Freshman Seminars

tiger011 · 07-08-2007, 11:38 AM

Current Princeton students:

Any feedback on freshman seminars? I know they are not entirely the same from year to year, but which did you take? Any particular one you recommend or warn against? Any particular professor who's amazing or awful?
Do you think it's better to take a writing seminar the same semester as a freshman seminar, or to split them up?

Fellow '11ers:
Which seminars did you apply for or which look interesting to you? Just curious...I'm having a difficult time deciding!

glinda · 07-08-2007, 12:18 PM

Take FRS149! Or at least that was what it was last year. It's the geology class that takes you to California over fall break. It was fantastic, and it counts as a lab requirement.

mzhang23 · 07-08-2007, 03:29 PM

I'm a former FRS 149 participant as well. You get to have a nice week of traveling around California, hiking on mountains and learning about geology.

The downside (if you see it as such) is that there's virtually no class after the trip. So don't expect to come out a geology expert or anything.

sarah89 · 07-08-2007, 05:58 PM

do premed students usually take freshman seminars? i would think because of all the classes they have to squeeze in for their major and premed requirements, their schedules would not permit them to take seminars

Silly Puddy · 07-08-2007, 08:32 PM

A word of advice: pick freshman seminars based on the PROFESSOR, not the SUBJECT. Plenty of kids I know who took freshman seminars in subjects they were iffy about just to satisfy distribution requirements ended up proclaiming their undying love for the subject by semester's end.

Two classes that I can give you my 100% money back guarantee on:

FRS 135 - Taxes, Prof. Harvey Rosen: Don't let the dull title fool you. If Rosen's teaching it, it's going to be a blast. Not only is he extremely accomplished (he was Chair of Bush's Council of Economic Advisors for a bit), but, much more importantly, is a great teacher, both in terms of making sure you leave with a full head and with making the material enjoyable.

FRS 104 - What Do Your DNA and iPod Have In Common, Prof. Bernard Chazelle: Everyone I know who took this class raved about it. From everything I hear, not only is Chazelle (again, very highly regarded in his field) absolutely hilarious, but he's also got this magical ability to explain the most confusing or technical of phenomena. He had a cult following by the end of the semester.

Of course, I'm no authority on every seminar, and a lot of the seminars have changed since last year, and I'm sure there'll be a whole new crop of great professors.

Quote:

do premed students usually take freshman seminars? i would think because of all the classes they have to squeeze in for their major and premed requirements, their schedules would not permit them to take seminars

As a pre-med, you're probably better versed in the requirements than I am, but the pre-meds I knew had no issue fitting in a freshman seminar. In fact, I would imagine that it may be strategically advantageous (from a GPA stance) to take a freshman seminar, where grading tends to be easy.

albert87 · 07-08-2007, 08:54 PM

can someone look at the spring seminars of 2007 and let us know which ones are good?

Would taking a writing seminar in the fall be better since doing so would prepare one for writing intensive courses(Freshman seminar) in the spring?

Weasel8488 · 07-08-2007, 09:00 PM

We don't get a choice about the writing seminars. Princeton tells us which semester we take it. The frosh seminars that look good to me are Woodrow Wilson and the Battle of Princeton, the Supreme Court and Constitutional Democracy, and the one about current events and the media.

Silly Puddy · 07-08-2007, 09:06 PM

Quote:

can someone look at the spring seminars of 2007 and let us know which ones are good?

FRS 104, "What do your DNA and iPod have in common?", which I talked about briefly, is a spring seminar.

Quote:

We don't get a choice about the writing seminars. Princeton tells us which semester we take it.

If you have a compelling reason, they'll let you change. I switched from fall to spring; don't remember the reason, but I didn't think it was particularly do-or-die.

Weasel8488 · 07-09-2007, 07:08 AM

Do you think one or the other is preferable?

Silly Puddy · 07-09-2007, 08:29 AM

I personally don't think so, no. Some people will tell you the fall semester is better for writing seminars just because you have more breaks to work on your papers, but I think most people will agree that breaks tend to end up just being major slumps in productivity.

yolobitran · 07-09-2007, 05:51 PM

I signed up for Individuality as an ideal, The supreme court and constitutional democracy, and Red states, Blue states...whatever.
I tried to extensively research the professors teaching the seminars before choosing them. Appiah has me convinced, but does anyone here know Eisgruber or DiMaggio? Are they any good?
Peace

glinda · 07-09-2007, 06:27 PM

I tried to change my writing seminar assignment from the spring to the fall, but they wouldn't let me. So don't count on it.

Weasel8488 · 07-09-2007, 07:16 PM

When do we find out what semester our writing seminar is?

sarah89 · 07-09-2007, 09:26 PM

what's an estimate percentage of freshmen taking these freshman seminars? and how come upperclassmen don't get to take seminars such as these?

*i'm trying to decide whether i should take a seminar or just focus on getting my premed requirements out of the way

Weasel8488 · 07-09-2007, 10:26 PM

I'm premed and don't see any reason why we can't fulfill the requirements and still take frosh seminars. Here's how I plan to fulfill my premed reqs:

Freshman: Organic Chemistry (CHM 303)
Sophomore: Quant. Principles in Cell/Mol Bio (MOL 215) and Biochemistry (MOL 345)
Junior: The Universe (AST 203)

Tada. Done with premed requirements in 5 semesters (w/ help of AP credit in Bio, Chem, and Physics).