Required classes for incoming freshman?

hazelorb
Mon, 02 Apr 2012 07:09:36 +0000

Okay, here we go.


You are not a freshman. You are a “first year”
Depending on your school (eschool, college, etc) you will have a different schedule.


2a. Eschool first years all have the same schedule all year unless you have AP credit. There was a thread about this recently so I would go read that.

2b. I’m not familiar with nursing or architecture schedules. Curry also accept first years now (but for kinesiology?) and I’m not sure what that schedule would be like, but I went through the education program and we had identical classes with eachother (small program) so I would assume the same.

2c. In the college of arts and sciences (which is what I am assuming you are asking about), you have a large number of requirements to fulfill, but no required courses. You can find more information by going here [The Undergraduate College of Arts & Sciences, U.Va.](http://college.artsandsciences.virginia.edu/requirements) but let me talk a bit about each.

2c1. Competency requirements - these are things you are probably assuming would be in a required first year schedule - you need to prove competency in english and foreign language. Your first writing requirement needs to be proven competent by your first year, either in your fall semester, spring semester, or by placing out. Your foreign language requirement you have about the first 3 years to complete. The second writing requirement is usually met by a class you take in your major so don’t worry about that until after your second year.

2c2. Area requirements - these are classes you have to take to prove you are getting a well rounded education. A lot of AP credits fulfill these. You can see the whole list of departments (english, anthropology, biology, etc) on that page I linked, but it’s basically a “choose 1 of the 3 departments and take any class” kind of requirement list. Use thecourseforum .com when you get your UVA email to check out professors. You sign up for any professor and course you like, but sometimes there is only one professor teaching a course you want to take.


* * I will really emphasize that a bad professor makes even the best course awful * * *


2c3. Major - you need to complete a major in any department offering one by the end of your fourth year, and declare (choose) by the end of your second year. Many majors have prerequisites. I would try to take some of the prerequisites your first year so that if you change your mind about what you want to major in (99% of people do, by the way) you have time to take other prerequisites.

You will get this whole spiel again at summer orientation, and then you get to sign up for classes. You can change your classes for the first week or two, which is also common (even for upperclassmen). And you have 8 semesters, so don’t worry too much about fitting everything in your first semester – just take a reasonable (no more than 15 credits, about 4-5 classes) load and enjoy socializing and college.

There are a number of old threads with lists of what people took their first year. You can start up another one (to survey students already at UVa who post to this board) if you think that might help you understand that everyone has a different schedule.