First Quarter Classes at a University

[Domn]

Hi everyone, I went to my orientation yesterday. Overall it was very enjoyable. During high school I did both Calculus 1, and Calculus 2. Due to my grade in Calculus 2, my adviser suggested I retake it to keep my GPA as high as possible. She explained that I need to maintain a 3.5 in my prerequisites to be competitive for mechanical, or aerospace engineering.

So far, I signed up for Physics 121 (Mechanics) with a tutorial, and lab. Calculus 125 (calc 2), and now I'm looking at another three to five credit course. I have all of my humanities, electives, and social sciences complete due to my work in high school, so I'm trying to only take prerequisites. Can someone suggest me another prerequisite from this page?
http://www.engr.washington.edu/sites/default/files/curr_students/docs/ME_2011.pdf
I don't want to overburden myself, and burn out my first quarter.

Also, does anyone have any experience with UW's intro physics series. Any advice would be appreciated. My adviser was trying to sign me up to knock down chem my first quarter, but I've always wanted to take a physics course, having never taken one in high school.

 

[seaofghosts]

Since you already know Calc II (often considered the hardest out of the series) and taking one physics course, adding just about any third course shouldn't burn you out as long as you're not working a lot of hours or something.

It looks like your options, for the most part, are Chemistry if you want to get rid of a science credit, or Engineering Thermodynamics if you want to get a head start on the engineering portion. IMO either one should be fine. :) Chemistry is semi-difficultish, but I was able to get a B+ while working 40hrs and taking two other classes, so it's doable along with physics if you're a full-time student, I would think. All of them will have a lot of problems to work through that mostly take practice, so there will probably be a lot of busywork regardless. Like I said, knowing calc II already will help a lot because you'll mostly be working problems rather than doing hard studying.

 

[eumyang]

Since you already know Calc II (often considered the hardest out of the series)...

I'm not sure that Calculus II is the hardest in the OP's case, because infinite series, which I consider to be the hardest topic in Calculus, is not covered in his Calculus II course. I notice that his school is on a quarter system, so there are four courses in the sequence. (Actually five, but the fifth one, MATH 326, has material that is beyond the "standard" calculus sequence.)