<p>I know I’ve been flip-flopping a lot on here about classes I may potentially take, but please help me decide! In freshman fall, I can take HUM 216+217, Orgo, and Calc 2. Is that too much? I know HUM has a HUGE workload and Orgo requires a huge time commitment so is taking those two together not advisable? Has anybody done it? And throwing Calc 2 into the mix (I’m not that good at math)? I love sleep and don’t want to lose too much of it! </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>There is no right answer. There will be a lot of new experiences waiting for you and you want to have time to taste the full buffet awaiting you. Balancing that first semester course load with the new experiences is part and parcel of becoming a P student. So not becoming swamped in an overly ambitious academic load must be balanced by your obvious desire to really challenge yourself academically right out of the box.</p>
<p>On the one hand using your APs to place out of intro level classes gets you into presumably more interesting courses quicker; on the other hand, there is a high probability that your AP did not give you a sturdy enough foundation to leapfrog into a sophomore level course. (there are actually several reasons not to leap into a sophomore level course - one of which is that sophomores have gone through two college testing cycles and will have a real advantage over a first semester freshman. The testing at P is probably a bit different from what you have experienced.)</p>
<p>A decent compromise (my student did this and he scored a 5 on his chem AP) in chem is to take the advanced freshman chem class (can’t recall the course number). That course went really fast and exposed all the holes from his HS AP (in my students case it was a lack of high end physics) with enough time to fill those holes and make your chem foundation sturdy. I believe other departments may have advanced freshman courses in a similar vein (e.g., Econ).</p>
<p>But for those with very strong foundations, heading right in to sophomore levels would be fine. You don’t want to be bored; you don’t want to be swamped.</p>
<p>When you arrive, you will have time to meet upper level students and get their opinions. Don’t take each opinion at face value; think about the person offering the opinion and decide for yourself.</p>
<p>Thanks but I don’t believe they are offering the advanced Chem class this semester (Chem 215).</p>
<p>That’s too bad. It’s a dilemma for you - my bet is intro is way too simple in light of your passion; and orgo will throw you in with the “wolves.”. Will chem be your major or will orgo be required for your major or grad school. Same question about HUM. If not, you may have a p/d/f option.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you try to make contact with the orgo prof and discuss it with him/her.</p>
<p>I would definitely advise against HUM plus orgo. In fact, I would advise against HUM for anyone who doesn’t plan on majoring in the humanities. It’s just not worth killing yourself over. Are there people who are capable of taking both? Yes, but they’re generally the same people who take six classes because they would be bored otherwise.</p>
<p>I’m either a Chem or ChemE major so it will definitely be needed for my major. I really like what HUM has to offer and I have genuine interest in the class. Idk, I’m in a dilemma. @Fightthetide, were you in HUM? Perhaps you could offer some insight as to the workload?</p>
<p>I didn’t take HUM, but one of my roommates did. He spent many, many hours reading in East Pyne and, as a future Woody Woo major, decided the second semester of HUM wasn’t worth that much time. His greatest complaint wasn’t necessarily that the workload was ridiculous, but more that the material was covered so quickly that the class couldn’t delve as deep as he would have liked; they covered Plato’s Republic in one day, I believe. The people who stick through the entire year become a pretty tight-knit group (I remember seeing HUM shirts around campus). </p>
<p>My best advice for you is to go ahead and apply and do the reading - if the class is a fit for you, you won’t mind doing the reading for reading’s sake even if you don’t end up taking HUM - and wait until you get to school so you can talk with people who took HUM and/or orgo. Scheduling doesn’t happen until several days into frosh week, so you’ll have time.</p>
<p>I was already accepted and am scrambling to complete the summer readings. The real problem is that I kind of want to switch to ChemE in the BSE program and HUM isn’t that compatible with it. For instance, I’d need to take physics, orgo, calc 2, and compsci in the first year, which obviously leaves no room for HUM. So it’s essentially a decision that’s all about whether I like the idea of HUM enough to forgo an engineering degree for an AB in Chem instead. </p>
<p>Thanks for your input!</p>
<p>i wouldn’t take hum w orgo. and if you want to switch into bse…i’d advise against hum period. too many requirements to take care of. i took hum as a freshman and orgo as a sophomore. both were fun and manageable on their own. but together? i think i would’ve been way too stressed trying to manage both workloads (if i could manage them at all…)</p>
<p>how about taking HUM, Chinese, and writing sem??? Is that manageable?</p>
<p>Balance is the key word with HUM. You don’t want to be taking other big time commitment classes alongside it, like Chinese, which is notoriously difficult here; orgo; or writing sem. (Of course, writing sem may be unavoidable first semester, and certainly is if you take both semesters of HUM.) If you’re interested in HUM, consider structuring your schedule with a freshman sem and a class of “medium” difficulty, like a lower-level romance language.</p>
<p>Why? The fact of the matter is that with HUM, time to read is the most important thing. If you don’t read, you can’t get much from the lectures and, worse, won’t be able to actively participate in precept. Moreover, there’s a five-page paper due every other week, and the graders are hard to impress–they’re looking for original ideas. That means you need to get started early brainstorming ideas, turning things over in your head. It’s just not possible if your headspace is full of orgo concepts or Chinese characters.</p>
<p>@ptontiger16,
I was really hoping to take HUM, but the more I looked into it, the more it felt like COM/HUM 205-206 might be a better option for me. This sequence (“Baby-HUM”) is less rigorous, but follows a similar pattern. It only counts as one credit per semester, allowing me to take more classes, which is what I wanted.</p>
<p>COM/HUM 205: [Course</a> Details « Office of the Registrar](<a href=“Course Details | Office of the Registrar”>Course Details | Office of the Registrar)</p>
<p>COM/HUM 206: [Course</a> Details « Office of the Registrar](<a href=“Course Details | Office of the Registrar”>Course Details | Office of the Registrar)</p>
<p>@spicytunaroll: i took HUM w writing sem. lots of reading and writing that semester, as you can imagine. was it manageable? yes. was it overkill? probably. haha. but that semester was among my happiest at princeton. i’d say. be willing to sacrifice time and (most likely) grades if you want to carry out your schedule. you get as much out of HUM as you put into it. so make sure you know that you will be able to devote yourself to the readings and discussions. writing sem is actually not that big a deal. really. it’s more annoying and tedious than anything else (from my experience. my freshman roommate had a blast with her writing sem). two friends of mine took chinese with HUM, and they seemed very happy, though at times overwhelmed. as for putting HUM, chinese, AND writing seminar together…you can try it during the add/drop period and see if you can manage. my third (or…fourth) class that semester was intro russian, which is also a rather difficult language. like i said. i was very happy that semester, as challenging as it was. if you have further questions about your schedule you can PM me if you want.</p>