FSU study guides, course by course
Florida's senior flagship pairs a residential campus culture with serious research-university expectations: the math department runs high-stakes exam sequences, the computer science program stays in C++ from the first course onward, and the limited-access College of Business turns intro course grades into admission currency. Support exists (tutoring centers, recorded lectures), but the core courses assume you manage your own pace.
FSU uses Florida's Statewide Course Numbering System: a three-letter prefix plus four digits (COP 3014, MAC 2311) shared across the state's public institutions, so the same code means the same course statewide. An L suffix is a standalone lab (CHM 1045L); a C suffix (PHY 2048C) means lecture and lab are combined.
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Computer Science
COP 3014: Programming I
COP 3014 is FSU's first programming course for majors, taught in C++: flow of control, functions, arrays, strings, structs, and program design with good style. It starts the C++ thread that runs through the entire FSU computer science core, so the habits formed here follow you for years.
COP 3330: Data Structures, Algorithms, and Generic Programming I
COP 3330 is FSU's object-oriented programming course in C++: classes, constructors, inheritance, polymorphism, and a first pass at container classes and data structures. It sits between Programming I and COP 4530, and it's where FSU CS projects first get big enough to require real design.
COP 4530: Data Structures, Algorithms, and Generic Programming II
COP 4530 is FSU's core data structures course: lists, stacks, queues, trees, hashing, and graphs, implemented generically in C++ with templates, plus the complexity analysis to compare them. It's a gateway to the upper-division CS curriculum and the course FSU CS students reference when they talk about the major getting real.
Mathematics
MAC 1105: College Algebra
MAC 1105 is FSU's college algebra course (functions, polynomials, rationals, exponentials, and logarithms), satisfying quantitative core credit and feeding the precalculus and statistics pathways. It's one of the highest-enrollment courses on campus, taken mostly by first-year students.
MAC 2311: Calculus with Analytic Geometry I
MAC 2311 is FSU's Calculus I (limits, derivatives and their applications, and the start of integration), required for mathematics, the sciences, and students headed to the joint FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. It's a high-stakes course where exam performance decides nearly everything.
MAC 2312: Calculus with Analytic Geometry II
MAC 2312 continues FSU's calculus sequence: integration techniques, applications, and the sequences-and-series block that closes the course. It's required for math, physics, and engineering-bound students, and it carries the sequence's heaviest reputation.
Statistics
STA 2122: Introduction to Applied Statistics
STA 2122 is FSU's applied statistics course for natural and social science majors: distributions, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, ANOVA, regression, and chi-square methods. It goes further than a typical intro stats course, covering the analyses students actually meet in research-methods courses and lab work.
STA 2023: Fundamental Business Statistics
STA 2023 at FSU is the statistics course for business students: data description, probability, sampling distributions, and single-sample inference, framed around business decision-making. It's part of the pre-business core, which means its grade feeds the limited-access College of Business admission calculation.
Chemistry and Biochemistry
CHM 1045: General Chemistry I
CHM 1045 (with the CHM 1045L lab) is FSU's first general chemistry course covering measurement, stoichiometry, atomic structure, periodicity, bonding, and gases, required for chemistry, biology, pre-health, and engineering-bound students. It's a packed-lecture, exam-driven course that sets the tone for the science sequence.
CHM 1046: General Chemistry II
CHM 1046 (with CHM 1046L) completes FSU's general chemistry sequence: intermolecular forces, kinetics, equilibrium, acids and bases, thermodynamics, and electrochemistry. It gates organic chemistry and is a standing requirement on pre-health and science degree maps.
Biological Science
BSC 2010: Biological Science I
BSC 2010 (with the BSC 2010L lab) is FSU's first majors biology course: biological chemistry, cell structure, metabolism, and molecular genetics. It opens the sequence for biology majors and FSU's substantial pre-health population, and its exams calibrate what science-course studying means here.
BSC 2011: Biological Science II
BSC 2011 (with BSC 2011L) is the second half of FSU's intro biology sequence, moving from molecules to whole systems: evolution, biodiversity, physiology of plants and animals, and ecology. It pairs with BSC 2010 on biology and pre-health degree maps.
Physics
PHY 2048: General Physics A
PHY 2048 (commonly taken as PHY 2048C, which folds in the lab) is FSU's calculus-based mechanics course covering kinematics, Newton's laws, energy, momentum, rotation, and oscillations, required for physics, chemistry, and students headed to the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. It's the first course in the calculus-based sequence and a famous early checkpoint.
PHY 2049: General Physics B
PHY 2049 (usually as PHY 2049C with the lab folded in) is the second semester of FSU's calculus-based sequence: electricity and magnetism, circuits, and optics. It's required for the same physics, chemistry, and engineering-bound population as PHY 2048, and most students rate it the harder of the pair.
PHY 2053: College Physics A
PHY 2053 (typically PHY 2053C with integrated lab) is FSU's algebra-based physics covering mechanics, energy, and related topics without calculus, serving pre-health, biology, and other science majors whose programs don't require the calculus-based sequence. It's a standard MCAT-foundation course for FSU's pre-med population.
Economics
ECO 2013: Principles of Macroeconomics
ECO 2013 introduces macroeconomics (national income measurement, inflation, unemployment, and fiscal and monetary policy) and sits in FSU's pre-business core, where its grade contributes to limited-access College of Business admission. It also serves social science requirements for a wide range of majors.
ECO 2023: Principles of Microeconomics
ECO 2023 covers microeconomics (supply and demand, elasticity, consumer choice, production costs, and market structures) and pairs with ECO 2013 in FSU's pre-business core. The same limited-access business admission math applies, which keeps attendance honest in a course many students underestimate.
Accounting
Finance
Psychology
English
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