<p>LiT, yes, there will be some students who go for the easy route, but not every student does. </p>
<p>My own D’s schedule has been crazy-rigorous, especially since the beginning of sophomore year when she dove into the sciences. From the day she entered Smith, she has taken at least one, sometimes two, five-credit courses, whether intensive language or sciences with lab. Although she will be hurt by the B she got in her second semester of organic chemistry, she considers it a rite of passage into her eventual career, something not worth sacrificing for Latin Honors (which she should get, even if “only” cum laude.) </p>
<p>Given the insanely high cut-offs for Latin Honors, especially summa and magna, I don’t think an attempt for the easy grades would work since the students have to perform consistently at the top. Plus, students who look for the easy way out aren’t generally the same ones who earn straight As.</p>
<p>And FWIW, my D thinks that her two easiest courses at Smith were in the math department: stats and calculus. Although you might say, “Well, she’s a science geek,” that wasn’t true when she entered Smith. She was an English and foreign language student when she first arrived.</p>
<p>I really want to recieve one of those high honors but also want to really challenge myself and explore the academic realm at Smith. Is 20-21 credits for the first semester of my first-year ridiculous? I’m planning to major in Music but also fulfill pre-health requirements along with music graduate school requirements (i.e. proficiency in French and German). I realize that I will not be able to choose until orientation but I want a second opinion. Any thoughts? And thank-you in advance.</p>
<p>Composer, first of all, first year grades don’t count toward Latin Honors. They count toward overall G.P.A. only. And yes, that sounds like too many credits. I’m sure your advisor will have an opinion when you meet with him/her during orientation.</p>
<p>Especially since you intend to be a music major, you will want time for performance extracurriculars.</p>
<p>Composer, it depends on what the classes are, how you manage your time, etc.</p>
<p>Most students take 16 credits. I took anywhere from 14 to 20 credits a semester, but my hardest semester overall only had 4 four-credit classes. (The easiest one was the intermediate language, two were math classes, and the other was a not extremely difficult but very time consuming computer science course. It was probably the computer science weeder course–it started out with about 20 students registered but only 6 of us stayed with it past add-drop period.) </p>
<p>First-years also have one free drop for the year, so you could reevaluate your courses later on and drop one if necessary. You can also take up to 16 credits satisfactory/unsatisfactory, which can be helpful (I also took ballet classes s/u, and it helped me avoid an awkward conversation where one of my classmates said to me, “I got a [expletive] C in ballet! What did you get?” because I took ballet for the exercise, not the grade, and while I had very good attendance I didn’t want to have to put too much effort into the one paper that was assigned for the course either). </p>
<p>But I wouldn’t overdo it just to prove you can. Though some students have an easier time with taking a lot of courses than others, taking two languages, doing pre-health and majoring in music (where you presumably will be spending a lot of time practicing with your instrument) might be difficult and time-consuming, and may not leave a lot of time for extracurriculars outside of your classes.</p>
<p>@Borgin: good points about the number of credits not necessarily reflecting the difficulty of the course. My d’s most difficult semester was her only 16 credit one due to the nature of the material and the individual course workload. </p>
<p>@composer: you can’t tell in advance how well prepared you are for Smith. Some of my daughter’s friends struggled mightily the first year despite fantastic high school grades, and others adjusted without a hitch. I would suggest taking a normal course load your first semester and then adjusting the second semester to reflect a realistic idea of what you can and cannot do.</p>
And I thought my D was excessive. My hat is off to her, LiT. Just so that any prospective students reading don’t get the wrong idea, I think 14-18 units is the most typical schedule. </p>
<p>Composer, D took 20 her first semester with orchestra participation and STRIDE research but I don’t know that I’d recommend it. One of her most difficult classes was a class in American Political Thought, which she took second semester first year. She was one of only three first-years in the class.</p>
[/quote]
Ah. Well, since Borgin has put specifics out there, I never heard D swear about college except when she checked her grades and saw her ballet grade first semester senior year. She was downstairs in the living room with her laptop and I was upstairs in my office but I heard her quite clearly.</p>
<p>My d. regularly took 22-23 credits, though when she tried 26, the college put their foot down hard. Included two languages, a double major (music composition/Italian Studies), Latin Honors, and the all-important fencing. And a bunch of extracurriculars, and a national representative on a religious body that met south of Baltimore. And a year abroad. Her general view was that if she was getting A’s, it probably meant she wasn’t challenged enough, and could take on more. </p>
<p>Everyone is different, and I personally wouldn’t recommend the above. But it is worth knowing it is an option.</p>
<p>Summa cum Laude
Astronomy
Engineering
Exercise Science
Government
Government, Mathematics
Government, Spanish
History
Medieval Studies
Psychology (2)
Spanish</p>
<p>Magna cum Laude
Art History
Biochemistry
Classics
Computer Science
East Asian Languages & Culture
Economics (2)
Economics, Italian Studies
Education & Child Studies, Liberal Studies (2 with the same combo)
Engineering
English Language & Literature (3)
Film Studies
Government (2)
History, Jewish Studies
Mathematics
Mathematics, Astronomy
Mathematics, Computer Science
Psychology (3)
Psychology, Neuroscience
Theater
Study of Women & Gender</p>
<h1>#</h1>
<p>Not many easy majors there but also light on the Biology/Chemistry/Physics as well as the Art, especially in light of the latter’s popularity as a major (whereas the Government and Psychology stats reflect their popularity). I’ve heard said that with Art History, pacing yourself on number of classes per semester is critical because the number of papers can be insane. My sense is that the language departments also can make it difficult to roll anything close to an El Perfecto.</p>
<p>I note that the honors above reflect the same 20 percent of double majors as the graduating class as a whole.</p>
<p>Merci beaucoup, TD. I’m not too astonished by the absence of French in the list, as the level is not incredible and French professors tend to grade French-style, that is to say Moli</p>
<p>We interrupt this useful conversation about course load and Latin Honors to bring you this news bulletin. We have come back from Awards Day at our high school and we’re proud to say that our daughter (CC nom de plume LaMariposaAzul) is valedictorian of her class of 176. She also got other awards and recognitions which are wonderful but this was the one we were holding our breaths about…Now back to regular programming. :-)</p>
<p>Congratulations to your Mariposa Azul, CB. I confess…since LiT has outed me…that I had the same “holding breath” sensation on Ivy Day at Smith when the programs listing all the awards were being handed out by ushers as we walked into the quad. I did make myself breathe, slowly, but I confess it was an effort. As was maintaining a composed, dignified, restrained demeanor. TheMom actually found the relevant list before I did and just very quietly said, “She made it.”</p>
<p>LiT, Departmental Honors are indeed tied to the thesis. D did a thesis but it was tied to her Picker Washington Program and thus not eligible. She was counseled that it was ridiculous to do a second thesis over and above the one she did. No link between Departmental Honors and Latin Honors and some students who didn’t get Latin Honors did in fact get Departmental Honors. Let’s see…in fact 6 of 20 who received Highest Honors in 2004 did not receive any Latin Honors. (Another 28 received High Honors and 13 more received Honors…didn’t cross-reference with Latin Honors.)</p>
<p>Above and beyond Departmental Honors, various departments have prizes, ranging from best undergraduate record in the subject to best contribution in a given field to best essay on subject X, etc. </p>
<p>About the French, yes, D took a semester of Intermediate French and it was one of the classes she seemed to have to stay really on her toes about though later she tossed off a “no big deal.” The language classes in general have a rep for being pretty demanding.</p>
<p>LiT, I’m aware of some of gaming-the-system approaches to classes but while I can’t say that it doesn’t happen at Smith a) I’m not aware of anything (but then I could be clueless) and b) it would seem to be against the dominant Smithie ethos to do so. The “OMG, my GPA has dropped to 3.93682…can I get into a good Graduate or Law School or is my life ruined” threads…bleah. Fwiw, the name value of Smith has, so far, actually been greater than I had expected. We’ll see how it plays in grad school apps when that time comes.</p>
<p>Otoh, I have seen two Smithies console a third about a B+ in a class. The competitive factor is kind of more like Mini’s D, with themselves, than with each other.</p>
<p>thank-you all for your input! I keep thinking of how to fit everything into my schedule so I can meet all of my desired requirements. But obviously I need to rethink it.</p>
<p>I was thinking that a first semester schedule as
-composition (the group class if i place out of theory class)
-Calculus (have taken 2 yrs of it already and am waiting on my AP score)
-A writing intensive course
-French (studied in High school but am concerned about it)
-piano (private lesson)
-composition (private lesson)</p>
<p>But based on what you’ve said, I will obviously have to rethink this. I have taken college classes (in music) before at a very young age and did very well but I know Smith is known for its tough academics. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Composer, there are some anomalies in your proposed schedule in that you’ll have practice time and so forth to work into your schedule and as a serious musician you’re unlikely to let that slide. Otoh, there isn’t the same pressure with regards to papers and mid-terms for the private lessons.</p>
<p>I see you taking four solids plus the two music (private piano & private composition) and that just might be doable…how do those break down by number of units? The schedule actually looks demanding but not impossible to me. I’d be much more concerned if you were taking five solids.</p>
<p>I was thinking of taking 2 lab sciences and an intro language. Would this be advisable (on top of a writing intensive class (thinking about Intro to Political Thinking if anyone has info on it)). If it makes much of a differences the sciences would be Advanced Gen. Physics and Engineering for everyone and the language is German.</p>
<p>I’d be wary of taking the two lab sciences at the same time.</p>
<p>Let’s see:</p>
<p>Writing Intensive
German
Lab Science I
X
two sports…</p>
<p>I think I’d maybe knock off a subject in a non-Major area if you’re thinking of going for Latin Honors. Are planning on majoring in Physics or Astronomy? If so, then I’d take the Physics.</p>
<p>And I wouldn’t take 20 units the first semester if they were five solids. One or two 2-unit classes is a different story. The speed of the pitching at Smith is quite a step up for most students and for some who got good to great grades at a weak- or medium-caliber high school it’s a shock, particularly in the classes with substantial written assignments.</p>
<p>So I decided to look into the actual number of credits. And it turns out that Engineering for Everyone is 4 credits, so that would be 19 credits total. I’m not sure if that makes a significant difference. I’m planning on majoring in Engineering so the physics and engineering are both important. I have taken AP Physics C mechanics this year, so I could get credit for the class if it turns out I did well on the exam, but I really want to have a solid base in physics since I’m planning on studying engineering (I also don’t think my teacher this year is very good).</p>
<p>What if I took a higher level Italian instead of German or held off German for another year?</p>
<p>I don’t know that higher level Italian would be any favor to your schedule over German. 18 units will make you very very busy but it’s doable. Doing <em>two</em> sports at the same time…well, for some people sleep <em>is</em> optional but I’d make sure you can handle the pace. However, as an Engineering major, you might as well get used to it early. :)</p>
<p>If you think that your AP Physics class was weak, then taking it at Smith is a good idea. That class should also be slightly easier for you due to familiarity.</p>