Super early, but does anyone have some Freshman schedule advice?

Ranza123
Fri, 06 Feb 2015 02:38:31 +0000

I’m not premed, but I 100% encourage taking courses just because they interest you. CAS is awesome because there are courses in hundreds of different topics. I highly suggest just going through all the different courses offered in all the majors in Arts and Sciences, favorite the ones that seem interesting to you, and then pick one or two courses from that list just for fun. Take courses in subjects you didn’t even know you liked. I spent hours going through the different course options. If you don’t let the number of possibilities overwhelm you, it’s really really fun.

Again, I’m not premed, but I’ve heard taking both bio and chem in the same semester is awful (maybe an actual premed can confirm/deny). I would do one this semester and the other the next. If CS interests you, by all means take an intro course in that. If you place out of a FWS, I suggest taking the one you have to take first semester to get it out of the way, but that’s just me. As for creative writing, you have to complete the FWS requirement before you can take it, and I believe intro to creative writing is only offered in the fall, so you may have to wait a year to take that.

Also, in CAS you have to complete a foreign language requirement, which I suggest doing right away. If you are already semi-proficient in a language, you can take a placement test and get put into a higher level class. You only have to pass one 2000-level or higher course. If you place into one of those, I suggest taking it your first semester while the language is still fresh in your mind and so you can get it out of the way. If you aren’t currently proficient in another language (I wasn’t!) then pick one of the dozens of languages offered in CAS and take three semesters worth of it to fulfill the requirement. I went out on a limb and took Hebrew, and it was the best course decision I made.

And again, just to reiterate (because I feel like this is SO IMPORTANT and yet I see SO FEW PEOPLE doing it here!) TAKE CLASSES JUST FOR THE SAKE OF LEARNING SOMETHING NEW. I fill up my schedule with courses in a variety of subjects that interest me, or that I knew nothing about, or that I was curious about, and it feels almost like I’m not working at all (that’s not entirely true; I still put in a ton of work, but sometimes it’s fun work!) Plenty of people go in with a major in mind (and about a million start out as premed) and the majority end up declaring or switching into a major completely different than they thought they would choose. I think it’s really important to explore and keep your options open. You’re going to be at one of the best universities in the world, with professors who are at the absolute top of their field. Use their knowledge to your advantage and become a super well-rounded person who can pull random facts out of your back pocket. It also makes you super good at Trivia Crack.