<p>Congratulations to your daughter, CarolynB.
McPucks, German is a difficult language to master, so if you’re thinking of doing it seriously or of a JYA in Hamburg, it seems advisable to start asap. On the other hand, the intro courses are not only very challenging, but I think that you have to take the class both semesters. Check it out.</p>
<p>I’d like to also point out that there are those with high GPAs, yet, for whatever reason, didn’t fulfill the distribution requirements. Some of my friends had ridiculously high GPAs (think 3.8+), but fitting in, say, a language, or an art class of interest on top of courses required for certain graduate programs becomes difficult. It’s easy to plan out your four years, but when the course schedules actually come out, things tend to fall apart.</p>
<p>With regards to departmental honors, I believe that major grades are factored into the distinction you received. The minimum I’ve seen in order to just write a thesis is 3.3, though I believe most departments require a 3.5. Those with highest honors probably have a major GPA in the vicinity of 3.7+.</p>
<p>McPucks: I took EGR 100 and PHY 117, though not in the same semester. The former starts out slowly, but there is a very labor-intensive project at the end of the semester. Overall, the workload isn’t bad, but when you have a bunch of other projects/papers/finals to do, it becomes somewhat overwhelming. 117 was a lot of work (each week, we’d have 3 mini assignments to do online, a longer problem set, and a prelab on top of the class/lab time), but if you’re somewhat familiar with the basics, you should be fine.</p>
<p>I haven’t taken German, but I’ve heard that it’s somewhat laid back. It isn’t easy by any means, and is probably just as much work, but you won’t be as stressed as students in other languages.</p>
<p>I might be going against the grain here, but EGR 100, PHY 117, GER 110Y, and GOV 100 sounds like an okay schedule to me. It’ll be tough, but it could be worse.</p>
<p>To weigh in: my D has taken two science lab courses at once, in four of her semesters, so it is doable. A lot of work, but still possible. However, I don’t know if she would have managed with a sport on top of her classes; daily practices will severely cut into your ability to devote the proper time to your coursework during crunch times. Remember that each lab takes an extra three hours of class time, plus lab reports.</p>
<p>Again, your advisor will help you figure all this out. You may have some decisions made for you by the time you register since some classes may already be filled.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice!</p>
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That’s a pretty succinct way of saying what I was trying to say.</p>