Getting Started in Chemistry

Whether you intend to major in chemistry or need to complete chemistry courses for another major or for pre-health requirements, we offer the following steps to get started with an appropriate first chemistry course.

Complete the Placement Survey:

The ��ϳԹ��վ chemistry department offers multiple options for introductory chemistry courses, which depend upon your level of preparation in high school. To help you determine the most appropriate starting chemistry course, we require that all students planning to take chemistry courses at ��ϳԹ��վ take a placement survey. Even if you have AP credit, you will still need to take this survey. This will not affect your ability to receive AP credit, but will help us determine the best course placement option.

What if you never took the placement survey and want to take a chemistry course? It’s not too late! Simply find the placement survey on Canvas for your class year, complete it, and notify Michael Danahy (mdanahy@bowdoin.edu) that you have done this. You and the registrar will be notified about your placement within one or two days of reporting to us that you have completed the survey.

Enroll in a Course:

Once you receive your placement results, you may enroll in one of the following courses:

Chemistry 1091 (Introductory Chemistry and Quantitative Reasoning I) is the first semester of a two-semester general chemistry sequence and is only offered in the fall.

It covers the same content as Chemistry 1101/1102 with additional instruction focused on developing quantitative reasoning and problem-solving skills in the context of learning chemistry.

CHEM 1091 meets for 3 hours of lecture, 3.5 hours of lab, and 1 hour of problem-solving/quantitative skills building per week. Students enrolled in Chemistry 1091 would go on to take Chemistry 1092 in the spring.

Chemistry 1101 (Introductory Chemistry I) is the first semester of a two-semester general chemistry sequence and is only offered in the fall.

It does not assume a rigorous high school background and is taken by students wishing to strengthen their foundation in chemistry.

It also serves non-science majors who would like to take an introductory laboratory science course. CHEM 1101 meets for 3 hours of lecture and 3.5 hours of lab per week. Faculty may also elect to hold non-mandatory study/review sessions each week. Students enrolled in Chemistry 1101 would go on to take Chemistry 1102 in the spring.

Chemistry 1109 (General Chemistry) is a one-semester course that is offered in both the fall and spring semesters. This course is intended for students who have a solid background in high school chemistry. CHEM 1109 meets for 3 hours of lecture and 4 hours of lab per week. Faculty may also elect to hold non-mandatory study/review sessions each week.

Material that you are expected to be proficient with before enrolling in CHEM 1109 includes:

Units of measurements and unit conversions (familiarity with metric units for length, mass, volume)
Stoichiometry and moles (equation balancing, calculations of molecular mass and moles, determinations of limiting reactants)
Some exposure to acid/base, precipitation, and oxidation/reduction reactions.
Gases (properties of gases, Ideal Gas Law)
Liquids and solutions (properties of liquids, calculations of solution concentrations)
Thermochemistry (heats of reaction)

Depending on the chemistry placement survey results, students with scores of 4 or 5 on the Chemistry AP exam (or comparable IB scores) and others with advanced backgrounds in chemistry may bypass CHEM 1109 for an appropriate 2000-level chemistry course.

CHEM 2200-level course options include:

CHEM 2250 (Organic Chemistry I)
CHEM 2100 (Chemical Analysis)
CHEM 2400 (Inorganic Chemistry)
CHEM 2050 (Environmental Chemistry)
CHEM 2510 (Chemical Thermodynamics & Kinetics)
CHEM 2520 (Quantum Chemistry and Spectroscopy)

Students should consult with a chemistry faculty member at the Academic Fair or at some other time during Orientation regarding enrollment in an appropriate 2000-level course. The most common 2000-level course for first-year students is CHEM 2250. While CHEM 2510 (Chemical Thermodynamics & Kinetics) and 2520 (Quantum Chemistry and Spectroscopy) are also entry points to the major, students must also meet prerequisites in Math and Physics to enroll in these courses. For questions about a specific course, students are encouraged to contact the course instructor.

Students who start and complete a 2000-level chemistry course are not permitted to register concurrently or in a future semester in an introductory (1091/1092 or 1101/1102) or general chemistry (1109) chemistry course.

FAQs : Introductory Courses and Placement

Students may receive the following placement results after taking the placement survey:

CHEM 1091: Permits registration in CHEM 1091 (Introductory Chemistry and Quantitative Reasoning I) only
CHEM 1101: Permits registration in CHEM 1101 (Introductory Chemistry I) only
CHEM 1109/1101: Permits registration in CHEM 1109 (General Chemistry) or CHEM 1101 (Introductory Chemistry I)
CHEM 1109: Permits registration in CHEM 1109 (General Chemistry) only
CHEM 2000-level/1109: Permits registration in Chemistry at the 2000-level or CHEM 1109 (General Chemistry)
CHEM 2000-level: Permits registration in Chemistry at the 2000-level

CHEM 1091/1092 and CHEM 1101/1102

CHEM 1091 and CHEM 1101 (Fall):

Properties of matter, energy, measurements, units
Atoms, molecules, and ions
Stoichiometry
Reactions in aqueous solution
Atomic structure
Chemical bonding
Bonding theories
Intermolecular forces
Chemical and physical properties of gases

CHEM 1092 and CHEM 1102 (Spring):

Thermochemistry
Properties of solutions
Thermodynamics (free energy and entropy)
Chemical kinetics
Chemical equilibrium (K, Le Chatelier's principle)
Aqueous equilibrium (acids and bases, pH, buffers, solubility)
Electrochemistry

CHEM 1109 (Fall/Spring)

Topics covered in CHEM 1109:

Atomic structure
Chemical bonding
Bonding theories
Intermolecular forces
Thermodynamics (free energy and entropy)
Chemical kinetics
Chemical equilibrium (K, Le Chatelier's principle)
Aqueous equilibrium (acids and bases, pH, buffers, solubility)
Electrochemistry

Topics not reviewed in CHEM 1109:

Properties of matter, energy, measurements, units
Atoms, molecules, and ions
Chemical stoichiometry, reactions, solutions
Thermochemistry
Gases
Properties of solutions

Fall Semester:

CHEM 1091 (Introductory Chemistry and Quantitative Reasoning I)
CHEM 1101 (Introductory Chemistry I)
CHEM 1109 (General Chemistry)
CHEM 2250 (Organic Chemistry I)
CHEM 2100 (Chemical Analysis)
CHEM 2510 (Thermodynamics and Kinetics)

Spring Semester:

CHEM 1092 (Introductory Chemistry and Quantitative Reasoning II)
CHEM 1102 (Introductory Chemistry II)
CHEM 1109 (General Chemistry)
CHEM 2050 (Environmental Chemistry) - *Offered in even years
CHEM 2260 (Organic Chemistry II)
CHEM 2400 (Inorganic Chemistry)
CHEM 2520 (Quantum Chemistry and Spectroscopy)

Block diagram of chemistry courses organized by semester

The CHEM 1109/1101 placement indicates that a student is on the border between two entry points to the chemistry curriculum, CHEM 1101 (Introductory Chemistry I) and CHEM 1109 (General Chemistry). The differences between these courses are summarized below:

CHEM 1101 (Introductory Chemistry I) is the first semester of a two-semester general chemistry sequence and is offered in the fall only. It does not assume a rigorous high school background and is taken by students wishing to strengthen their foundation in chemistry. It also serves non-science majors who would like to take an introductory laboratory science course. Students enrolled in Chemistry 1101 would go on to take Chemistry 1102 in the spring.
CHEM 1109 (General Chemistry) is the introductory chemistry course taken by the majority of students entering ��ϳԹ��վ and is offered in the fall and spring. This course is intended for students who have a reasonably strong background in high school chemistry.

Students are permitted to enroll in either course but should consult with course instructors or faculty at the Academic Fair to ensure a proper entry to the curriculum.

The CHEM 2000-level/1109 placement indicates that a student is on the border between two entry points to the chemistry curriculum, CHEM 1109 (General Chemistry) and a CHEM 2000-level course. Students should consult with Professor Danahy, Professor Stemmler, or course instructors to ensure a proper entry to the curriculum, but are permitted to enroll in either course. In the past, students who enrolled in CHEM 1109 — as opposed to starting with the recommended 2000-level course — found this course to be a repetition of their previous coursework and not challenging. Conversely, students who were recommended for, and chose to enroll in, 2000-level Chemistry courses during their first year were typically very successful in those courses.

The most common 2000-level course for first-year students is CHEM 2250 (Organic Chemistry I), but students who place at the CHEM 2000-level may also enroll in the following courses with instructor approval:

CHEM 2100 (Chemical Analysis)
CHEM 2400 (Inorganic Chemistry)
CHEM 2050 (Environmental Chemistry)
CHEM 2510 (Chemical Thermodynamics & Kinetics)
CHEM 2520 (Quantum Chemistry and Spectroscopy)

Students who placed into MATH 1050/1051 or PHYS 1093/CHEM 1093 (Introduction to Quantitative Reasoning in the Physical Sciences) need not take both and are strongly recommended to enroll in PHYS 1093/CHEM 1093 as this course provides the appropriate grounding for 1000-level science courses, as well as MATH 1600.

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Chemistry