Back when I was in high school, it felt as though my science teachers were always announcing how difficult organic chemistry classes were in university. In 10th grade, my teacher would regale the students with stories of the fabled organic chemistry weed-out class and how more than 40% of students would drop the class by the end of the semester. I was fascinated. What was it about this class that warranted such compelling folkloric stories? As a Brandeis student not majoring in chemistry, or any science major for that matter, I had no justifiable reason to attend an orgo class—that was, until I realized a friend was currently enrolled in an orgo class, and just like that, I had an in: I was going to attend a Brandeis organic chemistry class!
Walking into the lecture hall, the number of seats filled my vision. This was a sizable class, akin to an intro class for many disciplines, with the fun addition of periodic tables on two of the walls. My friend and I sat down in the second row, and the professor entered the room. I am currently in Culinary Chemistry, a class fulfilling the science core requirement (that also does not allow students who have taken any Brandeis chemistry classes to enroll). In a surprising turn of events, my Culinary Chemistry professor was also teaching the orgo class!
After everyone participated in an emoji poll indicating how they felt about the exam from the prior day, the new material officially started. Nov. 16’s class focused on reactions that turn alkenes into alkynes and an introduction to addition reactions. To be brutally honest, I had no idea what was going on. I have not taken a chemistry class in close to four years, and though I remembered some of the molecule names (shoutout to my high school chemistry teacher for making us memorize ions), the molecule diagrams were (unsurprisingly) entirely foreign to me.
Throughout the class, as different examples were introduced, students would ask questions about how the reaction occurred, why a certain hydrogen halide was added instead of a different one, and what happened to molecules splitting off from the final desired product.
Despite having little knowledge of what was going on, I would still recommend attending the class. It was a fun experience, and I was able to hang out with other orgo students prior to the class starting. I am a big advocate for attending classes you are not actually registered for—doing so puts you in a low-stress environment, where you can still enjoy the lecture without the stress of needing to get a good grade.
Orgo was a little underwhelming in terms of the lore I have heard about the class. When the professor wrote something down on the board that seemed incredibly niche, I would look around the room to see if anyone was commenting on it. Dead silence. Everyone in the class was incredibly focused on writing down the notes as fast as possible, and they most likely were already familiar with the topic. I, on the other hand, was not even familiar with the shorthand being used. Orgo was just another class, not something otherworldly as described to me in the past.
In keeping with standard lab report formatting, I have used as much passive voice in this piece as I was able to cram in (though, admittedly, personal pronouns were also used, a deviation from scientific lab reports).
