<p>I know that Princeton doesn’t have an exact shopping period, but is it common for students to take more classes than they can handle during the dropping period so they can test them all out and end up with the most favorable schedule?</p>
<p>Or will this create a burdensome and unnecessary amount of work?
If so, what is the reasonable amount of extra classes you should attempt to try at once?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>It’s very common to sign up for one more class than you plan to actually take. Some people do two or more.</p>
<p>thanks! </p>
<p>and since I’m not sure how dropping works, is it likely for a professor to be offended if you drop his/her course?</p>
<p>No not at all.</p>
<p>Doing this is definitely a good idea, especially if certain classes you want to take fill up early.</p>
<p>are the intro classes ones that fill up early?</p>
<p>It really depends- some popular ones may. On the other hand, you can switch your classes online during the first two weeks class, so if one is full when classes start, people will shuffle their schedules around and spots will likely open up.</p>
<p>a lot of the intro classes have reserved spots for freshmen, so depending on what time you get to pick classes you can get into very popular classes (aka Human evolution because it fills an EC)</p>
<p>is it more normal for students to fill up those distribution requirements first? or wait until jr/sr year? </p>
<p>For instance don’t really like science, but I know we have 2 science and lab requirements, so do you it would be worth it to take one each semester of freshman yr and never worry about it again?</p>
<p>Do a freshman seminar (or two); it’ll make a tougher requirement easier to fulfill. Other than that, it’s a good idea to knock out distribution requirements early while exploring your academic interests so that you have a better idea of what you want your major to be.</p>
<p>good ideas 
i just wish teh freshman sems were up so we could check…</p>
<p>have you heard anything about the chemistry of chocolate one? I don’t mind chem, and myb that’s a fun way to get rid of it w/o entering a weeding-out chem class full of pre-med students?</p>
<p>My roommate really enjoyed chemistry of magic, another freshman seminar geared towards non-science types.</p>
<p>Ali, the chocolate one is supposedly good/interesting. Also, if you take chem 201, which is the intro level chem course, they separate the class into a pre-med section and a non-pre-med section (mostly full of engineers, but not quite as intense grading-wise), which is really nice.</p>
<p>that’s rly considerate of them!</p>
<p>:) is there a way of finding out more helpful (if unofficial) like this before classes start (besides asking u kind ppl on CC, of course!)</p>
<p>Just to clarify, when I said “not quite as intense grading-wise”, I mean that you aren’t contending with the pre-med types; I’m pretty sure the number of A’s/B’s/etc. is about the same for each section. Asking current students (including cc’ers) is probably your best (if only) bet for being shown the ropes for this kind of stuff.</p>
<p>in that case, does anyone have advice about picking classes for freshman yr? I know the fall 08 classes r up (and it would probably be better to wait until spring is up, too?), but before then does anyone have general advice? about requirements, continuing foreign lang, etc?</p>
<p>and sry for the double post, but also, is it bad to take a class p/f in your first semester/yr? I rly wanna try micro or macro but have no economics experience and feel I may be behind.</p>
<p>It’s fine PDFing a class first semester, but I wouldn’t suggest PDFing ECO 100/101. Generally, the requirements for classes are pretty good indicators of the knowledge you’ll have to have before taking the class. ECO 100/101 don’t have any requirements, and for good reason–they’re pretty easy classes that you can do well in, regardless of whether you’ve taken economics before or not. Plenty of people who take those intro economics courses haven’t had any exposure before, but they do just fine in them. </p>
<p>Freshman year, you should probably take a freshman seminar, and you have to take a writing seminar. If you don’t have your language requirement fulfilled, you’ll have to take that as well. Other than that, there aren’t really any restrictions–take whatever you want, but I’d just suggest varying the subjects a little until you’re absolutely sure what you want to study. </p>
<p>(Oh, and the spring course offerings don’t come up until November or December, so you won’t be able to wait until then)</p>
<p>thanks quirkily for all the info!! what you said about requirements makes a lot of sense.</p>
<p>sry to dwell on the issue, but is it ok to take just Mic (i think 100) or just Mac (101?) And does the order matter?</p>
<p>The order does not really matter at all; the basic supply and demand concepts are covered in the beginning of both courses. On the other hand, having taken both, I think from an aesthetic standpoint it makes more sense to take micro first. On the other hand, Bogan, who is teaching macro this fall, is well-known as a pretty good professor (her reviews here are mixed, though: scg.princeton.edu), whereas Farber is an unknown (although he could very well be an amazing at teaching the intro micro class). In any case, check out that site if (or when) you have your e-mail account set to go; it has student reviews of professors and classes.</p>