Joyce15

My son has to pick his Freshman schedule next month. He has the usual liberal arts requirements (language,math, history, science etc) and a Freshman seminar to take. Any tips on what to take or not take the first semester?

Student615

- Common advice is to start out with GE's, and I'll echo that. Good ones to start with are those for which a fresh memory will help, i.e. math and foreign language (even if the language isn't carried over from HS, if the requirement is multiple semesters long, it might still be nice to pursue earlier than later, freeing up future semesters for electives/upper divisions/the option to continue the language further than predicted).

- On the one hand, he should understand that his college schedule doesn't have to look like a HS schedule. Rather than US History and Introductory Bio, he might prefer to take Obscure Ancient Civilizations of the South Pacific and Biology of Disease, or what have you. Or he might not. Either way, GE's are a good time to explore, and I've seen kids sign up for English/History/Bio/Math 101 across the board and then complain about their boring GE's. Of course, if the introductory/overview courses are genuinely more appealing to him, that's just fine.

- ...On the other hand, he should remember that this is his first semester, he's going to be juggling a lot of new things, and he'll have another three and a half years to sign up for that random grad-level seminar that might catch his eye. That doesn't mean that he should seek out easy courses...it just means that he should be reasonable in his goals. For now, trust pre-reqs, trust in the average credit load, etc., and if it's too light, adjust next semester.

- My personal preference is to mix up types of courses so that I'm not doing too many problem sets or too many papers. Already have three courses that sound reading/writing intensive? A good fourth might be math or foreign language.

- Taken with a grain of salt (where by "grain" I mean "big heap"), I've found RateMyProfessors.com very helpful. It shouldn't be the basis of any major decisions, but it might act as a tie-breaker or a way of choosing between multiple sections of one course.

- If your son is going to be registering at an event like orientation, he should go prepared, and he should have a few back-ups in case any of the courses he wants are full.

Good luck to him next year

URichmond2010

He should take one class that he genuinely wants to take, something he can look forward to.

I second the suggestion of beginning school with the Gen Ed's that would benefit from a fresh memory (math, some science classes, perhaps). If he has a foreign language requirement, he might want to get that out of the way now--especially if he needs to take the language for a few semesters, or if he wants to start a new language. I would hesitate from trying to get in all of the gen ed requirements in the first one or two semesters though. He has (probably) four years to spread them out over, so I would recommend throwing in some classes in a major he might be interested in or in an area he wants to learn more about or enjoys. He's got time

kelseyg

RateMyProfessors is a good resource if you know how to use it. I ignore if people gave positive or negative ratings and examine WHY they gave those ratings.

I picked one prof my first quarter who I was happy to see had great reviews - and I hated her class. When I examined those reviews more in depth, I realized that people liked her because she was nice and easy and not too demanding. I was bored stiff and annoyed with her - I should have avoided her, but all I saw were the positive ratings and not the details of those.

Fanatic517

I actually would suggest taking one class that just sounds extremely interesting, even if it's not an introductory course. I took an advanced history colloquium my first semester, simply because it sounded interesting, which was an extremely risky choice, but it was the single best decision that I've made in the past year--I worked my butt off, earned an A+, and worked as a research assistant for the professor this spring. It's good to fulfill requirements, but also do something that may seem risky, because it can totally pay off.

BCEagle91

I've gone over comments at RMP with our son in class post-mortems and the overall discussions are usually spot-on. One professor that we hired more or less agreed with the assessments that he saw there.

One other thing that you can do is to email the professor for more details on the course, or look for the course website from past semesters.

eva10127

If you go to the school's page (on this site) you might find answers from matriculated students on this board to answer you more specifically.

OKgirl

I planned out my ideal college schedule before I enrolled so that I could make sure I have a balanced schedule throughout college. It's nice to try to ensure that I don't get stuck with all my not-so-interesting and hard classes the last semester. I'm not dead set on the plan, it just gives me a gist of what I want (some classes can be switched and everything). He might consider doing this.

Like Student615 said, make sure he has a balanced schedule.

I found these links helpful:

Balancing your College Schedule - Time Management

Planning your First-Term College Schedule - Freshmen Schedule

Altaholic

St. Mary's College??

Lumine

If he were to take 4 classes, something like:
-Freshman seminar
-Gen ed
-Gen ed
-Intro course in something he thinks he may want to major in

I found that to be a good general guideline for freshman year.