Questions from an incoming transfer applicant (Fall 2014)

SHolmies
Mon, 30 Jun 2014 19:47:44 +0000

Did the registrar’s office give you a breakdown of which courses you’ve already taken meeting which requirements (a credit evaluation)? It sounds like you should have Group X totally covered, and Group C (science) and D (math) will be taken care of through your major. But you haven’t taken anything that could possibly fulfill the Humanities, Group A, or Group B reqs, correct?
Sometimes transfers have to advocate a little for previous courses meeting requirements. (If you want help with that, PM me your transcript or list of college coursework)

I’m sure they will want you to do the majority of your physics coursework at Reed, so you might only get credit for like one or two previous physics classes. Or none if it was informal. (Same reason as Intl95 stated above: "requirements are fairly stringent and [other schools] may not fulfill them) And they might say any math you took before isn’t the same as the math they offer and have you take some of that over (this is where advocating for yourself becomes necessary). But since you’re transferring as a sophomore that doesn’t really set you back too much.

However, if you are interested in study abroad, go talk to Paul DeYoung immediately (the director of International Programs), like your first week on campus. Also talk about it with your academic advisor during your first meeting. Study abroad takes a decent amount of planning, which means doing it your first year at Reed is uncommon. And if the physics dept won’t play well with other schools, you may end up fulfilling more of your Group reqs through study abroad than your major reqs (like going to Florence and taking 2 Art History classes and 2 Anthropology classes to fulfill Group A and B). Physics is also tricky since Physics 101-102 and 201-202 are both year-long and only offered in order with 101/201 offered during fall and 102/202 offered during in the spring, and they probably don’t want you to miss out or delay any of them… Again, talk to Paul and your academic advisor asap and see what is possible.

http://www.reed.edu/registrar/new_planners/phys_new.pdf – this should become your best friend
http://www.reed.edu/catalog/edu_program.html and http://www.reed.edu/apply/applying_to_reed/transfer2.html and http://www.reed.edu/registrar/pdfs/sched_1415.pdf – these will help too

Taking it a little easier your first semester with 3.5 units (Hum110 and 2 other classes) will also allow you a bit more time to try out some ECs and figure out which ones you really want to pursue, as well as giving you more free time for a social life and general adjustment to Reed. A lot of students take on as much as they can their first semester and end up being overwhelmed, so starting a little slower is just smart. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Reed has some intramural sports, including soccer. http://www.reed.edu/sports_center/sports_club_list.html Tennis and Soccer are offered as PE classes. You have to take 6 quarters of PE and there are a lot of classes to choose from. http://www.reed.edu/sports_center/classes_index.html

Reed had a debate team, but I’m not sure if it’s still active. There is a solid community outreach and volunteer program called SEEDS: http://www.reed.edu/beyond-reed/seeds/

There aren’t really work-study ‘programs’ per se, just on-campus jobs that qualify for work study, like working at the sports center, library, admissions, mail room, etc. Many professors receive some work-study money to hire student employees so you could get paid to help them do research, etc which is fantastic for science majors (to find out about those opportunities you usually need to contact them directly as they are rarely advertised). Some of the SEEDS opportunities qualify as work-study as well. There should be some sort of optional workshop/lecture about FWS and campus jobs during orientation.