<p>“A student in Yale College normally takes four or five term courses, or their equivalent, for each of eight terms.”</p>
<p>So why exactly does everyone feel the need to cram 5, 5 and a half, six, SEVEN credits into their schedules? It’s our first semester! Sure, if at the end of semester you are bored out of your mind by the ease of your course load, bulk up a bit for second semester. But the way I see it there’s no reason for an incoming freshman to take more credits than most upperclassmen. There’s nothing wrong with taking a semester to acclimate to what will most likely be the most rigorous environment any of us have ever been in :P</p>
<p>If, however, you feel it is absolutely necessary to take 7 credits, you should know that you will need more than the approval of your dean.</p>
<p>“A student must petition the Yale College Committee on Honors and Academic Standing for permission to take a program worth seven credits in a term.”</p>
<p>Definitely can’t do it. If only for the reason that two of your classes conflict.</p>
<p>Think about whether you want to have class for two hours straight starting at 9:20, every day. Oh, I know 9:20 doesn’t sound early, coming from a high school schedule. But trust me: the vast majority of Yalies who aren’t athletes with early practices consider anything before 10am an ungodly hour. Especially on Friday. The weekend starts on Thursday night.</p>
<p>If you really want to learn Spanish, it’s probably worth it. If you just want to prove to yourself that you’re intense enough to do it, don’t.</p>
<p>A lot of freshmen will overload their schedules with lots of crazy hard classes because that’s what they did in high school, and they could handle it then. Yale is a whole other ballgame, and guess what? Chances are, you probably <em>can’t</em> handle 5.5 credits (especially those classes you listed) your first semester, at least not without causing serious problems with your social and extracurricular life. Yes, it’s a bit of an ego bruise to cut back your schedule (and to realize that most people at Yale are probably smarter than you, and all that jazz) but it’s part of the learning experience here. Most of my fellow freshmen took no more than 4.5 credits, and we <em>all</em> felt overwhelmed by work; the few people that did take 5.5 ended up either dropping, getting a bad grade, or holing themselves up in their rooms all weekend, every weekend. I promise that even if you can manage to eke out a decent grade, you’ll be a lot happier cutting back a class, because, paradoxically, you’ll actually be able to do more–more extracurriculars, more social life, and more focus and effort in your other classes.</p>
<p>I agree that most people can’t handle 5.5 credits, usually because they also want to have a healthy extracurricular and social life. If you come into Yale knowing that you’ll focus solely on academics and are sure that you will not try to be social and get involved in a lot of extracurriculars, then I think 5.5 is manageable, esp. if you take one class Cr/D/F.</p>
<p>So you just need to think realistically about what you are planning on doing at Yale. DO NOT take more than 5.5, not like this will be allowed. And even then, I’m sure that your FroCo and Freshman Adviser will try and talk you out of it, esp. if you don’t do one Cr/D/F.</p>
<p>Unless the goal is to graduate early I don’t see a reason to take more than 4 or 4.5 credits in the first semester of college. That is the time to invest in new friendships, new extracurricular interests, and generally to adjust to college life. Why would you want more course work?</p>
<p>^^ I’m planning on doing the concurrent bachelor’s and master’s degree program, so depending on the specific student’s future plans, there is valid reason to take on more than 4 credits.</p>
<p>Plus, if a student’s receiving financial aid, and they aren’t sure if the aid amount will remain as great as it currently is in coming years- as I am- then there is even greater reason to try to graduate earlier.</p>
<p>99999, I don’t think it’s a good idea to plan on graduating early. You’re going to miss out on a lot, it’s really not worth it. Also, your financial aid is unlikely to change significantly from year to year; I know mine hasn’t.</p>
<p>999999, have you read the requirements for the combined BS/MS degree? In order to do BS/MS, you don’t take more credits in one semester. Instead, you’re supposed to come in with acceleration credit from APs, equivalent to freshman year Intro courses. Furthermore, you don’t apply until sophomore year, I believe, and you need to petition a whole bunch of people. On top of that, you need to maintain a grade of A or A- in 2/3 of ALL your classes at Yale AND the classes in that particular major at the time of application, plus Honors grade in the graduate courses you actually take later on. Not that this is impossible, but realize that if you’re going to take the hardest courses at Yale and try to pile them up into one semester, your chances of maintaining good grades are small.</p>
<p>I also think that planning to graduate early is a mistake, but to each his own. Regardless, making solid plans so early on what you want to do is also a mistake, IMO. But again, to each his own.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input, it’s much appreciated :)</p>
<p>drbigboyjoe9505: I was already aware of the requirements, I’ve talked to my freshman advisor quite extensively about this, and I had an email correspondences with a couple of professors about my future plans. Thanks anyways though.</p>
<p>orchard: Thanks, what you say is probably true, but my case isn’t the same as yours. My sister is currently in college as well; however, she graduates in 2011. So according to Gayle Hoffman, the Assistant Director of Student Financial Services at Yale, my financial aid does have the potential to change next year.</p>
<p>9999999999!!! Go ahead and sign up for everything you want to take Freshman year! I think as you experience shopping week, you will find your stride. You will have quite a few chances to drop if necessary. Yale gives you a wonderful option in terms of credit/fail courses that might apply to your distribution requirements. You can sign up for a course c/f and then, if you are doing well in it, you have the option change it to credit and the claim the fulfillment of the distribution requirement right up to the end of the semester. </p>
<p>With regards to Russian: the Yale Russian department is excellent. You indicate you are Bosnian in background, so you should have an advantage with Slavic Languages. The 1.5 credits indicate, not necessarily the difficulty of the foreign language courses, but the amount of work required. There will be a lot more writing and homework, testing, lab work, etc. than what you experienced in High School. Be prepared for a lot of hours on a daily basis. (Also, keep in mind the 1.5 credits only apply if you complete one academic year of foreign language study).</p>
<p>Speaking as a (retired) college professor (my field was Russian, actually) and a Yale mom, and having encouraged you to taste and see during shopping week, I do also want to second vicariousparent: don’t hesitate to leave time in your schedule to savor all that Yale has to offer. If you really need to graduate more quickly due to financial pressures, you will have many options for accelerating later on. Since none of us knows you, we don’t really have a sense for what feels good to you in terms of balancing your studies, extra-curriculars, and life, but we do know that Yale is an amazing place and you deserve to reach out to everything Yale has to offer you.</p>
<p>I didn’t know this. If I took [Language here] 110 and 120 in the fall and spring respectively, I’d get 3 credits total. If I took [Language here] 110 in the fall and 120 in the fall of next year, I’d only get 2 credits?</p>
<p>AnOmaly: I believe that you receive the full 3 credits once you complete the FL sequence. But if, for any reason, you only took the first semester of a FL and never finished the year of FL study, you would only receive 1 credit.</p>
<p>stringkeymonkey: Thank you I think all of you are correct when you say I should take full advantage of everything Yale has to offer, and I will. I think shopping period will definitely help me find that stride you mentioned. I’m not too concerned about it.</p>
<p>Quick question, I spoke with the Slavic Languages Dept. head, and she mentioned that I could take the bilingual students Russian class, and I’d receive 2 credits, instead of 1.5. Would you happen to know what the differences are between the bilingual students class and the regular russian class? I mean, I’m assuming one will progress at a faster pace than the other, but in regards to teaching methods, do they differ at all?</p>
<p>Actually, for most (all?) introductory language classes, you get NO credit if you only take the first semester. (This is true of all courses that are marked with Credit/Year Only in the bluebook.) You will receive three credits if you complete the sequence at some further point in your Yale career, but… don’t plan on only taking one semester of a language outside of L5. :)</p>
<p>Is it too difficult to take two languages at once (starting one from scratch and continuing the one I was learning in high school)? Are there many people who do this? They’re both Romance languages, by the way.</p>
<p>Interesting segue into the Foreign Language requirement. I have a couple of questions. </p>
<p>My D has a 5 in AP Spanish and so could meet the requirement by taking a Spanish L5 class. But she is thinking of starting French and using three semesters of that to fulfill the language requirement. She has no long term interest in either foreign language but she thinks it might be fun to learn French. So the questions I have are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Is it possible to become reasonably fluent in French after taking just 3 semesters of French at Yale?</p></li>
<li><p>Are there any L5 level Spanish classes that are particularly fun that she might enjoy? Her reason not to continue Spanish is simply that she has become proficient enough with the language and doesn’t necessarily want to delve more deeply into Spanish literature or culture.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I personally agree with your daughter that it’s fun to learn new languages. However, I would like to point out that it comes at a cost - you’re only at Yale for 8 semesters; 36-or-so credits, and you might prefer to use them for classes you can’t get elsewhere. It depends on the relative value to her of French instruction vs. other classes/topics she might want to investigate.</p>
I think all of you are correct when you say I should take full advantage of everything Yale has to offer, and I will. I think shopping period will definitely help me find that stride you mentioned. I’m not too concerned about it.</p>