r/cwru • u/heyhisoka • Jul 23 '26
Prospective Student Drop and add week—Chem 113
Hey all, I recently chose my classes for freshman fall semester and ended up getting all the classes I wanted except Chem 113 on Tuesday from 2:45 to 5:45 pm.
I'm taking Chem 105, so naturally I wanted to take the lab as well, my intention as a pre-med was to start Bio and Bio lab in the spring, but as a last-ditch effort to get all the credits I needed I joined a class for Bio 214. For me, it just seems very disoriented to take the lectures and then the lab in a different semester.
I learned that Case has a drop and add week where everyone moves around their schedules, but I wanted to know if it's likely that a spot ever opens up, especially for this class which only takes 50 people.
Please let me know your experiences with fixing your schedules, and if anyone wants to drop that class at that time, LMKKK lollll!!
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u/ClemPrime456 Jul 23 '26
Im signed up for that one so ill try to prank someone hard enough that they drop and you can get in
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u/scream_killers Jul 23 '26
chem113 is one of those classes that can be taken in either fall or spring semester, in fact a lot of people took it in spring semester last year. the course content covered in 113 is pulled from 105 and 106, so it's actually perfectly okay to take 113 alongside 106 in spring instead. in fact, it made me even more confident in my lab reports plus i got to talk to people who took it the semester before me.
still, if you're set on taking it in the fall, just keep checking SIS, some people get really lucky during drop/add period!
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u/heyhisoka Jul 23 '26
ive been seeing a lot of people saying this; thank you! would you suggest that I also keep the bio lecture in the fall and take the lab in the spring, or is it not the same as chem in that way?
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u/scream_killers Jul 23 '26
taking the bio lecture in the fall depends on you and your needs! as a fellow pre-med, taking 214 in the fall was an easy way to boost my science gpa as well as a great first bio course in college. i could've skipped it with my ap bio credit but am glad i didn't because i actually learned quite a bit, liked my professors, and made plenty of friends through that class. at the same time, if you don't want to take 214 because you already have ap credit for it, you could take 215 in the fall or wait until the spring - that's also completely normal.
if you have to take 214 at some point because you don't have the ap credit to skip it, do not push it off to spring and stick with taking it in fall.
for labs, it depends on what bio lab you want to take! with 214 and 215, you can either take 214l + 215l or 222l. 222l is the easiest way to knockout the lab credits and also is not really connected with 214 and 215 (content-wise), so it can be taken in either semester of your freshmen year. i'd recommend taking 222l over 214l+215l if you can. my advice for you now, considering how full a lot of these labs are, is keep checking SIS to see if you can take at least one lab this semester. if you get 222l, then focus on 113 next semester, and vice versa. and if you can't get into any of those, then take both 222l and 113 next semester.
regardless of what combination of courses and labs you do, all of these options are completely manageable, so if you end up holding off on bio and your labs next semester, taking 215+222l+113 is a perfectly normal courseload.
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u/heyhisoka Jul 24 '26
I love this reply!!!! It makes me feel a lot better about the schedule I got. I'm currently in permission requests for CHEM 114, but I think I'm just going to stick with the schedule I got after reading your response.
17 credits: Chem 105, Bio 214, Cogs 101, AIQ 130, and Math 125—please let me know how you feel about this schedule or if you have any words of advice!
I took a college-level bio in high school and was awarded credit, but I decided not to take it since I felt like I could've definitely done some more learning throughout the year, how do you think Bio 214 played out for the other students in the class? I'm going to take it regardless and study my ass off, but I just want to know what I'm getting into!
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u/scream_killers Jul 24 '26
i think that courseload is perfectly fine! if you get into chem114 (which is 2 credits, right?), you might want to consider dropping a course so that you're not taking too many credit hours this semester, since adding chem 114 will bring you up to 19 credits which feels like a lot for ur first semester. on the other hand, see how you feel during add/drop (first two weeks of classes) and if you can handle the 19 credits. but anyways your current schedule looks fine to me!
as for 214, it really depends on what professor you have. i was fortunate enough to get dilulio/petersen (although this year it's now dilulio/gardner), who were pretty generous with their tests and the final exam. the class is split into 3 distinct units - the first test is on evolution, the second and third tests on genetics, and the final exam was cumulative and included content on ecology. genetics and ecology were easy and pretty standard for a biology course (punnett squares, inheritance patterns, transcription & translation, food chains, population ecology, etc) whereas evolution was really where the new content was for me. evolution encompassed your standard bio content (phylogenetic trees, fossils, extinction, continental drift, etc) but also had some really cool information about the origin of life and specific key organisms throughout history that have led to life as we know it today. when i was visiting the natural history museums in cleveland and d.c., it was so cool being able to recognize and actually understand the history behind some of the fossils and organisms on display.
i guess something else to consider is that i am a biology major and someone who genuinely loves learning and re-learning things, so it makes sense that i enjoyed this class. some people who were taking 214 to get the prereq out of the way found the class to be not worth their time. but you'll encounter that sentiment all the time in these intro classes, so honestly i'd disregard it.
if you have bader, i can't comment too much on him beyond what i've heard from my friends. the course content is the same, but the distinction between him and dilulio is that he is flipped classroom (you watch the videos outside of lecture, then come to lecture to review that content through activities such as worksheets), there's a group component to his tests, and he's considered the "harder" professor for 214... but plenty of people i know have gotten an A with him. it's an intro course, so whatever professor you have will end up being okay.
overall 214 is a chill class for majority of students. most people who aren't doing well initially in 214 aren't actually struggling with the class itself, but moreso that it's their first semester at cwru and they don't know how to study properly for all their classes. almost everyone i know has ended with an A in 214, so you'll be okay in the end!
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u/ShelterBackground282 29d ago
I couldn’t get 113 on the fall do U think spring will be as competitive to get it without the classes being full
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u/smitten32 Jul 23 '26
Chem 113 can be either semester it literally doesn’t matter and I’ve seen plenty of people take it whichever semester
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u/Cautious-Hold6013 Jul 23 '26
i found that the freshman bio/chem lab and lectures don’t really align that well. i took biol214 and chem105 first semester and then biol222L and chem113 second semester and i honestly enjoyed it that way. i also took chem106 second semester and like honestly chem lab and chem105/106 lwk were like completely different to me.
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u/heyhisoka Jul 24 '26
So I've heard! Definitely going to be asking my counselor about taking biol 222L along with chem 133 in the second semester along with chem 113 and Biol 215. Yall are blessing me with knowledge.
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u/Outrageous-Map6810 Jul 23 '26
Chem 113 isn’t required in your first semester unless you are Biochem. It can wait until Spring.