<p>Hello, I will be enrolling at UT as freshman in biomedical engineering this fall. I was wondering what the language placement tests are, and if I need to take them.
I checked on the website: <a href="http://www.bme.utexas.edu/attachments/article/65/General%20Curriculum%20for%202010%20-%202012%20modified%20(July%2018,2011).pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.bme.utexas.edu/attachments/article/65/General%20Curriculum%20for%202010%20-%202012%20modified%20(July%2018,2011).pdf</a>
to see my curriculum and I didnt see any room for a language credit. Does the BME major require a language credit? Do i need to take the placement test, and if so, how difficult is it and should I take it during orientation?</p>
<p>Also when signing up for classes as a freshman, how important is it to be in the earliest orientation class to sign up first? I've heard that the first people to sign up normally end up with all the best teachers and smaller classes. I am currently registered for the earliest orientation class to do this, but I have no idea what teachers or classes to pick, or how I would go about getting into them anyway. </p>
<p>Thanks in advance for any help!</p>
<p>I don’t believe that any engineers are required to take a language. </p>
<p>In terms of registration, being at the first orientation obviously grants you the first pick of classes. To counter the unfairness inherent in having multiple orientations, they only open up a portion of the total class seats during each orientation session. On the surface, this seems like it might offer all students an equal opportunity to register for the same classes, but the system was implemented halfheartedly. It turns out that once they’ve upgraded your student status at orientation, you can register from home during any of the following orientations (Friday mornings at 8:00am). This effectively means that you have (total # of orientations) - (your orientation #) + 1 chances to register for a class. Also, the staggered opening only applies to freshmen level courses so if you intend on taking higher level courses, later orientations will not have reserved seats for you.</p>
<p>For choosing the best professors, you can 1) Speak to your adviser 2) browse myedu.com or ratemyprofessors.com and 3) log in to <a href=“Sign in with your UT EID - Stale Request”>Sign in with your UT EID - Stale Request; and review instructor surveys that are filled out by students at the end of the year. MyEdu was once sufficient for all registration needs but they’ve recently partnered with the UT System and have thus removed all negative professor reviews. Nevertheless, the course instructor surveys still paint an accurate picture. An overall instructor rating >=4.0 is a safe bet, >=3.0 means they’ll be pretty average and <3.0 means avoid if possible.</p>
<p>I’m sure you’ll have a lot of fun during orientation. Good luck and welcome to UT!</p>