only proceed in the forward direction due to the 2nd law.

>>17408735
Thanks for the insight. I do plan to go for aerospace though. But, thermo still sounds interesting. I was thinking about propulsion, which sounds like it'll have an heavy emphasis on thermo.

>>17408508
Like anon said, labs will kill you. I did something similar my sophomore year and wanted to off myself. Took phys, bio, ochem, and neuro. Over 10 hours of lab a week (on quarter system).

The plus side is that I learned that I hated my major. Got like a 3.4 that quarter, which is pretty weak for me. I'm sure it'll be a lot easier if you love physics.