Is doubling up on Physics and Math majors too much for a sophomore?

[Dr. Lollipop]

I'm a sophomore Physics major, and I'm considering double majoring in Physics/Math. So I've looked over the classes I need to take, and next semester requires me to take Modern Physics, Differential Equations, and Applied Probability-Statistics. To be honest, I don't know much about what Modern Physics and Probability entail, so I don't want to be in over my head.

I know that "what's too much" is subjective, but I just want to know about the general difficulty of these three courses combined. For reference about what I can handle, I was able to handle Cal Based Physics I, Chem II, and Cal II all at the same time pretty well (all As and Bs). I mean, I sacrificed a social life because of it, but who needs that anyway?

I would ask my advisor, but registration is Monday, and I just found out I need to take the Stats course today. So I'm here.

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Choppy]

It's difficult to say how challenging a course will be based on it's title.

The way I would look at this is that you've listed three standard curriculum courses and you are likely to find those ones roughly on par with the other ones you listed. Is taking these courses consistent with your long-term goals? If, for example, you're hoping to go to graduate school in physics, balking at the difficulty of three standard courses doesn't bode well because you're likely to face far greater challenges moving forward. Learning how to balance an intense academic work load and a social life at this stage will be beneficial later on.

Another piece of advice is just to not psych yourself out. Lots of horror stories fly around campuses about particular professors or classes and at times many courses can seem like a great challenge. But in my experience the courses that I thought were going to be the most difficult were not and those that I thought would be the easiest were not. And the last thing you want to do is take basket-weaving 101 in place of a core curriculum course only to end up with a low grade.

 

[Incand]

I don't think anything is impossible if you go in with enough preparation. I also took 150% times the normal course load this semester and how I did it was to be 2-3 weeks ahead in every course when they started. So since I couldn't really keep up with all courses I get slowly behind but since I'm ahead from the start I still end up slightly ahead at the end of the course. So if possible try to prepare for the courses ahead of time and you don't even have to sacrifice that social life.
I also feel it's way better to play it safe by going in with extra preparation than risk having to much and getting stressed out. Also keep calm, at the start I had the feeling it would be too much and too hard but just focusing on getting the work done it worked out fine in the end.