<p>I recently got my AP scores and I was ecstatic to hear that I got a 5 in English Literature. In SCS that means that I can do one of two things:</p>
<p>1) Take the 76-101 (Interpretation and Argument) anyway and get credit for a Humanities elective
2) Take an upperlevel course and pass that to get credit for 76-101</p>
<p>The upperlevel courses reserved for freshmen are:
76-239 Introduction to Film Studies
76-245 Shakespeare
76-270 Writing for the Professions
76-347 American Fiction</p>
<p>Which option is better? I heard that 76-101 was incredibly boring, but is it better for the GPA freshman year?</p>
<p>I took 76-101 anyways, because I'm not exactly a fan of English. I didn't think it was that bad, but my section was a bit more enjoyable than some of them (about War of the Worlds and media studies and panics).</p>
<p>You can take upperlevel courses that fulfill the requirement but aren't reserved, as long as there is space. I hear that one of the Shakespeare professors is really good, though hard (a friend of mine was upset over his B in the class). A friend of mine also took some technology and society class and said it was enjoyable (and possibly easier than the 76-101 version of it).</p>
<p>I say take whatever you think has an interesting topic. Note that the section that involves Dune ends up being about race and socieconomic class or something, and other classes are similarly odd.</p>
<p>76-101 is fairly easy if you have a strong background in writing. It varies section to section, but I had little work outside of three main papers, which weren't long or difficult. My floormate opted for one of the higher level english courses, and was writing 20-page papers fairly frequently (every two weeks or so would be my guess), but then she liked the topic, so it was not unbearable, but she did say she should have went for 76-101.</p>
<p>US Government essays are kind of weird (you can get full credit if you just have a bulletted list), but I would say that, in a way, the essays for 76-101 are more similar to AP US History essays than to AP English Lit/Language essays. They aren't an analysis of style (like blah metaphor contributes to theme/mood) but moreso an analysis of content.</p>
<p>fool does have a point, but it's still a personal decision. Most of the people I knew in SCS took 76-101 (many not by choice). My roommate didn't, and she liked her alternative course (the science and technology thing) because its format of a bunch of short, informal reading responses fit her better than 3 big papers. There was a 76-101 version of the same course that may have ended up being harder, actually. Of course, my roommate is going to take another english class by choice next semester, and may change her major. She just took what she was interested in.</p>
<p>Another friend of mine took one of the good shakespeare courses, but getting a B in that and linear algebra (hard schedule for first semester) kept in from being on Dean's List, and he kind of regretted it, though he said the course was good</p>
<p>Do you like English? Are you a person who will do better in a harder course because its something you're interested in? Do any of the non-76-101 options appeal to you? Take what you like, and don't obsess about GPA- if you graduate from CMU in CS, you will have a job.</p>
<p>First semester isn't that bad if you're taking fairly standard courses (calc, calc in 3d, matrix algebra, intro science classes, 76-101, 15-100/200/123).</p>
<p>For CS majors, I would say that making time second semester, when you take 15-251 is more important. That class is very time consuming, moreso than typical first semester stuff. However, I don't know if they're moving the suggested semester for 251... the letter Pattis sent said first semester sophomore year, but it might have been a typo.</p>
<p>im actually HOPING to be placed in 76-101 (took placement exam for nonnative speakers)...so shut up guys haha</p>
<p>how do people usually go about 2nd semester schedule? im actually torn between taking either 5 or 6 main classes...(im CS major)</p>
<p>15-211 Fundamental Data Structures and Algorithms
15-251 Great Theoretical Ideas in Computer Science</p>
<p>73-150 Principles of Economics with Calculus
70-101 Introduction to Business Management
(or 70-122 Introduction to Accounting)
85-211 Cognitive Psychology</p>
<p>depends on which course i like i'll choose that as a double major track haha</p>
<p>kanagawajin: That schedule makes sense for second semester, though I would probably suggest taking 5 classes rather than 6. At 54 units last semester I did well in all my classes, but I didn't have much free time (and I had a couple of borderline grades).</p>
<p>sachit: Looks good, that's a fairly standard schedule. Just don't be afraid to drop a class if things don't work out. That's fairly similar to the schedule I had first semester, except I was in matrix algebra and physics I for scientists instead of 21-122 and matter and interactions. Just so you know, the physics department likes to take attendance.</p>
<p>Well, in CS you can already register courses (I talked to Pattis about 3 days ago and he said roughly 20 students, mostly ones without AP credit, had already registered). You don't have to be 100% sure to register- go ahead and send your proposed schedule to Pattis (I think that's what you're supposed to do) and register yourself (he may have to remove the hold from your registration). You can drop courses until about a month before the end of the semester and add courses until two weeks after the classes start, so don't worry about your schedule being perfect. They plan on people changing their schedules during orientation week.</p>
<p>There's not much you can do about 33-131, since they always like having 8:30 physics classes (I think 33-111 is at 8:30, too, and it was both semesters last year).</p>
<p>The first paper is a summary of one of the papers you read from the class as well as an analysis of how the author makes his points, the second paper covers several papers you've read for class and how they are related and uses them to draw some conclusion (generally a more nuanced view of something), and for the third paper you draw from all papers from class and up to two outside sources to make your own point on a topic related to what you read in class. I think that all interp & arg classes are supposed to follow that format.</p>
<p>76-101 is not a hard class in comparision to AP English. There's less reading, less writing, and easier grading. In high school each semester I read 4 (not easy) books plus various poems and short stories (not including summer reading), wrote upwards of 8 ap-style essays (some of which were timed), took 2-4 tests, had a bunch of random assignments, and often got papers back with a 6 out of 9 (graded on the AP scale) and no explanation of the grade. In interp, I read 6 or 8 5-15 page papers that looked more like things I read for government than for English, read 80 pages of War of the Worlds, wrote 3 essays as described above, took 2 quizzes and wrote maybe three one page response papers, and conferenced with the teachers at least a week before I turned in papers so that I had time to fix things they disliked. Then when I got the papers back, they had helpful comments and detailed rubrics. In short, don't stress about the class, and remember that most of your classmates will be engineers and computer scientsts, not English majors. Also, the teachers are generally PhD students in English Composition, rather than English Literature (meaning that they're much more practical).</p>
<p>That sounds good becuase I just took honors english in hs, so we can actually have the professors proofread our papers before we turn them in, that is really cool.
Also, what is the class size in interp?</p>
<p>I haven't taken AP English in HS. Right now for some wierd reason 76-101 seems like the biggest wild card class for me in terms of grades. I just hope I can pull off an A. Do you guys know how much of the 24 people in each class get an A?</p>