<p>Wow, glad he chose Italian!</p>
<p>The Blue Book just came out and the kids are freaking - including my D. Tell them to take it slow. Find some interesting classes but wait till they get to school and talk to their counselors who will steer them in the right path. Having gone to Yale, I suggest taking only 4 class first semester (and I am suggesting this to my daughter). Though all of the kids are obviously smart, maybe brilliant, first semester is an adjustment time and many are coming from being the “big fish” to a pond that is teeming with big fish - some much bigger. This is a good time to take it slow and explore. Trust me, easier said than done. My D is making it seem like these first semester classes will determine her whole life course. I am reigning her in - or at least trying my best too. Remind them that they are lucky and blessed to have such a large course selection. Many of my D’s friends are already locked into schedules now, even before they set foot on campus. Shopping period is foreign to most college students.</p>
<p>@Tperry1982 , that’s good advice. In addition to having been one of the larger fish, DS also felt constrained by the offerings at his high school. It was a relatively rigorous high school, but it was still a high school. They are like kids in a candy store, but we as parents have to make sure that their eyes are not bigger than their stomachs. </p>
<p>DS had told me that the class times were released, but I guess that now the whole Blue Book is available. We will have some more great conversations. I’m really enjoying these conversations. </p>
<p>I’m guessing you have seen this, but definitely check professor evaluations on Yale OCI-- he should be able to login with his NetID. You seem to be well aware of the rigor of 230. I would only add that 260 is a pretty tough physics course. I had some pretty brilliant friends last year who would spend many hours on a 3 or 4 problem weekly pset. I would say the combo of Math 230 and Physics 260 is doable for a smart and motivated freshman but he had better be sure he really likes math and physics because those two classes alone will eat up some serious library time.</p>
<p>Things will become a lot more clear as your son comes onto campus. Between shopping different lectures, conversations w/ his adviser and froco, and all the “So what classes are you shopping?” freshman chatter, he will quickly pick up the reputations of all these common freshman courses and will be able to make a balanced schedule from there.</p>
<p>Let me mentioned again something here that I said on another thread–tell your kids that they don’t have to sign up for the most challenging courses Yale offers from day one in order to be seen as smart people. That is, they don’t have to be in Directed Studies, or this top math course, or take six credits, or anything else like that to get the respect of their peers at Yale. That is not really something that other students will care about. Take the courses that actually interest you (while keeping distributional requirements in mind, of course). As noted above, everybody at Yale is a big fish. The kids in DS aren’t really bigger than anybody else.</p>
<p>@litotes, DS has backed off Physics 260 (he loves math much more than physics), and is beginning to feel that Math 230 with 3 additional courses that are “you’ve got to take this course before leaving Yale” rated is probably a good idea for him. Directed Studies had a half-life with him of around 2 weeks 
He was excited about Math 230 before he even applied to Yale.</p>