If you are a freshman or sophomore and you have a modicum of self-discipline and motivation, it can be a great strategy. You know those core courses at which you want to excel but will suck up most your time? Do you realize how much easier they will be if you’ve already read the textbook twice over and listened to an online lecture course or two? Maybe even audited an actual online course from another university? Maybe found out what the assignments will be and did most of them. A C in the online audited course at a community college will lead to an A when you actually take it next year and with half the effort. If you get through as much of this year’s core course material as you can stand, keep on going with next year’s courses. "Finish" organic chem the first half-year? "Do" biochem the second. If you nail half the concepts before you take the course, you can focus on the other concepts during the course. Professors start noticing you because you did so well. You bring up advanced topics in conversations and get invited to work in the lab. You get a good rep and the benefit of the doubt. Bonus tip: find a professor whose support you’d like to have and read some of their recent papers or watch their presentations. Contact them with good questions about their work. Free time is an amazing ally if you use it right.
No, I’m not an Asian tiger mom...wrong gender, wrong ethnicity.
And do what? Get a job? go traveling? This would be a fucking awful time to take a gap year, the fact that this seems to be the prevailing solution on here is indicative of just how out of touch some of the readership is.
