<p>Hey, I'm an incomming freshman at Vanderbilt next year.</p>
<p>Just wondering what classes are the most interesting, have the best professors, etc. </p>
<p>and what classes are impossible/boring.</p>
<p>any previous experience or just word of mouth around campus would be awesome. </p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>the entry level calc classes, math 150a/b and math 155a/b are notoriously difficult. in contrast, i had a great experience in the art history department with leonard folgarait if you want a good elective for AXLE and i also had a good experience with my writing seminar prof - elizabeth jelinek. i think the english department is overall pretty good, even in the entry level area, and the sciences (specifically chem) are difficult but doable.</p>
<p>I was reading the catalog and it seems like students have to satisfy a language requirement? Or can you get out of it? I did see they place you based on your test scores but it doesn’t say if you can get out of it completely…</p>
<p>bestvenom! i saw that too. I hate spanish which ive taken for three years. I REALly dont wanna take a language.</p>
<p>and it says a second-semester language course…</p>
<p>what does that mean? like two courses. ugh.</p>
<p>You are required to take two semesters of a language as a part of the core international classes. As for math, I second slpxx16 DO NOT take math 150A/B if you can avoid it. The class is standardized which means the professors don’t even know what’s on the test. There was little to no correlation between the tests and what was taught in class. The first and second test averages were in the 50s. 155 is better, but 150 is not good. Good classes I took were the Bogus Science writing seminar with John Gore as well as Intro to Anthropology with Miriam Shakow. Just find something that interests you and you will probably be fine. :)</p>
<p>Scott Aikin is phenomenal. I’ve taken logic and epistemology with him and will take another logic course with him this coming semester. He also teaches ancient philosophy and modern philosophy. He made me want to double major in philosophy. Definitely one of those professors who influenced how I think.</p>
<p>Harry (Vaughn) May - Intro to American Government and Politics.</p>
<p>You learn a lot in these classes, and as long as you study, you’ll get A’s.</p>
<p>Leslie Smith’s Human Sexuality class is pretty good too, though it gets tough in the end when you have to study pages after pages about the menstruation cycle. I managed to get an A in the class…almost got an A-. The TA (Pooja) is smokin’ hot, and she’s extremely helpful and articulate.</p>
<p>It depends on what your major is – some of my best classes have been major specific. That said:</p>
<p>^^ Aikin (mentioned above) is pretty cool. Think a slightly toned down Louis CK teaching philosophy and you’ll have a good idea of what he’s like. His philosophy-buddy Talisse is reasonably solid too (comparable to a funnier Vizzini from the princess bride).</p>
<p>The art classes are all quite chill. Very relaxing to get to draw/paint for a few hours each day.</p>
<p>The upper level EES courses have lots of field trips (daytrips, overnighters, weekend trips)! Good if you like the outdoors. And the department itself is very cool.</p>
<p>I’ve heard good things about African Drumming and History of Rock.</p>
<p>My D enjoyed History of Rock, Country Music (it’s Nashville - she had to learn to appreciate the genre!), 20th Century Architecture. She liked Logic, but I don’t remember who the prof was … she took it senior year & enjoyed being the “old” one in class … the prof would ask her opinion a lot. </p>
<p>To be honest, there were few classes she didn’t enjoy. She tolerated her upper level writing class, wasn’t a fan of her anthropology classes … but these were personal preferences, not slams against the class. She really enjoyed most of her MHS and sociology classes, because she had a lot of flexibility in terms of choosing classes that interested her (except anthro - fine on the surface, but boring for her at the in-depth level). She was not a fan of the developmental psych course she took in Peabody … again, personal preference (too much busy-type group work for her).</p>
<p>Evil Empire: Stalin’s Russia (or something to that effect) was my favorite class. Risk management courses through the Environmental and Civil Engineering department were very good as well.</p>
<p>Some of the classes S mentioned as favorites outside his major areas were a political science course in Constitutional law, a class on Hitchcock films, and a class on WWII. D really enjoyed a sociology of education course.</p>
<p>re spanish…my son had all the way through AP Spanish but was obviously not good at it in high school…so he sucked it up and took the SATII in June of his senior high school summer…as a walk in (do it!). He made something in the 650 plus range and didn’t have to study 2 semesters of language at Vandy…he does however take courses in international cultures in that “column” of requirements. And he is going abroad and studying another language. But he is never going to master a language IMHO.</p>
<p>look up each language you are taking in high school on the Vandy website and you will see the standards on testing required to place out. They vary greatly from language to language. Every university has its own set of standards for freshman re language acquisition.</p>
<p>Not knocking it for those of you who have a prayer of being fluent…immersion in a language is invaluable if you have any ear for it. Also…the NYTs published a good article yesterday stating that bilingual adults stave off dementing illnesses with the alteration in the brain that comes with language facilities.</p>
<p>Faline: Vandy makes people take the language as a freshmen (that sounds harsh I guess)? Also, that seems like a relatively lax policy. We don’t look at SATIIs, but a student here that has a 4-5 on AP “X language” who decides that they would do the same language has to still do one semester (for those w/o AP credit or who pursue a different language, they still must satisfy 2 semesters), and normally at a much higher level than intro. (Spanish and German have placement exams, but will over-ride "rigged: results if they notice a huge amount of HS exposure and place the person a 2-300 level). Is Vandy’s policy normal, and we’re just one of the stricter schools when it comes to this requirement (some majors like international studies w/in the polisci dept. are strict in and of themselves and require 2 years worth of one language, meaning, at least 3 courses w/AP). I just thought most top 20s had similar policies on things like foreign languages even if General Requirements vary.</p>
<p>normal varies a great deal from school to school, bernie. I can’t recall if Emory accepted SATIIs with score cutoffs or only APs for placement and most departments will give placement exams in special circumstances (admitted student has sketchy foreign language background or little to no way of measuring abilities)…others will administer the SATII exam during orientation in August for students from weaker high schools who do not show up with scores at all. sometimes a department in one college took the SATII and the next department refused it as a measure.
Some of the schools that admitted my son in 09 would have “made” him take an upper level course in Spanish regardless of his performance on screening exams…and some would not require him to do foreign language at all…he was also in some honors admissions groups that were allowed to pick their own curriculum and he had the option to not do the required courses most first year students take at all. Most highly selective schools do not take 3s on APs…and that is what my son made on AP Spanish…we are pretty much convinced he did his best and he “earned” that 3 honestly. He did better on the SATII but it didn’t have a listening section. Well, he is going abroad soon so maybe he just needed the nudge for an immersion experience to get more motivated…time will tell.</p>