<p>thanks tunanfish!</p>
<p>Concerning laptops: is theft an issue on campus? what security measures would you suggest?</p>
<p>I haven't heard of theft being an issue on campus. Some of my friends just leave their laptops and dont even lock their doors. I use a laptop lock though, nothing fancy, just this loop that goes into the side of the laptop and wraps around, say your bed. </p>
<p>As for frosh sems, I'm taking one this spring called Language and Cognition. I'm excited for it, i hear frosh sems can be one of the greatest academic experiences of Princeton.
I'm taking one with writing seminar, and i think its fine to take it anytime you want. (Freshmen seminars are supposed to be pretty easy on the grading) Go with the seminars youre most interested in. I wouldn't apply to fall if there is one in spring you really want to do, because they give preference to those who havent taken a seminar before.
I hear bad things about the Gardens one, good things about the secretary of state one.</p>
<p>Is there a complete overhaul of frosh sems from year to year? Because I thought I recalled seeing several of those offered this year offered in years past. Does it change from year to year?</p>
<p>If I'm not mistaken, Paul Krugman taught a freshman seminar this year on government spending.....oh what I would give to take that class next year.</p>
<p>Some freshman seminars are offered frequently, while others are one-time deals. For example, one of my professors for next semester, William Howarth, has taught a freshman seminar on Walden for the last couple of years, but this fall, a seminar was offered with Anne-Marie Slaughter (Dean of the Wilson School) for the first time (I think). At any rate, if you look at "Course Offerings" on the Princeton website (Academics --> Course Offerings) you can see which ones are offered more often than others.</p>
<p>Edit: Paul Krugman is teaching a seminar this spring on the deficit. I have a few friends who are in it; I thought about applying, but changed my mind, since I had heard he wasn't the greatest teacher -- at least not in lectures. If you look at the course offerings for this Spring, however, you can read about that seminar.</p>
<p>TN</p>
<p>Would you 08'ers suggest picking a seminar that's quirky but definitely sounds interesting (Face to Face: The Functions and Mechanisms of Face Perception FRS 136), or something a little more mainstream that's aligned with your possible major (So you Want to be Secretary of State FRS 107)? What about choosing a seminar because the professor is famous (The Tragic, the Comic and the Political FRS 169 - Cornel West)?</p>
<p>IMO you should pick almost solely based on professor for classes in general. One of my friends is in "a Biography of Energy" -- she took it thinking it would be a good QR -- but she now hates it. Other people I know picked courses based more on course topic than professor, while I chose more on professor and course reviews, and I'm much happier right now.</p>
<p>Also, with regard to major, I think it's a good idea to take a variety of courses your first semester -- in fact, they ban you from taking two courses from the same department as a freshman, I think. I see too many people taking prerequisites to be an Econ major with a finance certificate the first semester of their freshman year; when I ask them how they're so certain they want to do it as a major, they respond that they just know they want to do it -- how??!?! Without taking a smattering of courses early, you'll never know which fields you truly find interesting. College history is not the same as high school; college psych is not the same as high school psych. This is one of the reasons I took the HUM Sequence -- it exposes me to a lot of different books, fields, and guest professors. I now am pretty sure I don't want to be a religion major, but I might now consider Classics more than I would before.</p>
<p>TN</p>
<p>Thanks TN. :)</p>
<p>Freshman Jobs</p>
<ul>
<li>Approximately how many hours are you expected or allowed to work?</li>
<li>Which is the better option: an On-Campus or Off-Campus job?</li>
<li>What jobs would you suggest as the nicest? best-paying? most beneficial?</li>
<li>Any jobs that should be avoided freshman year?</li>
<li>Would you recommend a job that is in line with your academic interest (a science-lover working in the labs) or something completely different (a physically demanding job like cleaning the horse stables).</li>
<li>Any memorable job experiences or anecdotes? :)</li>
</ul>
<p>Relax and enjoy your senior year!</p>
<p>Enjoy school while it is still probably really easy for you; also, spend as much time as possible with home friends because things really will change (at least in my mind) once you go to college and realize how amazing P-ton people are compared to umm, everyone else in the world....</p>
<p>Paul Krugman may be a famous name but almost everyone who has taken his class says he is a terrible terrible terrible teacher</p>
<p>on the other hand West is obviously a famous name and people love his class</p>
<p>be very careful though...</p>
<p>e dit</p>
<p>thanks rdb - i know i'm bombarding y'all with questions, there's just so much i'd like to learn <em>before</em> i actually arrive on campus next year. please humor us we really appreciate your answers to what may seem trivial questions :)</p>
<p>what tunanfish said is on the mark, and he forgot to mention that Sean Wilentz is now nominated for a Grammy (for best album notes).</p>
<p>My freshman seminar was definitely a "this is why I came to Princeton" class. I was in the Secretaries of State seminar taught by Dean Slaughter and William Burke-White. (<a href="http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/04/1101/6a.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/04/1101/6a.shtml</a>) We went incredibly in-depth, covering all the key Secretaries of State from Jefferson to Albright. In addition to the history aspect of the course, we learned international relations theory and applied it to the views and actions of the secretaries. </p>
<p>One highlight was when former Secretary of State George Shultz came and spoke with our seminar. We were also able to go through papers of John Foster Dulles, Henry Kissinger, and George Kennan at Princeton's manuscript library (they have the original Long Telegram).</p>
<p>If they offer the Secretaries of State seminar next year and you're interested in international relations and U.S. foreign policy, apply.</p>
<p>Don't pick your seminar based on residential college. Your college has nothing to do with whether you should take a certain seminar, unless you're very lazy and don't like to walk five minutes to class. My seminar wasn't even held in a residential college.</p>
<p>I think it's safer to apply for seminars in which you are genuinely interested, not those that sound mildly interesting and would fulfill a distribution requirement.</p>
<p>Ahhh, that sounds awesome. I'd like either that one or the Consciousness seminar. Most of them I'd want to take, haha. It's weird having choices instead of being forced into something you hate like in high school. But I like it, make no mistake about it :)</p>