<p>Is it true that by taking an introsem Autumn quarter, your chances of being accepted for winter and spring seminars decreases? For example, if you’re applying for a spring introsem later on, will you be at a disadvantage if you’ve already taken 2 introsems the previous quarters?</p>
<p>It is true, officially. If you’ve taken one Introsem, according to FSP rules, your priority is behind those who haven’t taken any introsems. This is to ensure fairness. (priority resets in sophomore year). Note that this only applies to when you take an introsem, simply applying to an introsem doesn’t affect priority.</p>
<p>But, professors can do whatever they want. They’re advised to follow these rules, but if it’s the case they see an exceptional application, they can bend the rules however they want. This is what the Introsem program director told me last year. Unfortunately, I’ve found that most of the professors do follow these rules.</p>
<p>^ OK, thanks a lot! I’m going to hold off from applying to IntroSems then for this quarter since there are several later on that are more interesting to me than the ones they have offered right now.</p>
<p>What’s the deal with Econ 1A and B? Do the classes cover way more material than their AP equivalents? I got a 5 on both the macro and micro test, so is it advisable or even possible to try to petition out of Econ 1A and B?</p>
<p>Econ 1A and 1B are very personalized to the instructor. You definitely do cover the AP material and more. For instance, my 1A instructor focused a lot more on game-theory, because that was his research specialty.</p>
<p>You can try to get out of 1A and 1B, but the econ dpt. will 99% say no. You have to have a more compelling reason than “I took the AP and got a 5”. This is kind of a murky area, because the econ dept. consistently says no to getting out of 1A/1B, but I have heard some few cases where it was allowed. I’d say try it, but don’t count on it.</p>
<p>The thing is you used to be able to place out of Econ 1A&B using AP Econ credits but they discontinued that the 2 years ago. If you have some special circumstance you might be able to but in general I don’t see why they’d let you in light of their decision a few years ago.</p>
<p>So I looked at Stanford’s FAQ for economics, and it said there’s no chance to get out of Econ 1B but you “may” petition them to skip 1A. I guess I’ll rephrase my question a little: For those who took high school microeconomics and Econ 1A, was Econ 1A signifigantly more challenging and worthwhile? And for those of you who petitioned out of Econ 1A, does the “may” mean they’ll accept anyone who petitions, or do you have to have a compelling reason as walkyu said?</p>
<p>does anyone have any recommendations for fun classes? it seems like my ihum and cs106a are scheduled in a way to make it practically impossible for me to take any other serious class besides a math course. i want to take at least 4 courses though. any recommendations?</p>
<p>Is it advisable to try to leave Friday completely free (no class)? Because I’m thinking that a lot of people won’t have a lot of class on Friday and so will probably go out and do fun stuff then. Then again, is it bad to have everything packed during the other days?</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your generous help. I have a question about my major: Econ VS MS&E. I am interested in Econ and I don’t have a solid background in physics and chemistry. Could you please tell me which major is better for me? Do I need to take extra physics and chemistry classess to train my logical thinking ability and improve my physics and chemistry? How many classess should I take at the first semester? Is seminar a good way of learning history and econ? Thank you.</p>
<p>bluebubbles: It’s great to have Friday free. It’ll probably happen at least once or twice during your career. It’s usually pretty difficult to clear your Fridays, but sometimes it happens on its own. On the other hand, most people do have class on Fridays.</p>
<p>My advice: If (and only if) you can conveniently arrange to have your Fridays off, go for it. If you can clear your Friday afternoons (which is significantly easier), that’s the next best thing. The benefit of doing so, by the way, is greatest in spring quarter, when Friday afternoons are properly spent sitting around a fountain hanging out with friends with a Jamba Juice (or a beer, depending on your preference) in hand.</p>
<p>^ Ha thanks for the advice! Yea I definitely have the chance to do Fridays off. I would actually prefer to have a class in the morning. For a person like me (unmotivated and undisciplined haha) I’d be completely tempted to sleep in til 3. </p>
<p>Thanks for your advice!</p>
<p>You all can diregard my last post. I definitely want to take Econ 1a if John Taylor is teaching it…</p>
<p>Is it fairly easy to get a research job/internship as a freshman? How do we go about obtaining one – is it normal to just email various professors asking if they’re interested in an undergrad research assistant?</p>
<p>And how much approximately is the pay? Are hours flexible / not too demanding? Because I’d like to leave enough time for extracurriculars and studying.</p>
<p>Sorry for the horribly loong string of questions!</p>
<p>Are IHUM Discussions really important or required? I really, and I mean REALLY, want to take a Communications class but it is offered at the exact same time as the IHUM Discussion. Do professors take attendance? Will they care you don’t show up for Discussion but you still attend the actual lecture?</p>
<p>IHUM section is absolutely required. In fact, it’s the most important component of IHUM. They will take attendance, and they will grade you on it. Don’t even think of skipping it.</p>
<p>Darn it! Well, if I request a change of section, does that mean that the class and the discussion times change? Will changing just the section time be easier than changing the entire IHUM class?</p>
<p>How long are the language placement exams, particularly the Latin one that you need to take to place out of a language? Also how hard are they?</p>
<p>Umm, I’m not sure about Latin, but I just took the online portion of the Chinese placement exam last night and they told us to set apart 1.5 hours for it (it’s not timed). I estimate that it would’ve taken me around 30-40 min, but I guess I did really well on the first few pages so they asked if I wanted to take the advanced portion, which took a lot longer because it was harder :p</p>
<p>It’s prob different for Latin, but the Chinese exam was fairly easy (and I suck at Chinese, trust me haha). I didn’t know all the words but I was able to figure out what they were by context clues and the words that I did know, so it ended up being pretty easy. The advanced portion was difficult for me because the words were harder and I had no idea what they were, and I couldn’t use context clues because… I didn’t know what like any of the words were x] I had to do a lot of random guessing.</p>
<p>If you’re just hoping to place out of the language req, I’m pretty sure you can do it easily if you took classes.</p>
<p>^ foodzeatr-cool, I took the Chinese online placement portion too! The beginning part was fairly straightforward and simple but the advanced section totally killed me in the end b/c I didn’t know at least three-quarters of the characters (and the one quarter that was comprehensible didn’t really help that much).</p>