<p>A lot of the technical electives I can take are 300 or 400 level courses, though they are unrelated to my field. Courses like Astronomy 404, Stellar Astrophysics, or TAM412, Intermediate Dynamics. I might have to take one if some of my schedule doesn’t work out because I register next to last here. I figure they’re going to be hard, but would it just be a waste of my time to sign up for them?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Yes. Absolutely yes. TAM 412 is a higher and more insane version of TAM 212, which is already a stumbling block for many engineers here at Illinois and I would imagine at most universities, and taking the higher level course without the building blocks is like trying to build a roof on your house before you build the house. I can’t speak for ASTRO 404, but I can’t imagine that it would be easy for someone with none of the background courses.</p>
<p>If I were you, I would take gen eds to fill those blank spots to get them out of your way so that later on, you can spend more energy on the better courses and not worry about taking PHIL 102 your senior year just to fulfill the gen ed requirements.</p>
<p>What is your major our of curiosity?</p>
<p>(Didn’t UIUC ax the TAM department? Do they still use the TAM designation? I think I left before that all panned out…)</p>
<p>Also, to not completely derail and to add to the thread, OP, don’t take upper-level courses your freshman year. That… was a mistake on my part. Just ease your way into college, at least for the first semester, and then see what you think. Definitely don’t take any courses that you haven’t accrued the prerequisites for… That’s like trying to delve into calculus before you’ve figured out how to multiply. Learning happens progressively for a reason. Messing with that progression results in pain.</p>
<p>UIUC axed the TAM department sort of. Technically, they only did away with the undergraduate major of TAM and absorbed the department into mechanical engineering. If you want to do TAM, you can major in Engineering Mechanics or something like that, and then do TAM as a graduate degree. The courses still have the TAM label, as it is basically a separate department within MechSE. They also pushed Industrial Engineering out of the MechSE department and grouped it with “General Engineering.”</p>
<p>Ok, I didn’t really plan on taking these courses but I didn’t really want to use up my gen eds so early. I want to ‘save’ some humanities for later so I can take fewer technical courses at a time once they get difficult, but I don’t know if I have much of a choice.</p>
<p>I’m a CompE. I haven’t registered yet, this is just in case I can’t get in to ECE210 or one of the other core classes. Good thing I asked. I also like the idea easing my way into college :p.</p>
<p>Ugh, I am glad there are people that are like you to make circuits, because the one circuits course I was forced to take was utter torture to me. Haha. Either way, taking something like TAM 412 at ANY time during your college career is probably a bit nuts. That would be a tough class for me now, and I am a senior in ME, the department TAM is under. haha.</p>