<p>For my first semester at MIT, I thought that it'd be a good idea to bang out most of my GIRs with the pass/no record dealio.
18.06
5.111 (took AP Bio)
3.??? (Easiest Chem, took AP)
8.01 (Took AP Phys)
14.01 (Took AP)
14.02 (Took AP)</p>
<p>Is this a bad idea? I'm not too concerned about my grades in bio,chem,phys so long as a pass considering an A is the same as a D</p>
<p>Freshmen have a credit limit of 54 units in fall semester (4 classes + a 6-unit seminar), primarily to prevent them from trying to take 6 classes first semester. The credit limit for freshman spring is 57 units.</p>
<p>You can't take as many classes as you want until you're a sophomore.</p>
<p>:-( 10char
can you advise any good seminars?</p>
<p>IMO it's a bad idea (and it's so bad that they formally don't let you do it!).</p>
<p>You're at MIT to learn and think, not beat your head with books. You need time to go indepth into your course work. Don't push off GIR's thinking "oh that's just bio or chem or physics." The truth is that no matter what field you go into, you need to have enough grasp of other fields that you can spot problems in other fields you can solve using techniques from yours. Indeed that's how the vast majority of big discoveries happen. </p>
<p>Don't plot out too much right now what first semester will look like. Wait till you get to MIT, and talk to lots of upperclassmen. And look at what profs are teaching the course. My 18.06 prof (not Gil Strang) made what is normally consider a ho-hum class into the most interesting and driving class I've taken at MIT. (He also destroyed the GPA's of many Sloanies, what a sight that was!)</p>
<p>If you get early sophomore standing, you could take a lot of classes second semester - but no, everyone's limited first semester unless you want to petition CAP.</p>
<p>But keep in mind that 6 MIT classes are NOTHING like 6 high school classes. Taking that many units is hard for any MIT student, and to do that as a freshman would be bad when you have no idea what to expect.</p>
<p>I heard some people take 9 classes at once? How many people do this, and are they normal?</p>
<p>advice on a seminar though?</p>
<p>1) personal anecdote: i took 78 units this term and thought it was ok. (yes, i did well in all of them. yes, i think i got a lot out of all of them.) i started out with 90 units, and did that for about a month and a half, and it wasn't so bad then either. then i dropped a class because i discovered that i wasn't interested in the subject matter of one of the classes. no, i am not even close to the most hardk0re person at mit: there are people who take loads well into the triple digits and have 5.0 gpa's. no kidding. lessons: a) be selective about your coursework because not all classes are worthwhile. b) don't worry about flying too high because you can always drop classes later if it ends up being too much.</p>
<p>as for whether i'm normal, i don't know what that means.</p>
<p>2) to make room in your schedule for things that are more interesting than gir's, take the ase's for the core classes.</p>
<p>3) 18.s34 is a good seminar if you like math.</p>
<p>also, i share op's discontent with the credit limit, and i also think pass/no record just encourages people to be lazy. workaround: just show up at classes you're interested in. the prof doesn't care; trust me. credit only matters if you need it to graduate/get your major. no one cares if you have 12 units in some random class you're just taking for fun. you can prove you know that stuff in myriad ways later on.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I heard some people take 9 classes at once? How many people do this, and are they normal?
[/quote]
There was a survey on the MIT livejournal community a few years ago which indicated that the vast majority of students take 48 units (4 classes) per term every term, and that the distribution of units has a long right tail. Very few people take 9 classes per term, even once.</p>
<p>I think the freshman credit limit is a good idea for almost all freshmen, and I think the number of freshmen it rightly prohibits from taking an absurd courseload their first year is larger than the number of freshmen who could actually handle it and who are wrongly prohibited from taking an absurd courseload. After all, it's one thing to take 6 carefully selected classes. It's quite another to take 6 problem-set-heavy GIRs.</p>
<p>The freshman limit helps most freshman. Those that it hinders are the same people who will go onto to do all the work in later terms, anyway.</p>
<p>For your first year, an A is not the same as a D. A D is passing for upperclassmen, but failing for freshmen, and gets you "no record".</p>
<p>People here have the right idea. First of all, you can't take that many classes in your first term. Second of all, you probably don't want to (I attempted to take six classes twice, and it was a mistake both times). Go for quality, not quantity (i.e. learn the material in depth, rather than piling on more classes).</p>
<p>There are people who can take 80+ units/term, or even 100+ units/term, with no problem. If you are one of them, which is of course possible, but unlikely, this will become clear enough during your freshman year, and you'll have quite a few more terms to take advantage of it. Meanwhile, if you are lucky enough to be in this position, you can take advantage of all your free time by participating in activities, playing a sport, working in a great UROP, becoming a trained nuclear reactor operator, or any of the other numerous things that MIT students balance their workload with.</p>
<p>People who try to shame you into taking more classes to be hardk0re, and regal you with tales of all these people they know who are taking 100+ units with top grades, and act like everyone just breezes through pass/no record, can simply be ignored. I find these people's attitude to be toxic beyond belief.</p>
<p>"... and act like everyone just breezes through pass/no record"</p>
<p>I highly approve of that phrase, 'cause I did NOT breeze through.</p>
<p>for seminars just go through the list and pick what you like, and then be happy if you get any at all because they are pretty limited.
Since you didn't know the freshmen 54 credit limit, then there might be other things you want to check out on the MIT first year website, just in case you missed anything important.
And even if you took the AP, remember that MIT classes > AP, so you'll still be on the tip of your toe, learning stuff. Sometimes, classes are hard because of their long time consuming psets.
And take ASE to get of things like bio, chem , or physics. you'll get credit for them if you pass, but not that many people do pass. It's worth a try.</p>
<p>Also your selection of courses depends on your field. If you are math/physics, you need to take a LOT of classes before you are fully up and running. On the other hand, say in EECS, a large value is gained in doing hobby projects, etc. In the life sciences, getting into a lab and getting your hands wet is crucial (I've learned things never work in the lab nearly as well as they told you they would in the book).</p>
<p>If you're awesome enough or prepared enough to manage 6 courses in your first term as a freshman, you are good enough to place out of a couple classes through the advanced standing exam. If you really want to, I believe you can turn down the Pass/Fail option and take as many classes as you want. However, I wouldn't advise this.</p>
<p>For those that want to get ahead, a bunch of people place out of linear algebra by studying over winter break and then taking the advanced standing exam during IAP. It's the kind of subject that can be studied independently.</p>
<p>^^ According to the website etc., though, if you take ASEs during the year, they DO count towards the freshman credit limit, so that doesn't actually allow one to take more classes...</p>
<p>^^Is that also true if you take ASE's the week before first semester starts?</p>
<p>That would be pretty crazy. Some advanced people would be stuck taking only 2 classes or something per semester.</p>
<p>I believe it only counts towards the credit limit if you take it at the END of the semester (December or May).
MIT</a> Schedules Office - Advanced Standing Exams
From the site:</p>
<p>"If you are a first-year student and take the exam in December or May the credit earned will count toward the freshman 54- or 57- credit limit for the term."</p>
<p>Oh, looks like you can take an ASE during IAP and have it not count towards the credit limit:</p>
<p>If you pass an Advanced Standing Exam during Orientation, your permanent record will show a grade of P (for Pass) and you may not enroll in the corresponding subject for credit. If you fail the exam, nothing will appear on your record and you are encouraged to enroll in the corresponding subject. Advanced Standing Exams taken during Orientation or IAP will not count towards the freshman credit limit. Exams taken during the fall and spring final examination periods will count towards the freshman credit limit.</p>
<p>from: MIT</a> Class of 2012: Coming Up - Advanced Standing Examinations</p>
<p>Why would you ever want to do that? You said you wanted to do it to take as many GIRs on pass/NR as possible, but now you're just looking to take some seminars instead.</p>
<p>Seminars can be completely awesome, but I get the feeling you're just trying to load up on as many credits as possible, and my advice to that attitude is to chill out!</p>