2008er taking questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>I'll take any last minute questions from incoming frosh. I left CC a while back after getting sick of all the college rep wars (I see Byerly still posts...) and the infinite number of chances threads.</p>

<p>But I see they're created a forum for the 09ers, so I'll happily answer questions to allay any fears and issues you guys may have before you start school. Also, having advice from older students is good for avoiding typical freshman mistakes.</p>

<p>A bit of background of my freshman year:</p>

<p>I came in really excited to go and had a fantastic time on my OA trip (group PA63 in the Appalachians). I immediately worked on joining a number of extracurrics once school started. I auditioned and got into Chapel Choir, made callbacks but was ultimately rejected for several a cappella groups, and joined the Club Rifle team as well. Overall, this wasn't too bad on top of the four classes I was taking. One was a freshman seminar on geology (FRS149) with a trip to Death Valley over fall break. That really made my year. </p>

<p>Here was my schedule first semester, in case anyone's interested:</p>

<p>FRS 149: Active Geological Processes
WRI109/110 Culture and Memory
EEB211: The Biology of Organisms
CHI103: Accelerated beginner's Chinese for Chinese speakers</p>

<p>As the first semester progressed, I found myself wasting time. The four classes didn't have much work, but I would always find myself doing stuff last-minute. Working a dining hall job, doing chapel choir, and competing in riflery also drained me through the week. All I can say is: get your work done early and then procrastinate. There is way too much else to distract you when you just get to college, whether it's alcohol, new friends, no parents, or new activities. It wasn't until second semester's that five classes and a hard schedule made me pull my time management together. Good study tips include finding a quiet, alone place to work (Firestone C Level has lots of seats) and just getting all your work done. Try not to dawdle on papers, because in most humanities courses you only write 2 or 3. Finals are not to be messed with - they count for 40% of your grade and over in many classes.</p>

<p>Most students will ***** about the writing seminar, but it's really not that bad. You write 4-6 essays over the course of a semester, and most classes don't make you write just boring analytical stuff. Princeton really does try to make the writing seminars unique and fun.</p>

<p>Also, DO NOT sign up for 8:30 AM classes if you can. I made the mistake of having my writing seminar that early. It wrecked me. Most college students sleep pretty late, and if you follow the typical schedule an 8:30 class will really disrupt your sleep time. I was more exhausted than I should have been first semester.</p>

<p>Chapel Choir is a great extracurricular to do if you have singing talent. It's very low key, and you get paid 6.45 an hour (rehearsals and services) to sing. The group is composed of great students and the conductor, Penna Rose, is simply amazing. The worst thing is having to get up at 9:45 AM on Sunday mornings to rehearse for service. That was another thing that wrecked my sleep schedule. I'd have 8:30 class two times a week, a rifle competition or dining hall work early Saturday morning, and Chapel Choir early Sunday morning. Please... try and schedule your classes to allow for sleep. You don't want to be a walking zombie.</p>

<p>Second Semester I took:
MOL214: Genetics and stuff
ECO101: Macroeconomics
CHI108: Continuation of Chinese 103
HIS208: East Asia since 1800
FRSsomething: The Mighty Endeavor: the US in WWII</p>

<p>MOL214 was by far the hardest class I've taken, but somehow I managed to do well in it (cutoff for flat A was a 74 avg). Somehow, taking five harder classes made me more motivated to work. I'll take questions on these classes as well.</p>

<p>This year I'm signed up for (need to drop 1 class):
CHM207: Adv Chem - Materials Science
CHI303: Modern Chinese
HIS380: US Foreign Policy
POL388: Causes of War
CHV310: Practical Ethics
ENG335: Children's Literature</p>

<p>I know there's a lot of stuff I haven't covered at all, and it would probably take ages, so feel free to ask anything - social life, financial aid, extracurrics, etc.</p>

<p>So - bring on the questions and become informed frosh.</p>

2

<p>thanks for doing this~! just a question about macroecon...how was it?</p>

3

<p>hey i have a question about chinese 103. how difficult/fast paced is that class? ive taken chinese school for about 14 years (of course my vocaab still isnt THAT extensive). i can speak fluently watch any chinese program. i can read menus/signs in asia and medium-difficulty chinese literature. except my writing is very very bad (reading is way better than writing, writing probably only 500-1000 characters). is 103 the right class cuz my writing is really bad? or 108? wats the difference</p>

4

<p>I actually found macroecon to be a bit difficult. The concepts are easy to understand, but they simply don't apply to well to real-world problems, which have layers and layers of complexities to dissect. When asked to critique a Wall Street Journal article, nearly everyone I talked to had different opinions. Basic econ theory does not fit too well with many real world situations.</p>

<p>The class is overall not hard, but the curve isn't forgiving because the difficulty isn't high. I learned the material well but was disappointed with the overall grade.</p>

<p>Microecon on the other hand can be tough as nails. A lot of students will have trouble with the tests. The problem with econ is that it's all easy to understand until you reach a test that throws a curveball at you.</p>

<p>That's actually the problem with humanities class in general: the material looks easy until you fail the first test. Science courses throw a lot of hard stuff at you so you know the challenge, whereas humanities tests can ask nearly anything and everything.</p>

<p>It's definitely a great course. I just never had much of an interest in econ.</p>

5

<p>
[quote]
hey i have a question about chinese 103. how difficult/fast paced is that class? ive taken chinese school for about 14 years (of course my vocaab still isnt THAT extensive). i can speak fluently watch any chinese program. i can read menus/signs in asia and medium-difficulty chinese literature. except my writing is very very bad (reading is way better than writing, writing probably only 500-1000 characters). is 103 the right class cuz my writing is really bad? or 108? wats the difference

[/quote]
</p>

<p>If you've taken 14 years of chinese and know some writing, they will ask you to take a placement test. 103 is meant for students with NO writing ability but decent speaking ability. I've seen kids enroll in 103 eventually get placed in 412 (the highest level). The Chinese department will be glad to test you. Be sure you show up for the placement test, which will be sometime during orientation week.</p>

<p>The difference between 103 and 108 is that 108 continues 103. 108 is offered 2nd semester, 103 the 1st. Some students do not take 103 and instead enroll into 108 in the spring. That also requires a placement test.</p>

6

<p>Hehe, econ ... humanities ... test - confusing in that order.</p>

7

<p>is MOL 214 harder than many other classes in the MOL dept in order to serve as a weed out class of some sort?</p>

8

<p>Yes, MO214 is designed to weed out the premeds from the nonpremeds. The averages on the tests ranged from 70 to 55. There is a lot of concepts and material to learn, and the lectures were at 8:30AM. MOL214 and 215 are prereqs for med school, so you'll have to take it if you want to apply or become a Mol major.</p>

9

<p>I thought that if you took MOL215, you didn't need to take MOL 214?</p>

10

<p>You can take EEB210/211 and MOL214/215 to fulfill your bio req. A 5 on the AP bio allows you to skip EEB210/211. Yeah, so you only need one of each.</p>

11

<p>Ive just read this article about the econ dept at Princeton.
<a href="http://www.luskinreport.com/2003_05...tersArchive.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.luskinreport.com/2003_05...tersArchive.asp&lt;/a>
Is it accurate?</p>

12

<p>axfr, the link is broken. What was the crux of the article?</p>

13

<p>it was written by a 03er who majored in econ. He basically didn't like his experience there. Among other stuff he claimed that the undergraduate focus thing at princeton is a hoax. He writes that the professors (especially in the econ department) don't have time for undergrads, dont answer their emails...
check out
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=94014%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=94014&lt;/a>
for the original link</p>