<p>Can anyone tell me about how much support and guidance freshmen get in planning their schedules and class loads? And are advisors assigned in areas of interest (ie ChemE if that is the area of interest)?</p>
<p>Great question...I would go to the Rose Web Site and ask that question. They are great about getting back to you.</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>Students get a here approximately a week before classes start. Freshmen meet with their advisors in that week and talk with those advisors about their schedule.</p>
<p>Advisors are assigned based on what your intended major is yes, so they know what classes you need to take and can answer a lot of your questions about your future classes.</p>
<p>But ultimately students are responsible for making their schedule. We get registration PINs from our advisor when we meet with them and then we have a designated day and time to sign on to the online web server. (based on how many hours you have. So if you have AP credit you get first dibs) We're about to register for the fall quarter here in a week or so. Note that you have to meet in person with your advisor to get your PIN, they don't give them out in emails. My experience with my advisor has been really good. I've been able to play around with my schedule a lot because of AP credit and take some interesting courses and he's talked with me quite a bit about what I might want to end up doing.</p>
<p>One thing to note though is that the Office of the Registrar pre-registers all freshmen for the courses that they're required to take (they do this all 3 quarters of your freshman year). The registrar will put you in the class that you should be in (they consider advanced credit) Each major has the freshman year pretty well laid out, so you won't be doing much tinkering with your schedule except an elective here and there.</p>
<p>Fall quarter for freshmen usually involves math (calc or DE if you're a fast tracker), physics (unless you're a ChemE), chemistry (for Chem's, ChemE's, and biomeds), graph comm (if you're a civil, chemE, ME, or Biomed), college and life skills, RH131 (Rhetoric and Composition), or some other elective.</p>
<p>If you tell me what major it is your S or D is interested in I can be more specific about what kinds of classes he/she can expect freshman year.</p>
<p>Also you can check out each departments page here:</p>
<p>The curriculum is usually listed under Degree Requirements or something similar.</p>
<p>Most freshman will end up taking the same core classes and as nic mentioned, tbe registrar's office pre-registers freshmen for those classes. For a lot of freshmen, the only choices they need to make during their freshman year is what humanities electives to take since a lot of courses are mandatory for most majors (Calc 1-3, DE1, Physics 1-3, Chem 1, Rhetoric, etc.).</p>
<p>As a side note, registration is one of the biggest advantages of the fast track program. Fast trackers have complete control over their schedule, whereas other freshmen do not. Also, they are placed into classes first (i.e. they are guaranteed to get into the classes they want). I only wish those privileges extended beyond freshman year... haha. The only downside is that you won't have an area-specific advisor for your freshman year (it will be one of the math professors, regardless of what your major is).</p>
<p>Thanks, cheezwhiz, nic767 and m4h. That is the best answer I could have heard. My son is coming to Rose in the fall and VERY excited about it; it was his first choice, and he didn't even bother to open the letter from MIT for a week because he was set on Rose. He will be in FastTrack this summer if he gets into it. His interest is ChemE. When we toured, our guide told us that having a nonChemE advisor caused some problems the first year, so it was a concern of ours. I am glad it is all done for you, because there is no way a freshman can design the right schedule on their own. One of those rare occassions when lack of control over the situation is probably a big favor.</p>
<p>As a freshman he will take Chem 1-3 (or if he got a 4 on the AP he'll be right in Chem 3, or if he got a 5 he'll be in Organic Chemistry I and II fall and winter), physics I and II winter and spring quarter (Unless he got a 4 or 5 on the AP Physics: mechanics part, in which case he'll be in physics II winter quarter). He'll take DE I and II fall and winter quarter, Graphical communications fall quarter (it's a CAD class). He'll also have a 1 hour class called College and Life Skills which is just a class that helps freshmen get acclimated with things at Rose, such as fraternities, career services, the library, and some other things. So that means fall he'll have 11 hours (DE, Chem of some kind, Graph comm, and CLSK), so he'll probably take RH131 or some other humanities elective to give him 15 hours.</p>
<p>Winter he'll take DE2, the second chem class (unless he got a 4 on the AP and took Chem 3 fall quarter), physics, and some elective. A lot of people take foreign languages. There's a placement test at the beginning of the year and they're only offered in sequence, so Spanish I and IV is offered in the fall, II and V in the winter, and III and VI in the spring (also 6 Japanese courses and 12 German courses are offered)</p>
<p>Spring he'll have Chem 3 (if he had no AP credit) or Analytical chemistry I (if he had AP credit), physics II (if he had no AP credit), Progamming and Computing (it's a 2 hour class for ChemE's, nothing too intense, just Excel and visual basic), and intro to design (a 2 hour class where you'll design some chemical process in a group, that's the whole class, it's very time consuming for a 2 hour class). So that leaves him with 12 hours if he's taking physics and only 8 if he's not, so he has some more leeway. He could take a humanities elective or two, I know several people who are taking statistics, which is a required course that's usually taken sophomore year, but if you have DE out of the way may as well knock out all your required math.</p>
<p>This is all of course assuming he doesn't decide to switch majors.</p>
<p>One other piece of advice that I would have is to take statics winter quarter. It's a two credit hour class that's required that normally is taken sophomore year, but it's fairly easy just can be a little time consuming (not too bad though), so anything you can do to make sophomore year easier and give you more time to focus on those engineering classes (you'll already be helped by having all the math out of the way, another reason to take statistics in the spring) The material is pretty much a review of stuff you study in physics I and II and calc III about vectors, forces, torques, and equilibrium.</p>
<p>Your advisor will go over all this with you each quarter, but there's the freshman year as a chemE in a nutshell.</p>
<p>If you tell me what AP credit he might have, if any, I can outline his schedule quarter by quarter exactly, I know my explanation above might be a bit hard to follow.</p>
<p>Glad to hear your son is attending Rose...Have him take a look at Facebook see link below.</p>
<p>It sounds like they have really perfected the system. He tells me he has a 4 in AP Statistics and expects a 4 in Calculus AB (but wants to go to FastTrack), and he may or may not get a 4 in AP English Lit. I am really stuinned at how carefully managed the scheduling is; back in the old days (mine) we were completely on our own, usually made a mess of our schedule by sophomore year, then scrambled to tie it together in order to graduate. This sounds good. I'll send him that link-</p>