<p>I’ve never had much input into which classes my kids choose at college. Our daughter would tell us about her next quarters class if we remembered to ask her but she and her advisor (I guess she had her help) figured it all out. </p>
<p>Our son is a college freshman. I looked over the semi-confusing course catalog with him to sort out what he might want to take his first semester as a freshman but except for suggesting he not take photography, it was all up to him. Same thing second semester. Since he’s undeclared the classes he’s picked have been his core requirements for the college. </p>
<p>Yesterday I happened to call him when he was picking his fall semester classes and he told me he decided on a major (whoo hoo!) and was trying to figure out how to get all their requirements in for an on-time graduation. His selected major is English with a concentration in communications. I think a minor in American or European Lit will fit too, but not sure.</p>
<p>He was half talking to me and half figuring out his schedule by looking at the times classes were available compared to the order he needed to take each class. Something that really requires full concentration. Anyway, he said it looked like schedule-wise he could take World Lit, British Lit and American Lit all on the same day. I pointed out that that each class would require alot of reading and alot of writing and there would be a good chance that he could have three papers due on the same day, in just those classes. I don’t think he had even thought of that so I was very glad I happened to call when I did. They sign up for the classes today, I think. Or at least today is the day he talks them over with his advisor. Does my advice make sense? He tends to be a procrastinator and often underestimates the time it will take to do something.</p>
<p>Another thing we talked about was him taking one of the Science or Math classes (3 are required, he’s taken one so far) here at a local college over the summer. He’s had a very uneven Math and Science career with grades varying from A’s to D’s. I was thinking it would be smart to take perhaps Phyics or Biology during the summer where he could concentrate on the material and not have to worry about the grade affecting his gpa. Does that make sense? We know that he would have to get it approved from his college ahead of time.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry too much about the relationship between classes meeting on the same day and having papers due the same day.</p>
<p>According to my son, who is a junior in college, the due dates of assignments have nothing to do with the class schedule. He often has papers and programs (he’s a computer science major with a philosophy minor – don’t ask) due on days when the class does not meet. Since everything is turned in online, the class schedule is irrelevant.</p>
<p>In terms of readings–that schedule might be okay for a kid who looks ahead on the syllabus and keeps up with the readings ahead of time, but possibly a problem for a procrastinator (how’s that for alliteration?) More generally, though, three lit classes in one semester could be an awful lot of work for a sophomore, depending on the amount of reading/papers required.</p>
<p>As far as science, many colleges offer somewhat less stressful science for non-scientist courses that might be actually easier and more fun than doing straight bio or physics locally during the summer.</p>
<p>BAck in the day, I took two semesters of astronomy, and something called “Oceans” (not rigorous enough for the word 'oceanography" LOL).
So, i recommend he checks out those offerings in making a decision.</p>
<p>The one thing my S had to learn for himself was that scheduling for a reason other than class content was a mistake. Second semester freshman year he thought it would be great to have no classes on Mon/Fri. He scheduled 4 (yes 4) classes on T/TH and 1 that met for 3 hours on Wed. What a disaster…and one he had to learn for himself. It was just too much to have classes straight through the day and then end up with many test/papers on one day. He also realized that having classes on Friday was not a problem…since many of his friends had classes on Friday and wouldn’t be available til late in the day anyway. What he did realize though, was that early classes did not work for him. He’d rather be in class til 4 (which he is, 5 days a week this semester), than be up for a 9am class. As with many things in his life however, he had to learn this lesson on his own. I tried, to no avail, to point out the pitfalls of such a schedule, but it fell on deaf ears. Sometimes a short course of stupidity will provide a lifetime of reason!</p>
<p>Garland has a good point. The secret to success in choosing science courses if you aren’t science oriented is to steer clear of the courses that the pre-meds take (introductory biology and chemistry, organic chemistry, and introductory physics). Pre-meds MUST maintain extremely high GPAs; their presence has a devastating effect on the curve (and on the ambiance, even if there isn’t a curve). If possible, also steer clear of the courses taken by science majors. The courses you want are the ones that have a bold-type statement in the catalog saying, “This course does not meet pre-med requirements and cannot be used as a prerequisite for the major.” Or take astronomy or geology. You might end up in a class with prospective majors, but at least they’re not shooting for med school.</p>
<p>Some general observations:
math and science classes tend to have weekly problem sets, though not much reading; Doing the problem sets can take up a lot of time.
Humanities and social sciences classes tend to have a lot of reading and many have weekly response papers, midterms, term papers and finals.<br>
If possible, students should look up old syllabi for the courses they plan to take and check out the requirements. Trying to stagger the due dates for turning in problem sets and response papers is a good idea. Writing three term papers all due more or less on the same day can be tough, especially for procrastinators who typicall underestimate the amount of time it takes to accomplish tasks. It may not be possible to figure out ahead of time when midterms and finals will be scheduled.</p>
<p>Agree with marite: judge the class by the reading lists and required papers and not by time/day (if possible.) Some English departments are notorious for outrageous undergrad reading lists, in part to discourage the less-committed students from the major. For example, at my university, few lower division students took 3 lit classes from the English department (comp lit was a bit easier) just because the reading loads were so, so demanding.</p>
<p>What in the world is an “American Lit” minor that’s different from an English major? Do English majors only study stuff written by, you know, the English?</p>
<p>JHS
Good question, actually. When I was in college, you couldn’t get a degree in American Literature at many schools- you had to do all the prerequisites for English (Old English, Chaucer, Shakespeare, etc.) and then take American lit classes as electives. There were few “Americanist” professors (that’s what they were called) at the venerable English dept where I studied, and it was harder to find a professor to oversee your senior thesis on an American rather than an English writer. Which is what chased me out of the English dept and into Comparative Literature, which required 2 more foreign languages but didn’t discriminate (;)) against American literature. Actually, it’s not REALLY discrimination - I think those old-timers simply consider American literature not old enough for its separate major. </p>
<p>BTW, the French don’t even consider the language we write in as English. Look into translations of, say, Hemingway or Faulkner, and on the front flap it’ll say “Translated from the American by…” Which is not to belittle the French, by the way. They’re big fans of American literature - bigger than most Americans in fact.</p>
<p>DO NOT trust the advisors 100% because they will force students to take classes they aren’t comfortable with. (I had one that wanted me to take “So you want to become a lawyer” because I’m undecided, and I told her I wanted nothing to do with law. Waste of money to take it,IMO)</p>
<p>Also, do not take all the general requirements your first year at a uni. I made that mistake and since my entire schedule is empty next year, I must choose a major now rather than waiting until the end of next year and that is frustrating since I have to deal with papers and finals at the same time. Also, you need to have a balance between classes with your major and classes that are required. (You will be overwhelmed with all sciences, or all histories).</p>
<p>Kathiep,
Take the math class at home, it should be the most cut and dried, and easiest to transfer. Our local commuter U has many online classes, including things like anatomy and physiology - how they teach that online adequately, I’ll never understand, but they do. Online may allow him to go at his own pace, and at this school at least it would appear on a transcript as a regular class.
Also, there should be plenty of “Rocks for Jocks” classes. I was amazed, my D applied for an assistant position with a prof, and he said she would probably be a top candidate because she was a history major who had taken some “real” science classes and had worked briefly in a lab with scientific equipment (in a hospital, not research!!) - this combo was rare in his applicants, they take very simple science classes, so there must be a lot of them.</p>
<p>Thanks all for the advice. As I said in my op, I usually don’t have anything to do with my kids picking classes but happened to call my son as he was going through his course catalog. I think the way they work it at his college is students pick out their classes and then get them approved by their advisor. His advisor only has him and 12 other students so hopefully, he will get some good feedback on his choices. As you all know, it’s not just picking the classes but fitting them into a schedule; you change one choice and that impacts the schedule fit of the other classes. Our kids are on the 4 year plan so he is concerned about getting everything in.</p>
<p>Son may have access to old syllabi for classes but I don’t know where to look for them and being the procrastinator that he is, I don’t think he had time to look for them. I think he was going to check out ratemyprofessor but that was going to be his total research plan. </p>
<p>Smurfgirl, I’m not sure I understand your post, because my son just did exactly what you said not to do but I don’t know how he could have avoided it. He took (and is taking) all core courses his freshman year because he was undeclared. If you don’t have a major how would you be able to “have a balance between classes with your major and classes that are required”? </p>
<p>We have at least 6 colleges within an hour of our home plus two community colleges so he should be able to find one where he can take a math or science over the summer. Looking at the course catalog, I see that he can do a computer science class instead of math which might not be too bad - he did well in the three programming classes he took in HS.</p>
<p>Every college that we visited talked about how you absolutely could get a degree in four years but if one doesn’t declare a major until sophomore year and there are 18 classes required in the major, it’s a tricky thing to get done on time.</p>
<p>Students who complete a minor in American Literature will choose from a variety of literature courses designed to provide both an overview and an in-depth study of the important works and writers of the United States.</p>
<p>MINOR IN BRITISH LITERATURE:</p>
<p>Students who complete a minor in British Literature will choose from a variety of literature courses designed to provide both an overview and an in-depth study of the important works and writers of Great Britain.</p>
<p>In this travel course, 23 Roanoke College students traveled to England and Scotland to study Romanticism. The class set out to see how this important literary and artistic movement, occurring from roughly 1785-1835, still influences the world today in humanity’s relationship with nature, the role of the imagination, and our understanding of innocence and experience. The trip began by celebrating Scottish National Poet Robert Burns, and some students were surprised to find themselves on the dance floor with traditional Scottish dancers. In the following weeks, they studied writings by Blake, Coleridge, William and Dorothy Wordsworth, various moderns, and students gave presentations over paintings at the Tate Gallery in London. “We lived in an intimate Cumbrian village, experienced British culture, and hiked in lots of rain and among the sheep and lambs of Great Britain’s beautiful Lake District,” Dr. Michael Heller said. “When the sun came out, we water-colored, wrote in journals, and in the evenings shared from these. We concluded the trip with a visit to Edinburgh castle and a Burns-Night Dinner celebration.”</p>
<p>In the days before course websites, some colleges kept the previous year’s syllabi in the library (usually at the reserve desk). Nowadays, if the course has a website, the syllabus will be posted online.</p>
<p>Smurfgirl’s idea is a sound one. Although most may not have a major in mind as freshmen, they usually have a general idea about where it might eventually be, eg social sciences, humanities or sciences. Students should try to fulfill some of the core requirements in the areas that are not likely to be the areas of their interest. For example, a student who is likely to major in one of the social sciences disciplines should try to fulfill some of the gen ed requirements in the humanities and sciences.</p>
<p>I understand that ^ in theory, but my son REALLY did not know what he wanted to major in and in fact, I don’t know if the English major will stick. When we first started looking at colleges he was looking at tech schools for an IT major! So, it’s not as if he was deciding between English and History, he was signing up for classes in hopes that one of them would lead him to pick a major and at the same time have them qualify towards graduation requirements.</p>
<p>I have no idea what to major in, so I chose a psych class and a foreign language. The idea is that you’re supposed to pick classes that you might have an interest in. (exploratory classs like blahblahblah 101). If I wouldn’t have picked psych, I probably would’ve never found out that I was interested in cognitive science. I have one humanities left next year and the rest are all going to be whatever I choose to major in. It’s nice to get them out of the way, however, there’s only so much science, math, whatever that you can handle and not get burned out with.</p>
<p>I’m in the same boat as your son, that’s why I responded to your OP. I did the same thing.</p>
<p>I was surprised to learn just how many of my friends’ children took required Math at the cc during the summer. None were “Math people,” just needed the core credit. One said that at her univ you could not use a calculator and at the local cc she could, that decided it for her.</p>
<p>I believe that Calculus I at my university prohibits the use of calculators. Luckily I fulfilled my math credit by taking business version of Calculus I which allowed calculators. You can evaluate derivatives (like using the chain rule) without the use of a calculator.</p>
<p>In retrospect, since math is not my area of expertise, I should’ve saved a lot of grief and took the course at a cc.</p>