FRESHMEN are advised to follow carefully the placement recommendations for the various introductory chemistry sequences. Thus, if one has AP credit, either Chem 5 or Chem 20 is appropriate. The bulk of students do not have advanced placement, however, and should elect either Nat Sci 3 followed by Chem 5 or Chemistry 6, Despite the recommendations of the Biology Department and the implicit recommendation of the Chem 20 prerequisites, Chem 6 should be elected only by students with superb math aptitude and science capacity. Chem 40a may fulfil the second half of the initial year chemistry requirement; however, Chem 40a is simply not recommended by me for the following reasons: it focuses primarily on tedious calculations and its lab is useful primarily in making anal compulsives out of premedical students who are already too far developed along those lines. Most importantly, the techniques learned simply are not terribly relevant to anything done in medical school courses.
It is almost always wiser to enroll in an easier course as a freshman and do well, and then move up to the more difficult ones as a sophomore and beyond. While a good (B-, B) grade in a difficult course (e.g., Chem 6) is perhaps equivalent in the eyes of informed medical school admissions committees to an excellent (A-, A) grade in an easier course (e.g., Nat Sci 3), a very poor (C-, C) grade in any course of non-Herculean difficulty is a bad thing.
In sum, as a freshman, enroll in Nat Sci 3 and either Math 1 a or Math Ar unless you have been recommended for placement in other courses on the basis of placement scores.
BIOLOGY.
The choice between Nat Sci 5, which has recently been upgraded, and Bio 1 and 2 is a difficult one. Perhaps one way of determining which to take can be based on background; clearly, an AP in Bio places you out of the ball park and into between-level courses (Bio 10 thru 99). If you have had strong high school biology and are competent in the chemical sciences as well as math, Bio 1 and 2 seem most appropriate.
If you are not intending concentrating in Biology and you have strong background in the sciences, I would suggest fulfilling the premed requirement in biology with Bio 2 and any one of the between level courses with lab rather than with Bio 1 and 2. Bio 1 simply is not terribly relevant nor terribly helpful for medical school work. Thus, Bio 15a, Bio 10b, or Bio 21 are reasonable adjuncts to Bio 2. Biology should be deferred until sophomore year for two reasons: performance as a freshman in chem and math can give you a clue about which biology to enroll in (between Nat Sci 5 and Bio 2); and, unless you are intending to major in Biology, there is no rush to have a large number of biology courses. Most of the advanced bio courses require Chem 20, and so it behooves you to take the chemistry courses first, saving biology for sophomore year and beyond.
One reasonable way to take biology as a freshman, especially if you have a burning desire to do biology then, is to take chemistry (either Nat Sci 3 or Chem 6) in the first semester and, if you manage to do honors work in both the chemistry and math courses first semester, enroll in Bio 2 during the spring, in general, however, it is probably wise to defer your initial bio course until sophomore year. After having taken the one-year of required biology, it is wise to take at least an additional semester of bio, which might include any of the between-level courses or Biochem 10, which, I feel, is a superb choice.
PHYSICS.
Physics should be deferred until adequate mathematics preparation has been obtained. Thus, Physics 1 is most appropriately taken after completion of Math 1, although it may be taken after only Math 1a, if Math 1b is taken concurrently. Frankly, the physics requirement is perhaps the least important to the medical schools, and if any course if left to the senior year or to the summer-school session before senior year, it should be physics.
Nat Sci 2 or Nat Sci 7 may be taken to fulfill