We've Got Chemistry

As a prerequisite for medical school, and most for most science concentrations, nearly 550 undergraduates--primarily first-years--took introductory level chemistry courses this past semester. The two largest are Chemistry 5 and Chemistry 10, "Accelerated Course, Foundations of Chemistry."

While student opinion always varies within a given course, the level of dissatisfaction with chemistry classes seems to be higher than most. Over the past six years, an average of 65 students took Chem 5 but did not enroll in Chem 7, its companion course.

Senior Lecturer on Chemistry James E. Davis, who teaches Chem 5, attributes the dropout rate to multiple causes.

"People come in with a romanticized notion of going to medical school or becoming a great scientist," says Davis. "Then they take Chem 5 and discover this is not really what they want to do."

Some of the first-years who decided against taking Chem 7 say they have found other areas of interest they want to pursue.

"If you're not really sure that you want to be premed, taking Chem 5 is a good idea," says Isaac J. Weiler '02. "It's good to find out in the beginning."

Yet Davis refutes the suggestion that Chem 5 is meant to "weed out" students who are med school-bound. He claims that it is a basic course with a lot of support for students without chemistry backgrounds.

"Chem 5 is the easiest course that students have to take for med school," says Davis, who is also a premed adviser. "And it is certainly easier than anything in med school, but we do not consider it a 'weeding out' course."

According to Davis, first-year students are often discouraged by the qualitative change in course expectations between high school and college chemistry courses. Students used to doing problems by rote find college-level exams a rude awakening.

"It's applying the knowledge that is difficult," Davis says, "not the knowledge itself."

Unlike high school-level exams, which seldom ask students to do more than regurgitate memorized formulas, most Harvard math and science courses force students to apply their understanding to problems they may have never seen before.

In addition, all introductory chemistry classes meet early in the morning. All Chem 5, 7 and 10 classes are held at 9 a.m. three days a week. As Weiler put it, "If you're serious you'll wake up. If not, you'll sleep. I slept."

Chem 10, which has come under more fire than either Chem 5 or Chem 7, is described as too fast-paced and irrelevant to the chemistry sequence.

"I don't remember anything about the class at all," says Peter B. Hamel '00. "I hated it. I went through the classes and went on to other chem classes and didn't remember anything from Chem 10. It was a waste of my time."